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All use of my digital work is covered by this
Creative Commons Deed.
Please do not use any of my work for commercial purposes, thank you. |
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The Great Experiment (Page 2 of 7)
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After creating several small puzzle maps it was time to build something
bigger and better. The map
Edge of Forever was my next big project
and its goal was to create a single player experience using only the vanilla Q3 engine.
It may seem like a crazy idea to build puzzles with a limited amount of components, but the
fun comes from the challenge! Initially the
puzzle designs were just simple switches combined with specially
choreographed events, but eventually after much
experimenting the puzzles became interesting locks instead.
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Click on the above image for a larger version |
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The best puzzles are the ones that make the player feel like they are
really clever for solving it by themselves. At the foundation of any
good puzzle is the visual language and how a player understands this can
often be the line between frustration and success.
The map Edge of Forever tried
to create a common set of components (switches, buttons, timing tricks) that were
visually consistent and gradually introduced. This did not always go as planned
but it did help players recognize interactive objects from their background.
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Click on the above image for a larger version |
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Puzzle 1
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This puzzle is from the map Edge of Forever
and was designed to show the player how to operate
switches and use them at specific time intervals to charge up a battery.
The visual clue for the timing of the switches was a pair of coils
on the ceiling to avoid cluttering up the floor space. Unfortunately
most players do not look up and some people
found it easier to hit all the switches until the puzzle was complete.
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Puzzle 2
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This puzzle is from the map Edge of Forever
and was designed to show the player how to operate switches and use
them multiple times to charge up a battery.
The visual clue for the use of the switches was a pair of cables on the
floor merging into one, hinting at multiple use of the generators to fill up
the battery. Most players struggled with this puzzle because they were
expecting the switches to be used only once.
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Puzzle 3
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This puzzle is from the map Edge of Forever
and was designed to show the player how to use multiple buttons to open a lock.
The visual design was four huge chains linked to heavy weights blocking an iris
in the floor. The player had to remove all of the weights from the iris and
when one of the buttons was used, two other chains would be affected. This
puzzle was the most successful with players for complexity and completion.
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Puzzle 4
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This puzzle is from the map Edge of Forever
and was designed to be a machine that develops with the player unlocking
the various parts with different switches.
The visual design was a machine that grows out of the floor and through the
interaction of the player becomes the visual clue of where to go next.
The machine was split into two stages and involved operating switches
within a certain time frame.
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Random Crazy Logic
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This example entity logic
was designed to setup a couple of the puzzles randomly each time
the game starts.
The code for random numbers in Q3 seems to produce the same number
several times in a row, which is not really ideal! This logic
makes sure that the random function eventually gives a different
number and sets up several puzzles differently.
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