How to make a Puzzle

[40oz]

Puzzles are events in which players must perform an action or a series of actions to yield the rewards they want. The actions can be but are not limited to pressing a switch, standing on a particular floor, or defeating a monster. The rewards are often a desired item, or to access previously denied portions of the map. In the most basic sense, bringing a blue keycard to operate a blue door is one of Doom's most common simple puzzles. As Doom has aged, the puzzles involved with Doom are often quite simple and rarely thought about. Doom has not always been the best platform for brain teasers to solve, at least compared to other games where you can often see more of the world than what the Doomguy can see though his field of vision. Many Doom puzzles can often be solved pretty quickly and many more are recycled and reused and generally uneventful. For this reason, more complicated puzzles are often seen as hard stops in fun/gameplay, or too trivial to be entertaining. I believe this to be untrue, and are better served as breaks between intense gameplay that are still stimulating for the mind. I believe the existence of poorly executed puzzles is because puzzles have not yet been discussed in great detail. In this tutorial we will discuss the elements of a puzzle, and ways a map designer can complicate a puzzle in a way that are both appropriately challenging to solve than traditional Doom puzzles, and entertaining for the player.

 

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Presentation

 

As obvious as it might sound, a level designer's goal for a successful and fun puzzle to solve is to communicate to the player that there is certainly a puzzle to solve here. In many cases, even in the Doom IWADs, It's not always obvious that the player is presented with a problem to solve. In my personal experience, I often find that players don't understand that there is even a puzzle here at all until after the solution has been revealed. The correct way to effectively communicate a puzzle to the player requires the visibility of two particular items: a goal, and an obstacle. Goals are often a desired item, such as a new weapon, a powerup, a keycard, access to a new area, or an exit. The obstacle should be a condition that prevents the player from achieving the goal. The important part to stress here, is that both of these items are visible. A key card on top of a tall pillar presents a puzzle in which the keycard that the player wants is out of reach and needs to be lowered, or the player needs to land from above. A teleport gate enclosed by metal bars indicates that access to a new area can only be achieved if the bars are removed. An exit sign above a door across the opposite side of a pit shows that the only way to access the exit is to find a way across this gap. If the player can see the thing he/she wants, as well as the obstacle that's in the way, then the puzzle was effectively communicated in its presentation.

 

Clear Actions

 

A puzzle that causes the player to stop and think pragmatically is often a quality of a good puzzle. That said, that doesn't necessarily mean that a puzzle is definitively better by confusing the player at any moment. It's generally not wise, for the sake of entertainment, to confuse the player into being unsure what is happening. In some cases this can be a good thing if used sparingly, as the player may quickly survey the area for any notable changes. But if the actions players are able to perform to manipulate the environment around them are not clearly visible, the player's attention may be diverted from the initial goal and narrow the focus on what the particular action did to continue with the puzzle. This can make the puzzle solving process less satisfactory for the player. A good puzzle presents choices to the player that create consequences that the player can clearly see. A better puzzle creates consequences that are not quite obvious how they are supposed to be interacted with to get to the goal. For example, a clearly defined action could involve the player and a usable switch on one side of a pit, and a lift with a soulsphere on it on the other. When the player operates the switch, the lift lowers and the soulsphere is available to grab, except that the player cannot cross the pit without falling. This indicates exactly what the switch is doing, but not necessarily how the player can reach that tasty soulsphere. A door operated by a switch should be within a visible range, such as across a gap or seen through a window. Actions that are repeatable may use their operational sounds as a hint as well, as long as they are within a reasonable distance. When preparing a complicated puzzle, It's often best to consider the possibility of more than one obstacle in the way of a reward, then present the actions in such a way that clearly overcomes one obstacle, but not another.

 

Rewards

 

A puzzle can involve a large sequence of actions. A switch can lower a lift, which gives you access to another switch, which opens a door to a teleport, which warps to a gap you can jump over where there's another teleport, which takes you to another room with a switch that opens a door, behind it is a pit, and a switch that raises the pit, and... you get it. Using a longer series of actions can help complicate a puzzle, but it can also sidetrack the player from the original goal. Keeping the elements of the puzzle within a reasonable distance from the initial desired reward can sometimes help to keep the player fixated on the goal. Should the puzzle be expanded to a long string of actions, mini-rewards can be used to verify that the player is on the right track. As a check point, providing players with a new weapon for solving a significant portion of the puzzle can be a good reward. Often times, players look for monsters to kill as indicators that they are going the right way, so summoning some new monsters with a monster closet or a teleport ambush is also a very positive indicator that the player is making the right choices. As long as the player is being guided along an extended puzzle with little rewards along the way, the desire to achieve the original goal will grow along the way and make the final solution to the puzzle that much more satisfying.

 

Reverse progress

 

In many of Doom's puzzles, it's often possible to solve by pressing any usable switch you can find, and wallhumping everything else until progress is achieved.  Wallhumping is a tried and true solution to many Doom puzzles and should generally be avoided as the most successful solution to a puzzle. It's often not enough to make every available linedef type get players closer to their goal. The puzzle creator can resist wallhumping with the use of conditional actions. This involves an environment where attempting to perform one action comes with the price of an additional undesirable action. The player can open a door under the condition that a door shuts elsewhere, for example. Suppose the player and the exit door are on one side of a bridge, and there's a switch on the opposite side of the bridge. The switch across the bridge operates the exit door. The player walks across the bridge presses the switch, then proceeds to walk back to the exit door. Upon stepping on the bridge, the exit door shuts. The player now understands that the player can access the switch to operate the exit door, under the condition that the player does not use the bridge to access it. The player now must identify a way to get from the switch to the exit door without using the bridge. Allowing the player to make choices in which some actions negate the player's progress towards the goal is a preventative measure to keep the player from mindless spamming the use key until the puzzle is solved. Players will now need to stop and think when they are aware that some actions that return negative feedback.

 

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Puzzles have a lot to do with the fun and interactivity of a Doom map. A map devoid of puzzles is often stale and lifeless. Allowing the player to control and manipulate the environment with linedef actions and maneuvering skills to achieve the rewards they want contributes heavily to the fun and intrigue of a map in a way that monsters alone do not. Whether you consider puzzles to be fun or not, the ability to present things to a player in which a player can visually identify a problem simply by seeing it from the first person perspective, or creating "reverse progress" within the context of a map are powerful skills for immersion and fun gameplay outside the need for killing endless monsters. Using the four elements listed above, you can create fun and challenging puzzles to tease your players, keep them focused on short-term goals, and challenge them to think harder to complete your maps.

[42PercentHealth]

Well said! I think you've put into words the reasons that I like some "puzzley" WADs (like Memento Mori or Cyberdreams) and not others (like Eternal Doom). It's obvious you've put a significant amount of thought into this topic.

[joepallai]

Great article.   What would be some of your favorite puzzles, 40oz?  (or anyone for that matter)?

 

[Albertoni]

22 hours ago, joepallai said:

What would be some of your favorite puzzles

Unaligned's E3M1 and the entirety of Cyberdreams. Grove.wad is also... Interesting, in a Sky May Be way, but holy hell it's laggy even nowadays.

[Cupboard]

Another great one is map15 of thtthren.wad

 

The map exists as if Hexen itself was a Doom level and wanted you to beat it, but no, you have to work for the reward. Author of map15: didy

edit: make sure to give yourself some ammo it is a didy map so gird yourself with 40 shells + plasma rifle before you start, in order to reach a comfortable play-through

Edited June 25, 2017 by Cupboard