Category: Puzzle

HFFWS Thesis: Hand Built Lever Puzzles to Learn From

digm520admin / / HFFWS, Puzzle, Thesis, Unity
April 16, 2020

Hand Building Puzzles

Thesis Project

Intro

Following hand building the ramp puzzles to learn from for my thesis project, I have built lever puzzles to continue the process.

Current Hand Made Ramp Puzzles

As stated previously, this section was about creating the lever puzzles this time around. The main ideas behind them in order are: testing ramps, lift heavy object, build a lever system, launch a projectile, jam lever, and cantilever.

Puzzle 1: Testing

Just as a place holder, I kept a puzzle testing scenario in my Unity project scene just to test physics objects and keep references for ramp angles that work and platform sizes for different scenarios.

Puzzle 2: Lift Heavy Object

This scenario uses a premade seesaw in the scene to allow the player to access new locations. This is the base lever interaction as it gives a really simple environment for the player to focus on playing with a large lever object with their player character and get a base feel for how it operates when masses and forces are applied at different points along the lever. They then eventually use this knowledge to lift a heavy object somewhere with the seesaw they could not reach just by lifting it with the player.

Basic Seesaw Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 3: Build a Lever System

The resulting puzzle is similar to Puzzle 2, but the player is just given the parts of a lever system to work out how to put them together to create an effective lever. They are given a long platform object to operate as the main body of the lever, as well as several larger massive objects to maneuver in a way to create a fulcrum, support the fulcrum, and even use a weight to hold parts of the system in place while they operate on it.

Building a lever system in HFF can be a bit finicky, so I will need to experiment with what types of masses and objects work best to provide a workable system for the player. This is a very interesting concept overall as it provides a much more insightful application of knowledge for placement of the fulcrum and how it effects the overall system.

Build a Lever Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 4: Launch Projectile

This puzzle uses a very large difference in mass between two main objects to show transfer of energy in a dramatic fashion. A very small and light object is placed on one end of a lever system, then an extremely massive object is pushed from a great height onto the other end to launch the small object as a projectile to a new location.

Launch a Projectile Lever Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 5: Jam Lever

These scenarios focus on giving the player an object which they can use to restrict the movement of the lever. Many uses of the scenario focus on adding masses on top of the lever, but this scenario focuses on the player placing masses in the direction of motion of a lever in order to stop it from moving and position it in places it could not otherwise allow them to reach. This can help the player use a lever to cross very long gaps with only minimal mass in objects, since the objects are not used as torque providers.

Jam Lever Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 6: Cantilever

These scenarios also allow the player to cross significant gaps, by having the player restrict a lever or apply a counter torque to one end of a lever so that it does not move as they move across it (or move another mass across it) as it hangs over a gap. This can be done by hanging a very long platform object over a gap and either setting a very large mass on one end, or jamming the end of the lever under something very static (similar to the inverse of the jam lever scenario above).

Cantilever Lever Puzzle Scenario


Summary

The lever puzzles have already shown to be significantly more complex to setup than the ramp puzzles. The large focus on torque with lever scenarios makes them a lot more complex, as the dimensions of objects as well as their masses need to be coordinated properly to generate solvable scenarios. Messing either of these up will quickly lead to issues where the levers are uncontrollable.

HFFWS Thesis: Hand Built Ramp Puzzles to Learn From

digm520admin / / HFFWS, LevelDesign, Puzzle, Thesis
April 2, 2020

Hand Building Puzzles

Thesis Project

Intro

I have started crafting some small puzzle scenarios by hand to get a better idea of what types of concepts and parameters to take into consideration when creating a system to generate these types of scenarios. Researching them has only done so much, so I am helping to understand the relationships between objects within a scenario better by actively thinking through how to put them together.

Tracking Manual Puzzle Building

As I create each puzzle scenario, I have a list of data to keep track of that will hopefully help me better understand how to systematically put these scenarios together. These core ideas are: description, objects, position relations, parameter relations, skills, and concepts.

  • Description: General idea of what the puzzle scenario is and the main objective throughout
  • Objects: a list of all the objects used to make the puzzle scenario
  • Position Relations: information on how the different objects in the scenario must be placed relative to each other in order for the scenario to funciton properly (i.e. something must be placed higher than something else)
  • Parameter Relations: Similar to position relations, but with the parameters of each object; what data within each object must be within certain value ranges in order for the scenario to work (i.e. mass restrictions on certain objects)
  • Skills: what basic Human: Fall Flat gameplay skills are necessary from the player’s perspective to complete the scenario
  • Concepts: what knowledge the player must possess to understand how to complete this puzzle scenario

Current Hand Made Ramp Puzzles

I started with making ramp puzzles since they should be the simplest and help setup the general approach to this entire process. So far I have created 5 puzzle scenarios (the first of which is more of a ramp testing area). The main ideas behind them in order are: testing ramps, basic ramp, build a ramp, cross a gap with a ramp, and destroy a wall with a ramp.

Puzzle 1: Testing

This is not particularly a puzzle scenario. It is mostly just an area to test different sizes and scales of basic ramp objects to get an idea of what is manageable, scalable, and usable. This helps determine some of the dimensional restraints for the ramp objects in all cases to make sure the ramps generated are usable at all.

Testing Puzzle Area


Puzzle 2: Basic Ramp

This is more of the scenario extension of the testing area. It simply shows the most basic scenario where a ramp is provided, it just needs moved in place to allow the player to move to a higher elevation.

Basic Ramp Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 3: Build a Ramp

This scenario provides the player with several physics objects which can be used together in such a way that they can build their own ramp to reach a higher elevation. At its core, this just requires some relatively long objects, a sturdy object to use as a central fulcrum to elevate the long object, and usually a weighted object to counter balance the torque generated by the player as they move up the long ramp object.

Build a Ramp Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 4: Cross Gap with Ramp

This scenario type utilizes the fact that a ramp can also fulfill some properties of a bridge to span gaps, while still using the fact that the ramp helps move objects across elevations as well. Positioning ramps with this idea in mind is tricky since a lot of cases can lead to the ramp sinking into the gap if the player cannot get it cleanly across immediately.

Cross Gap with Ramp Puzzle Scenario


Puzzle 5: Destroy Wall with Ramp

Ramps help facilitate the movement of rolling objects in a way the player cannot accomplish by simply pushing them along the ground. Gravity helps move a rolling object down a ramp, accelerating it to allow it to reach speeds the player could not generally achieve on their own. This significant speed allows the rolling objects to apply a lot of force near the bottom of the ramp, which can greatly exceed that of the player in the right circumstances. This force can be used to destroy some of the destructible walls or environments in Human: Fall Flat to allow for progression.

Destructible Wall Ramp Puzzle Scenario


Summary

I will continue exploring these various puzzle scenarios since they both give me a better understanding of the relationships for proper puzzle generation as well as help give me ideas to expand the eventual puzzle generators capabilities. The basic testing area has helped give me some base parameters to work with, such as usable ramp slopes and general movable object masses, and the more advanced scenarios are helping uncover the multitude of relationships I need to keep together when building out these systems.