Dungeon mechanic/puzzle ideas?

[LordOfPotatos]

Have you seen/come up with any interesting dungeons?
Mazes and multi party lever puzzles start to feel a little basic after a while so I'm wondering what to put in the more fancy ones.

 

[PoptartPresident]

As someone who's just made a free puzzle game, I can confidentially tell you some of my own experiences!


Here's some things I had in my game:

1) A grid system where you had to carefully search through air duct vents for wires (items).
To avoid getting electrocuted from touching them, you needed an item that allowed you to view their voltage, so you knew which ones to avoid and which ones you could search in.

2) A mansion with rooms where it was all a relatively condensed area, but it was basically a massive sequence of collecting and gathering items to put in a large "main room" to create a mirror left/right image, and unlock progress.

3) Pushing boxes/rocks into tricky-placed holes to trigger progress.

4) A hedge maze where you had to use sounds and sign hints to guide you to the right path, or else the maze would repeat.


I think something that is often not talked about is that in general, you will almost always have some form of "use key to unlock door" (aka do some task to trigger a switch or variable).

It's just a matter of learning to use different methods of applying that same sort of central idea instead of sticking to bare basics of literal switches and levers.

 

[Basileus]

I really like the Sorcerer's Ring from the Tales series. It's a simple fireball that the player can shoot on command to interact with things, and in some of the games it can be upgraded or modified to suit different dungeons.

I was able to make the projectile part easily enough and have some simple puzzles where the player needs to shoot a switch that's out of reach. I wanted to make some objects that can bounce the fireball in another direction (like light reflecting off a mirror) but haven't gotten it to work properly yet. Borrowing from Zelda, I was able to make it work like the hookshot and pull the player to the object they shot, and the switch hook where they trade places with the object.

My favorite so far is the portal gun. By having the projectile event interact with another event, I can create an "in" portal event on the spot and change the ability to create an "out" portal next. Besides the player, I can also get the portal to transfer objects like blocks/rocks. My goal is to eventually get a working puzzle that requires the player to use the portal to move some mirror blocks that can reflect the regular fireball to hit a switch the player can't normally aim at.