Escape From Devlog 4 - Story and Pacing

Good day, people. Something I've learned about creating puzzles for this game is that you need a story, or at the very least some overarching goal, to connect them. If you don't, it becomes a meaningless series of puzzles that don't amount to anything.

For Escape From, each level has its unique story, completely separate from the others. This allows each map to have its own unique setting and feel.

Something all the stories have in common is a sense of urgency and suspense. This also makes the locations more interesting since there's a narrative attached to them.

That fixes that problem, but there's another concern: Pacing. All you're doing is solving puzzles until you eventually reach the end, which is still engaging but could be improved.

My attempt to counteract is by giving each map three phases: puzzle, action, then puzzle again. It's simple, but I don't want to change too much and lose sight of what this game is supposed to be. There is still a puzzle aspect to the action phase, but it definitely will be laid down a bit before coming back full force in the last phase.

I think acknowledging each map's story and pacing will improve the game. Until the next devlog, goodbye!