Realistic "puzzles"

I've done a lot of searching and googling, but I haven't been able to find anything that really works for my style of game. The game I'm working on isn't exactly an RPG and there's no battling or anything like that. It's a game that takes place in a modern city filled with murderers and crime lords (think Gotham but without any superheroes to save the day), and you find yourself the target of two serial killers, and the goal is to make it through all these buildings until you get to the bus stop and get home safely. I'm hoping to have chase scenes every now and then but a game where you do nothing but run from the enemy is boring. There needs to be obstacles blocking your way, you have to think to work out solutions to escape from a room in a nonconventional way because the enemies are right outside the door, there has to be some kind of challenge there... and that's where I have the hardest time.

I need to think of "puzzles" that the player has to figure out to advance, but the problem is that any traditional rpg puzzle seems forced in this setting -- there's not going to be a "slide things onto switches" puzzle in an office building, and while there might be a "insert the right numbers to get behind this locked door" puzzle in like a police building, no person is realistically going to leave that code lying around. 

So far the only "puzzles" I've come up with are this: someone has a computer and their password hint is "son," so you have to find a screwdriver in the room and use it to unscrew the back of a picture frame of the person's son and the password is written there... but even then, I have no idea what could be useful on a computer. The only other thing I can think of for an obstacle/puzzle is finding a pair of slippers in someone's office and using that to sneak by the serial killers. Anyone have any thoughts on "puzzles" that can actually happen in real life without seeming weird?

Speaking of which, I know this is a long shot and I'm not expecting anyone to answer it, but if you have any suggestions, that'd be super helpful... Throughout the game, I want the player to learn more information about some of the prominent killers in the city -- two of them are the ones chasing you, but there are a few others. Gathering data on them is something I think adds depth to the game and I think makes it a little more complex, but the only problem is... I don't really know how to make this collected data useful? Like, I haven't figured out a point to it. I guess it doesn't really have anything to do with game mechanics specifically, but if anyone creative has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

As far as the collected data, you could have it be sort of a bonus scene at the end of the game where you present the data to the cops and if you have found enough it leads to the murderer's capture and you get a reward.

Realistic puzzles, huh...

For one, I think you underestimate how often (some) people leave their passwords written down near their desk.  Part of the reason is the primary intruder you are protecting yourself from is another person on the internet, not a person in the office.

If you want to add a little challenge to it, maybe they put their password in a locked drawer, and you either have to find the key (difficult) or pick the lock (requires some kind of skill level, or maybe a consumable lockpick resource).

Another is maybe a keypad entry.  If your character has some resources, like tape or something to detect fingerprints, they could possibly find the keys that have been pressed and are part of the combination.  Be careful with this as even a 4 digit combination has quite a lot of possibilities.  A good way to handle that is to make each key register as "successful" or not immediately on entry, so they don't have to try all the 4 digit combos, they just figure out which is the first digit, which is the second, and so on.  Put a limit on it so if they mess up too many times an alarm sounds, giving away their position, or the lock is engaged permanently and can't be broken, etc.

Some random ideas on gathering info on the killers:

- Each killer should have a certain personality/type of killing they do, which can help you avoid them.  By learning more about them you can avoid traps that might make you an easier victim.  For instance, if one always kills in complete shadow, you know that by being in daylight/lit buildings you're safe.  But when the lights go out.... uh oh, scary time.

- Additionally, gathering info can help you turn the tables.  Everyone has fears, even killers.  Maybe if you learn that a killer is, say, afraid of their own reflection, you can use mirrors to help you keep them at bay temporarily.

I was about to suggest what frrrosty said there. The info you gather on the killers can be used as part of helping you to evade them. It could be anything ranging from fears to allergies to OCD-type behaviour that the killer might have and perhaps the item that can help you with it is not interactable until you find out about this.

When you say an office building, is the whole environment just office rooms with computers, or are there other rooms in the building? You could for example have a hallway or a large room of some kind and your character is either trapped or really needs to get to the other side, but both killers are standing there and will see him, the solution to which would be to find a way to shut off the lights completely, giving you the cover of darkness. But wait, halfway through one of the killers pulls out a torch and now you have to evade his vision whilst making it to the other side. How about also puzzles where you have to create some sort of distraction to lure the killers away from where you want to be going?

Yep, Frosty and Matseb have got it Starfish.


Basic puzzles ALL make sense in any environment if you are creative in their application.


Example: Boulder Pushing Puzzle


Application to your environment: Guard arrives to inspect room in two minutes. You need to hide behind cardboard boxes to avoid detection. Closet is on other side of cardboard boxes. Voila - cardboard box pushing puzzle with timer!


Example: Fetch quest


Application: too easy! You need ten batteries or five codes or whatever.


Example: Circuit completion


Application: Reroute video connections so that the guards won't see you break in, or fix broken electric wires so you can have access to old warehouse equpment...


