Competition: Escape!

Right! It is competition time again.

Synopsis

You must build a single player 'Escape' scenario level, with an emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving rather than action.

There are a few more details than that (see the rules below), but this is the core direction.

Reference & Background

This time around, we are going to be doing a competition around the theme of 'Escape the room', with particular reference to The Crimson Room style Flash games.

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  From Wikipedia:
  Escape the room is a genre of online adventure game,[1] usually created for Adobe Flash and utilizing a point and click style of play. The object of the game is to find a way to escape from a mysterious room. The room usually consists of a locked door, several objects to manipulate as well as hidden clues or secret compartments.[2] The player must use the objects to interact with other items in the room to reveal a way to escape.
  

  Most escape the room games are in a first-person perspective, with the player clicking on objects to interact with them. Many games of the genre start with a small cutscene (which usually consists only of text) to establish how the player got there. The usual story is the player waking up and finding themselves in a mysterious room from which they must escape using the household itself, but sometimes also unusual items left in the room.

Escape the room on Wikipedia
For those people who have not yet played an Escape game, or wish to kindle their memories, there is a Flash website devoted to this style of game, here:

EscapeGames24In particular, the game that started it all (The Crimson Room):

The Crimson RoomHow much your level adheres to the style of our reference examples is up to you; you are pretty much free to interpret the brief as creatively as you wish, observing the rules below.

Rules & Non-rules

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  [*:2zyzahc6]The level must follow the theme of 'escape', using the level components and the game assets to achieve this end.
  

  [*:2zyzahc6]The area can be anything you wish, with more than a single room or even no rooms at all (e.g. escape the island as someone mentioned). However, the focus, or 'constraint' should be on that one single objective of escaping, and all other events should pertain to that goal.
  [*:2zyzahc6]The player should be aware from the start of a single problem preventing escape. In The Crimson Room, this is the locked door, and can easily be a locked door for your own creation. Stuck on an island, it may be that your plane is out of fuel. General formula: Primary problem (being stuck), Secondary problem (something that is making you stuck), Exploration, Solution, Solved. The point is that the problem should be first, and not in the middle or last.

  [*:2zyzahc6]There is no restriction on game engine used, but it is suggested that the Source engine is used for those who want to see their map played by lots of people.

  [*:2zyzahc6]Custom assets are allowed and encouraged.

  [*:2zyzahc6] Any aspect of the chosen game is fair game for your puzzles, including cheats and menu options, but:
  [*:2zyzahc6]Clues must be given if the player is required to venture outside the stock game mode.

  [*:2zyzahc6]Upon completion of the map, there must be a completion screen with things like map author, time taken, and whatever other information you feel is good to have on the end screen. This can be as simple as a centre displayed text message.

  [*:2zyzahc6]Upon failure of the map, the player must be informed. Ideally this should not be required.

  [*:2zyzahc6]The map can have many puzzles, sucessively completed; it does not have to be one single puzzle.

  [*:2zyzahc6]Ideally, the map should not require more than 10~20 minutes of play time to complete if the solution is known. This is not so important, though; just a guideline.

  [*:2zyzahc6]The map must be single player (multiplayer can be supported but marking will only take place in single player)

  [*:2zyzahc6]Use of performance enhancing drugs is absolutely prohibited, or perhaps encouraged.

Marking (subject to change)

Levels will be marked chiefly on their overall experience, on a 1 to 5 rating.

Sub-catagories will include:

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  [*:2zyzahc6]Difficulty
  [*:2zyzahc6]Concept quality
  [*:2zyzahc6]Puzzle quality
  [*:2zyzahc6]Graphic quality
  [*:2zyzahc6]Quality of fun

The deciding factor will be the initial 1-5 experience rating, with the sub catagories there to provide a bit more indepth feedback.

Deadline

The arbitrarily chosen deadline for this competition is 31st October 2008. Hopefully that should be enough time for all to knock some ideas around, and then implement them, whilst still maintaining a life.

The main goal of this competition, however, is to be creative, and have fun! If we can all do that, then we are all winners!

Puzzle Pieces

Here are a few thoughts and ideas on things you can use (biased to Source engine):

Cheats are allowed, so NOCLIP and sv_timescale, and whatever other console commands that can affect gameplay, can be used!

However, as the rules state, if the player is expected to use cheats then a clue must be given in the level.

Those web games where you use your web browser and windows tools to solve riddles to move on are quite fun! The same concept could be used in your level, but try to keep the riddle answers within the game itself rather than forcing players to alt-tab into Firefox or wherever.

While Source games don't have an inventory system, I am sure it is possible to make an equivilent by being creative with the games assets.

In this contest, LOGIC entities are extremely useful!

You can feasibly make puzzles using:

Enemies, Weapons, Physics objects, Fire, Water, Material effects (proxies), High dynamic range lighting, logic entities in abundance, sounds, lights, the development console, etc etc.

Sound good?

*shrug* that's really up to the player. The idea is that if there is no clue or need to cheat in your level to complete it, then players shouldn't cheat. But there is nothing stopping players from cheating anyway, even if that rule wasn't there - all it is doing is giving designers the freedom of incorporating some interesting console commands into the gameplay of the level.

Also, given the logic-heavy nature of the project, cheating may not be able to help the players achieve objectives anyway. For instance, cheating will not help if you can't find a certain object that is required to access a particular button, will it? OK, so if a closed door is present then the player could noclip through it, but this is why in the rules it states that the player MUST be confronted with a completion screen, so that the condition of success is abslutely controlled by the designer.

As an example, using noclip could allow someone to pass through the closed door and beyond into the 'free' zone, but they would not get the end screen because certain logic conditions have not been yet, which cheating will not help to solve (except in the manner intended by the designer).

The bottom line is, considering players have access to cheats at all times and it is out of the designers hands to prevent it, where is the harm in allowing them to use those tools to the end of completing your puzzle providing that they only use those which are specifically hinted at in the level? I just think it gives some interesting possibilities.

Quote from Zyndrome

You could even make cheating an element of the level

Yes...that's the point

Good ideas with the rest; can source entities detect if noclip is enabled? I remember there being something about an entity capable of messing with the console, but I didn't know if that could detect existing settings.

Unrelated, a couple more puzzle tool ideas: The HEV suit (Flashlight, Zoom), Gravity Gun (dur!)

Sure, modding is allowed. I can't stress enough that the idea behind this competition is creating an engaging puzzle level, and is not about restricting people with rules. The only restrictions in place are the theme/style of level, that it should be single player, and the few inconsequensial rules mentioned such as completion/failure screens. Beyond those, anything goes.

Hey, that's a cool video!

Yes, it definately resonates with the competition premise, but for one problem; the level in that video is pretty much completed in an on-a-rail fashion, where its pretty obvious what to do from step to step. Theres no 'detective work' (whatever the hell I mean by that!) involved. Otherwise, its pretty gosh darn cool; if the player was more involved with the setting up of the pieces somehow, then that would be perfect for this competition.

Not much activity in here recently...should I be worried? I mean, are people happy with this competition idea, or should we give it a chance to go back to the drawing board?

Personally I'm not doing a whole lot, as I don't have the time; that is, I am not submitting an entry (at the present). I'm more concerned that other people aren't sure of what they're doing, or rather, would rather be doing something else