I'm working on a horror game but I'm completely out of ideas on what kind of a puzzle I should have for the opening area.
So the setting is: You wake up on a space station. The entire station appears abandoned. You notice an emergency alert notifying you that "all crew should go to place X" (omitting the name for reasons).
Now the only way to get to place X is via an elevator. As it turns out the power to the elevator had to be cut via controls only existing in place X to power other, more needed, machinery.
I was thinking of either making the goal to restore power to the elevator via McGyvering shit OR finding an alternate way that doesn't require an elevator.
But being as it is I have zero inspiration at the moment and can't come up with a cool puzzle leading to either of those solutions. Any ideas?
If it is a space station, I would think you would have some form of access to X, either via a remote controlled device, terminal, an alternate pathway or personel on site. If you struggle with ideas that early on, maybe get a team together so you can brainstorm your shit properly.
Jayden Hughes
do the good old electricity switch puzzle that was in resident evil 2, but with a twist so it's not identical. you figure out the twist.
Aaron Ward
I've been working on the game non-linearly. I only got to the starting area later in production
Nathaniel Myers
Yeah an electrical panel was the first thing that came to my mind. Does RE2 have you collect parts in order to be able to fix it?
Lucas Lopez
well before you get to puzzles and other secondary things, you need to make sure your diversity and narrative align with current social and political climate
Lincoln Garcia
Obviously!
Jaxson Howard
>old maintenance logs from previous repair guy citing similar problem >cant find proper parts, have to find suitable replacements
>have to get through a door >door is locked/stuck >need to access a console >the console is at a distant location of the station >have multiple ways to get to the console
These are both good. I've been thinking a bit more and I think I want the power to be diverted from general purpose electronics (e.g lights) and over to the elevator.
So once you solve the puzzle you'll have to walk from wherever you solved it and back to the elevator (but this time it's dark and spooky). Kind of tropey but I always loved those parts in horror games where success comes with a reward as well as a downside
I think maybe I'll mix the far away console idea with getting parts based off of the maintenance logs. That could work
