In Seed of Life, in-between phases of exploration and phases of action, you will also stumble across puzzles from time to time. They will often take the shape of a device, or a contraption, and you’ll need to understand how they operate. This design philosophy that I’m embracing was heavily inspired by the Myst franchise, but the presentation and the gameplay around those puzzles will be closer to Legend of Zelda.

This week, I’ve been working on the design of such a puzzle. It first started on paper, then, it went through a series of trials and prototyping, to see what worked and what didn’t. When the prototype was eventually working, I could finally began working on modeling, and later texturing.

The puzzle, that you can see in the screenshots above, is inspired by the Chinese Bagua, and involves shadows cast by a light at the top of the tower. You’ll need to rotate the rings that cast the shadows into the correct position in order to solve it.

Here’s the full list:

Content

• New feature and assets: the Phaerie Bagua puzzle. This includes a model, textures, animations, sound effects, and gameplay code.

Work in progress

One last thing needs to be done for this puzzle, and that’s the in-game mechanism that will allow you to spin the rings. For the moment, the command is implemented, but is not bound to anything in the game world.

Objectives for next update

• Finish the implementation of the Bagua Puzzle
• Fine tune the level design around the Bagua Puzzle, as playtesting revealed a few issues
• Implement the Springsroom spores equipable: it is an equipable item that will allow you to plant mushrooms that can bounce you up to high places