Puzzle Game
Solo Project, Puzzle Design
A one week solo project built as a prototype for a larger puzzle game concept. The core mechanic “color manipulation” is centered around the combination and division of primary colors. Color manipulation is both a means of exploration and puzzle solving all built into one.
By adding and dividing colors players are able to toggle/activate contraptions like a pair of teleporter gates that requires both sides to be colored blue in order to teleport between them. This process enables puzzles and exploration to be facilitated through the same mechanic.
Colors are carried by the player and can be brought to terminals to combine and divide colors. By mixing the sequences in which players must mix and divide colors the colors are both the means of exploration and traversal. For instance a player may use a color to activate a teleporter but while the teleporter is active they can’t use the color for any other purpose.
Mechanics
Puzzle Design
First the player is introduced to moving colors and teleporting. By allowing the player to see the other side of the teleporter while being blocked by the wall the player learns organically through experimentation that they can pick up the color yellow and use it to link the teleporter.
The second part of this puzzle introduces walls that cannot be crossed unless the player is holding the same color. To pass through the wall the player must figure out they can combine blue and yellow to make purple allowing them to pass through the wall.
Level 3 is the most difficult level as it teaches players colors can not only be combined but divided. Players must first explore the area to the right to acquire a new color to be able to access the lower area. The challenge comes here were players must deposit their color into the combining node of the color manipulator in order extract red from purple which allows them to finish the level.
Expanding on the mechanic in the first level I introduce exploration by forcing the player to teleport to a new area to find colors. Players must use yellow to link a teleporter that allows them to access a lower area that has blue. Once the player has both blue and yellow in the starting are they’re able to make green allowing them to progress.
Level 4 has players use all the tools the learned in the previous levels. First they must explore to get make orange which they must use to reach the lower half then they must deconstruct green and orange into its primary colors so that they can make purple.