For this critical play, I chose the infamous Undertale. Undertale appeals to a broad audience, including both younger and older gamers. Its charming pixel art style and accessible gameplay attract younger players hwo like to watch popular Youtubers do playthroughs on it, while its deep narrative and complex themes resonate with older audiences like those very Youtubers doing the playthroughs. Undertale was created by Toby Fox, an indie developer and composer.
In Undertale puzzles serve as a foundational mechanism for advancing the story and deepening the player’s engagement with its little world. Puzzle use in Undertale skillfully balances internal logic, iterative solutions, and critical pieces to create a cohesive and emotionally resonant narrative experience, with its varied endings resulting in different takes and choices. The game uses puzzles not just as obstacles but as ways to tell bits of the story for Frisk. This approach aligns with Bycer’s concept of internal logic, where puzzles are built around the game’s rules and setting. In Undertale, each puzzle is designed to fit seamlessly within the world, reinforcing the player’s immersion and understanding of the story, and characters’ backstories.
One example from my plays is the puzzles encountered in Snowdin, which reflect the personalities Papyrus and Sans. The puzzles in this area, such as the tile puzzle and the gauntlet of deadly terrors, are designed with a silliness and whimsy that reflects Papyrus’s earnest but naive personality. This use of internal logic makes the puzzles feel like natural extensions of the characters and their world, rather than arbitrary challenges imposed by the designer. Additionally, Undertale incorporates iterative solutions, as discussed by Bycer. The game’s puzzles often require players to experiment and think creatively to solve them, which mirrors the player’s journey through the game’s narrative as welll. For instance, when I solved the puzzle involving the shooting arrows in Hotland I had to strategically plan my movements. These puzzles are not just about finding a single solution but about understanding and applying the game’s mechanics in innovative ways.
Bycer highlitghts the importance of the three critical questions in puzzle design: “What is my goal?”, “What’s stopping me?”, and “What do I have to work with?”. These questions are answered in Undertale’s puzzle design. For example, in the Ruins, we get taught the basics of gameplay mechanics, such as pushing rocks and flipping switches. These early puzzles naturally defined my goals and obstacles, providing a foundation for more complex challenges later in the game. By gradually increasing the difficulty and complexity of puzzles, I was always aware of my objectives and the tools at my disposal, preventing frustration and enhancing engagement.
Moreover, puzzles are used to convey Undertale’s central themes of choice and consequence. The game’s multiple endings and branching paths get completely affected by my decisions, including how I approach and solve puzzles. For instance, choosing to spare or fight enemies in puzzle-like combat scenarios directly impacts whether you get Pacifist, True Neutral, or Genocide, reinforcing the theme of empathy and the consequences of one’s actions. This design philosophy aligns with Bycer’s assertion that great puzzle design is about an unspoken contract between the designer and the player, where the player is given all the information needed to solve the puzzle, but it is up to them to figure things out.
