Is there a good introduction to puzzle logic out there?

January 14, 2011 1:28 PM

I recently read through the Problem Sleuth section of MS Paint Adventures and loved it to pieces. However, it reminded me that the kind of logic employed in adventure game puzzles has always flustered me. Are there any good resources that pull back the curtain on how these kinds of logic/linear thinking puzzles are constructed? I've seen or played loads of examples, but never seen anything that really breaks them down into their components.
posted by Lentrohamsanin to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

There's a lot of stuff (some from me) on the IF wiki. There's this famous Bob Bates article. There's Emily Short's page. I can't tell exactly what you're asking for but I am pretty sure one of these links will have it.
posted by inkyz at 1:44 PM on January 14, 2011

A couple years ago, Tim Schafer released the 72 page puzzle design document for Grim Fandango. It's an early version of how the game was supposed to work, so if you're familiar with the final game you can see what got cut or what got changed.
posted by zsazsa at 1:48 PM on January 14, 2011

If you're interested in learning how interactive fiction games are programmed, there is a Rosetta Stone of sorts called "Cloak of Darkness" that shows how a very simple two or three room game with a couple of simple puzzles is programmed in several different languages.
posted by cosmicbandito at 2:34 PM on January 14, 2011

Granted, I haven't played a huge number of adventure games, but I have maybe played 10 or so during the last few decades. What confuses me about your question is that I don't feel there's a "kind of logic" puzzle they always use. Rather, I think they use many different kinds of logic (and other sorts of) puzzles. There are mazes you have to escape, treasures you have to find, games of luck (open one of three doors), "where's waldo?" puzzles (notice some tiny -- but important -- item in the picture), etc.

I guess the most common sort of puzzle I see in these games involves puzzles in which it seems as if you don't have enough information, e.g. you're stuck in a locked room with just a thimble and a piece of cheese: how will you get out?

Sometimes in these cases, you really don't have enough information -- yet. The thimble and cheese will BECOME useful, later, when you find the scroll with directions on it, telling you how to cast the door-opening spell: "cover your finger with metal, feed the mouse, and say "open sesame!" But the tough thing is that you find the scroll so much later, that by then you've forgotten about the cheese and thimble in your inventory. In other words, the basic form of this puzzle is for you to connect a bunch of disperate information in some meaningful way.

I don't know if there's a name for this kind of puzzle (misdirection?), but it's also a staple of detective novels (the handkerchief in chapter one is key to solving the mystery, but by chapter ten you've forgotten about it) and magic acts (when the magician put his hand in his pocket five minutes ago, he was extracting the card he's producing now).
posted by grumblebee at 6:34 PM on January 14, 2011