For my Second life project, I plan to create a room-escape game within a room. A room-escape game is a point-and-click type game (as opposed to a first-person shooter, platformer, real-time strategy, or board game). As the name implies, all you need to do to play is move your mouse and click.
In a generic room-escape game, the narrative is that you wake up in a room, the door is locked, and you must find the key to get out. Getting out requires solving any number of puzzles. The player must click and interact with various objects, obtain tools, and use what is there to figure a way out.
Imagine Saw but without the blood and gore.
Or Myst, but confined to a single room.
For a sample: The Mysteries of Time and Space (MOTAS)
In room-escape games, the level of interactivity may differ. In most games, any tools or objects that can be interacted with will certainly be used. Sometimes there may be red herrings or the designer decides to make extra objects clickable. In this way, the amount of freedom the player has is decided by the designer. Since all actions are predetermined, the designer can think about whether or not to add easter eggs or some other course of action that has no bearing to the actual goal of the game. Or perhaps the designer could restrict the player's actions in such a way that he cannot do anything but what is intended. Of course, the player would still have to figure out exactly what that is.
There is also a degree of burden on the designer in terms of what actions can be done. If, for example, the player obtains a sledgehammer, he may decide to use that item on the door to see if he can smash it down. Obviously if this is not what the designer intends it won't happen. And, though a little frustrated and maybe disappointed, the player must nevertheless accept this. However, if the designer had indeed anticipated such action, he could work around it so that using a sledgehammer on the door will have an effect, but still keep the game on its set path.
For example, a message could appear saying: "Smash the door down? That's rude!"
Of course, considering the player has been mysteriously locked in a room, he'd still be a bit cynical but going that extra step to include that line can greatly improve the humor and the game's mood.
Your narrative should have some idiom or plot to follow that may help generate clues. Start with a list of clues or objects and map them to the objects and operations that will need to be built, textured, positioned and scripted. Make sure you have ample time to user-test your ideas. Visual clues can be misleading if not rendered appropriately, or the visual qualities of he work are not clear. For example, if I do no know object x represents fire, how will I know it generates heat to melt the wax on the seal? Work out your ideas on paper first, to guide you through a workflow. Make sure you have enough features to get the user out with some sense of fun and/or distinct actions.
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