Puzzles and Plungers
Added 2020-06-30 02:00:01 +0000 UTC
The main goal / puzzle in Tasty Ramen Episode 1 is a very simple one about collecting a random number of X. However, this wasn’t always the case. A few weeks ago, I had elaborate puzzles involving the plunger, a drain, a chained up chest and even a man eating monster plant!
Let me go into detail a bit.
Originally the player had to collect three hidden keys, in order to open up a room full of ice cubes (yea… really…). The keys where hidden behind certain objectives though.
One was clogging up the sink, and the player had to get the plunger in order to get out the key and collect it.
Another one was stuck between the teeth of a giant man-eating plant, and the player had to find some plant spray to get it.
I really enjoyed building these puzzles. They gave the game a lot more variety and character.
However….
Playtesting was abysmal to say the least. Testers didn’t figure out what to do at all, and quite frankly it’s not their fault. This was the very first time I tried my hands on puzzles like this, and I went way to overboard and didn’t know how to properly explain my puzzles through environment alone.
Because of this, and because there was so little time left until EEK3, I decided to get rid of the puzzles for now and replace them with the same goal from the demo, that has proven to work.
I am honestly not too happy about this and really want to bring puzzles like this back in one way or another. Maybe in a smaller and more easier version in an upcoming update, or better fledged out in a future episode.