I mean there is really no end to it.

Thank you so much for all of your responses, everyone, this is super helpful!! I guess I just wasn't thinking cleverly enough, these are amazing ideas, I just have to be a little more creative! This is definitely helping getting the gears in my brain turning... :D

About realistic puzzles...I saw a lot of puzzle games that you need to find a code or a key to escape (like Can You Escape? on Android)

you can make a code carved near a desk like Frrrosty said.Or you can make something more complicated like "Get that Flashlight to

light the hole,the hole got a code carved that can be seen only with the flashlight and you need to type that 4-digit code in a box to

open it in that box you find the key to another chest that has the main key etc..." 

Silent Hill series and Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 (PS1) are modern games with well-designed puzzles. Maybe these games would be excellent sources of inspiration for you.

As others have said, many people write their password down in the most obvious places.  Some security researchers found people would accept the tiny bribe of a free Starbucks coffee to disclose their network password.

Some other realistic puzzles:

Where would the person have left a spare key to, say, the car?   Oh, that's right, the homeowner was a gardener and buried the key in the garden.  So you go to the shed to get a shovel and dig up the key, then get in the car and drive to escape.

Maybe you can find a gun but need to find the bullets, to fight back?  A Common Event could combine the two useless key items into one "Loaded Gun" or something.

You need a crowbar to open a shipping crate which is labeled "Acme Auto Parts".  Inside the crate is a jack, which you can use to lift up a heavy safe. Under the safe is a trapdoor you use to escape...

Power has gone out, so you need to get a can of gasoline. Use the gasoline to start the emergency generator.  Once you've turned it on, the light lets you go into a room.  Inside the room is a garage door opener.  You use the opener to open the door and escape.

Just make sure the sequence of steps is logical and there are enough hints so the player can figure it out.

Just think:  What do I want the player to do?  And how, realistically, would the player be stopped from doing it?

Someone else was talking about puzzles for a murder mystery game, and I made a couple of these suggestions:

-picking a lock: first you have to find the right sort of object, like a paperclip or nail file. Then you have to press the right buttons in the right sequence to manipulate your pick into the right position in the lock.

-bomb making: find chemicals, mix in the right amounts in the right order to make your explosive/acid/smokebomb, whatever. You might even want to add a timer.

-bomb defusing: a sliding panel puzzle to rewire a bomb circuit to defuse it.

-The Riddler: the killers model themselves on the Batman villain, leaving clues to identity/goal/way out/etc, in the form of riddles, logic puzzles and the like.

-traps: you can try setting your own traps for the killers, as well as disarming theirs, via boulder-pushing puzzles. Pushing crates, connecting tripwires, setting up pipes, etc to male a rube goldberg device.

-trivia: maybe some of the passwords require knowledge of different facts. Like, maybe one person is an astronomy nut and the password is something spacey. If you don't know outright, you could check a book in his desk for his favorite planet or constellation

How bout simple stuff like jumping through a window. Or misdirecting the killler in another chase *IE you break window and jump out in one chase but the next time you instead have to break a window then hide let him keep chasing where he thought you went and sneak away elsewhere.

Chaseing paths that cleverly branch out making you have to deside on which path to take, or else he can catch you easier *IE you have 2 doors and a path with a fence in the dead end, You jump fence hed follow by climbing as you did *though you could theoryiticly trap them there but lets assume your a typical horror movie victum and your the kind who only hits once.* But one door is barely open metal with a brick wall and a window, the other a shabby house with no window, and only choosing the windowless option allows you the successful escape.

Simple gimmicks help like items you could throw  that are lying around for instance *bottles rocks whatever*

or dropping an item as a bridge then having to drag it back so they cant keep chasing.

rolling a manniquin rack with your clothing on it, so they momentarly mistake it for you the player allowing you to take one of several other paths.

starting an elevator so they think your going on it but take stairs,

or getting the killer to say fight the other killer.

Think normal people things, the typical outlandish game logic is too simple watch horror movies with killers, watch where they screw up we all see there mistakes plain as day XD

This seems to have been exhausted already, but in case you were still struggling, there is a phone app/game called 'UMustEscape'. There's quite a few levels on there for free, and they fit under the umbrella you're looking for.

Why not McGyver your way out of a room?

You give them a bucket, a stocking and a safety pin or something and they need to combine items, destroy some to gain another type of item, .... in orde to fabricate ... say a lockpick to get out of the room?

Here's what I can think of:

1. Road blocks that stop you from advancing. This may be police trying to stop you from getting to the scene or the traditional broken bridge/building cave in. Players need to find another way in to advance the plot.

2.  Try to tie in weird puzzles with the in game characters' personalities. For example, A mayor loves trap door puzzles, so that's why there's a lot of hidden doors that easily confuse the player.