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LogicOberLogicOber/Worldview-Skills/skills/game-design/puzzle-mechanic/SKILL.md

puzzle-mechanic

Skill2 starsChanged 51 days agoApache-2.0View on GitHub

Entry point for designing a puzzle system — the single rule the player learns, the minimal puzzle that teaches it, the escalation ladder that combines it with earlier rules, the "aha" the designer intends, and reference plates for the puzzle objects. Use when the user says "puzzle", "riddle room", "the player has to figure out", or describes a mechanic with a solution.

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

1 rule. About 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • ≈0

    Common · estimate

    Many files like this have a rule of this kind.

  • ≈1

    Distinctive · estimate

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 0

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    One rule per mechanic: If the card needs two sentences, it is two mechanics.

    line 34

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Puzzle Mechanic

Design a rule, then design the moment the player understands it.

What the user gets

DeliverableFormat
Rule cardone sentence a player could repeat; the objects that carry it; what is not allowed
Tutorial puzzlethe smallest configuration that cannot be solved without the rule
Escalation ladder6–10 puzzles: rule alone → rule + constraint → rule + earlier rule → rule inverted
Aha mapfor each puzzle: what the player believes going in, what breaks, what they realise
Object sheetspuzzle objects via weapon-prop; rooms via environment-scene
Solution walkthrough (optional)10–20 s video of the intended solve

Rules this entry enforces

  • One rule per mechanic. If the card needs two sentences, it is two mechanics.
  • The tutorial has one solution. Any configuration with several solves teaches nothing; the player may finish without learning.
  • No text hints. The rule is taught by a room that can only be solved one way, never by a sign.
  • Failure is cheap and informative. A wrong attempt should show the player why it was wrong within two seconds.
  • The ladder ends by inverting. The last puzzle uses the rule against the player's expectation (the thing you always moved toward must now be avoided).
  • Objects are locked assets. The puzzle's pressure plate, cube, mirror or lever looks identical in every room; recognition is part of the design.

Example

Rule: light that touches a wick-flower opens the door it faces; light that
     touches a shadow-flower closes it.
Objects: lantern (carriable, 1 per room) · wick-flower · shadow-flower · door
Tutorial: one lantern, one wick-flower facing one door. One solve.
Ladder:
  2  two doors, one flower — which door faces it?
  3  shadow-flower between lantern and wick-flower — carry the light around
  4  two lanterns, one must be left behind
  5  a mirror redirects light (new object, same rule)
  6  a moving flower — timing
  7  the exit door is *behind* a shadow-flower — you must close a door to open it
  8  inversion: the door you need is the one you have been avoiding all game

Related entries

  • environment-scene — puzzle rooms
  • weapon-prop — puzzle objects
  • narrative-choice — puzzles as story branches

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