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A Liquor Never Brewed Room 2

Open the door to the liquor never brewed.

Design Statement:
For our levels the two constraints we designed around were the title “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” and that the main mechanic was physical. Since the theme involved liquor we wanted to take advantage of the bottle assets in the game for our main puzzle. For the physical aspect we wanted to make the main puzzle involve moving around bottles in cabinets which would in turn open and close other cabinets. The goal of which was to find the correct sequence of placing and removing bottles to get every bottle into its correct color cabinet. Unlocking certain cabinets would also provide keys to other puzzles so the player might be able to make some progress on the main puzzle and the player would constantly have to return to the main puzzle as they went around solving other puzzles which were made comparatively more simple. We believe this creates the feeling of the room untangling itself as the player has to explore the mechanics of the main puzzle to the extent they are capable throughout the room before they solve it in the end.

For the first escape room we decided to limit the main puzzle to one furniture object with four different colored cabinets. This room at first was much more difficult, and very different from the second escape room which interpreted the puzzle mechanic differently. The difference was that the first room needed a correct bottle in a correct cabinet to open other cabinets instead of placing any bottle in one specific cabinet to open/close other cabinets. Ultimately we decided to streamline this and make the first room utilize the main puzzle mechanic of the second room. This was somewhat difficult to do because some elements other than the main puzzle mechanic had to be removed as it did not make sense with the new mechanic. In the end, we were able to streamline the first room in order for it to more easily build up to the second room.

For the second escape room we decided to expand on the main puzzle by adding a more three dimensional aspect from the first room. Since the title involved liquor we wanted to involve the feeling of dizziness and disorientation both in the movement of walking in circles repeatedly around the room and making it more difficult to figure out which cabinets opened and closed due to the camera. And the overall idea fit well with the second room’s theme of the cellar with the idea of having many bottles and cabinets all over. Increasing the number of bottles and cabinets increases the overall complexity of the main puzzle which makes it more difficult for the player to keep track of initially.

I think that balancing the two levels was actually very difficult because we realized from play-testing that the idea of placing colored bottles in the color cabinets was not as intuitive as we thought and that especially placing incorrectly colored bottles and cabinets together was something that some players were just adverse to doing so it was tricky getting players to place the bottles and keep the feeling of disorientation while still making sure they received enough reinforcement to continue moving around bottles.

Designed by Ryan Zhang and Kris Candela