Does anyone have any advice about how to make puzzles for a text adventure? That isn't really my thing. I planned to have my adventure be surviving to get from A to B.
I can put puzzles in the game, but I'm not sure how to make "text adventure puzzles". It seems to me like puzzles in adventure games are usually just "find the widget to get through the door".
Good question. I'm just about to have lunch. Give me an hour or two and I'll try to dig up some references for you.
The lock and key puzzles that you hinted at are just one of many, many different types of puzzles that you can use in a text adventure. If you're on the Discord server, send me a personal message telling me a bit about your game and I'll be able to offer some suggestions for puzzles that might work in your game.
I did a Google search for "types of puzzles in text adventures" and got a lot of good hits and some duds.
Here is a blog entry from Icefall Games with links to articles on text adventure puzzle design and theory. Try working your way through the links until you come to something interesting. The first link to Application of Puzzle Theory is very good, as it has practical examples of different types of puzzles and links to more articles.
Thanks. That's a lot of good information, but it's going to take me a while to read through it.
I don't really use discord, but I'm planning an exploration game inspired by the Great Race of Mercy with fantastical elements. I'm not going to spend two whole months on this, so it's going to be limited.
I want to have it be more of a survival game with exploration. So you have to search to find wood for torches and campfires to survive the cold darkness. And you have to find food. And you have a dogsled to get to the city of Uruk and deliver diptheria antitoxin.
This is more of an experiment in text adventures than a main project for me.
I hadn't heard of The Great Race of Mercy, so I looked it up. Apparently, it's a real event that took place in 1925. As it's set in the snow, it has a lot of potential for some interesting puzzles. As it's essentially a race against time to get the antitoxin delivered. I see it as a series of runs through the snow beset by the occasional mishap, such as getting lost, sled turning over or breaking, getting attacked by wolves, food getting lost and so on. Because your goal is to get from point A to point B, you'll have to be careful that you don't make it too linear.
That's a good start. I generally start with the map and no barriers and any known objects. I can then wander around to test all the exits and make sure the objects are in the correct locations. You can then start adding the barriers (which are things that prevent you moving from one room to the next), puzzles, more descriptive room descriptions, scenery and so on. Do it in a methodical manner, testing regularly and you can't go wrong. Well, you can go wrong, but if you only add and test a little bit at a time, it's easier to pick up the problems as you go.
