Mushroom Forest Adventure 2

You are great at fitting elements into the landscape, that is – everything is always in view. So you can force players not to look for items, but to think where to use this or that found item. It’s not pixelhunting at all, but the players will have to run around.

The whole picture can be a clue, you don’t have to select an area and zoom in. That is – we see everything, but we have to guess what exactly we see, that this is another clue. For example, a clue – the height of trees (at one location) for a puzzle (at another location) with 4 blades of grass of variable height. Or in the catacombs, the clue is the location (among others) of identical items (say, on dusty shelves) in the whole picture. But it is important to observe the rule: all items of the clue are clearly visible, even if it will not be immediately clear that they have a meaning.

It is possible not to draw the “wishes” of the characters. Now every bird or squirrel (etc.) explicitly declares its wish. You can simply specify that this is the active area, and let the player guess what the tit wants there. If there is a risk of falling into a simple search of elements, then the information about what this or that character wants, too, can be made separately findable clue. For example, find a reference book with outline silhouettes of birds, where against each is placed a silhouette of what this bird eats. This is also an element of intrigue: the bird obviously wants something, but until we find the book, we will not understand what it is.

Or a variant through an implicit connection. You, Dear Author, actively use sounds, but they can also be made a part of puzzles! For example, we found an acorn – it went into the inventory. Click on it in the inventory – it makes a characteristic bird chirping. But do not explicitly warn about this – let the player every time will be a mystery – And WHY do you need this strange element? What is the chirping acorn for? And when we find a bird and click on it, it will also chirp – ah, that’s what it was for! We run through the forest, clicking on hungry birds, listening to their different singing. Finally we find a similar chirp – aha! So we give the acorn to this bird. And the same with the rest of the birds. Naturally, the birds are just for example. For example, in the catacombs, different springs, bolts and other iron can have different mechanical sounds when pressed – creaking, clanking, “electronic” sound and so on. The Internet is full of sound samples for all occasions for any “environment”.

Compound puzzles: the position of the element from the first clue, and the number from the second. For example, the same bird in the puzzle can sit not only on the 5th branch, but also be turned to the right (or left) side.
 
And also – the order can be set implicitly. For example, we have 4 different birds. And there are 4 trees, each tree has 4 branches suitable for birds – you can put any of them on any place. BUT. Let’s say, the serial number of the tree is determined by the relative size of the birds (trees from left to right – from the smaller bird to the bigger one), and the height of the branch, for example, by the same singing. So when we just walk in the forest, we notice that some branches are “highlighted” by the cursor (active zone), and when you click on them, a bird trill sounds. But it is the same in different trees at the same height. That is, we have one explicit and one implicit clue for the correct location of birds.

The opposite variant is also possible – a clue that contains several clues for different puzzles. In this case, the presence of a clue can also be information: if all clues in a composite clue are used, the composite clue disappears. And until they are used, it stays on the screen (we conclude that we haven’t used all of them yet).

Not bad can work “false trail” – a trap – when from the very beginning it seems that this clue is needed for this particular puzzle … and it does not fit. It seems that it should fit – the player tries this and that – no way. Finally resigns and leaves it for later. And in the process he stumbles upon an clarifying clue, without which the puzzle cannot be completed.

For example, there is a clue: outlines of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries are drawn. And then there is the puzzle itself: the place where these berries should be put in a row. The player runs through the forest, finds a basket with different berries, from where he can take all 4 listed berries one of each kind. The player returns to the puzzle – a place for berries, puts them in order – does not work. And for some reason the basket is not missing, although there are fewer berries in it just by the number of berries taken. Finally, having blindly tried different variants of the order of berries, the player returns to the basket. And there, if you look closely at the rest of the pile, you can discover that among others berries there are left there: blackberries – 1 piece, blueberries – 2, strawberries – 3, and raspberries – 4. That is, the berries should be put according to their quantity: first blackberries, then blueberries, and then strawberries and raspberries.