MA Project

Puzzles for a Horror Game

In this project, I worked under a teacher and a game industry ex-professional, creating puzzles for his horror game.

The procces involved working in a simplified spiral workflow, brainstorming ideas, gettitng feedback and prototyping.

In the end of the project, the best four ideas were selected and a small playtest was conducted.

MORE ABOUT THE MA PROJECT

PUZZLES

More than 10 puzzles were designed and more than 30 ideas were discussed and either discarded or recycled. The best four puzzles were further prototyped to be playtested by a small group of players. After the playtest, the feedback was implemented and the final version of the puzzles were reached

PROJECT

In this project, I didn't work in a version of the game. A project not related to the game was provided to me. That means the meshes are place holders.

FINAL PUZZLES

These are the final four puzzles

PUZZLE 1

Perfect Room Puzzle

In this enviromental puzzle, the player has to correct the difference in between two almost identical rooms by interacting with the objects that are in different places from one room to another

Puzzle 2

Pressure Plate Puzzle

One of the most iconic puzzles in game history with a twist. The player has to step on four different pressure plates to rotate four different objects in a different room. The twist is tha the player can't see the objects, and if they walk in the other room, the rotation is resetted. The player has to find each pressure plate rotate what and how many times they have to rotate it.

Puzzle 3

Sacrifice Puzzle

This puzzle was added more due to the thematics of sacrifice fitting a horror game. Originally the player would only have to sacrifice an animal by pushing a box off a cliff. After some consideration, the puzzle was changed. The player has to solve a simple "press the buttons in the correct order" type of puzzle, in order to open a door and save a little dog, only to find out that they have to sacrifice the dog after.

Puzzle 4

Cemetery Puzzle

The thematics of this puzzle fit a horror game, and that was the starting point of this idea. The player walks into a cemetery and gets a message saying "I tell the truth in the dark". The player then has to make the counter-intuitive decision of turning their lamp off to get another clue. After that, the player has to follow the clue and place roses in the correct graves in a very straightfoward puzzle.