II. Defining your game mechanics

Before you start adding challenges to the different stops of your tour, we recommend that you define the overall mechanics of your game. Here we will introduce you to the main ones.

Introduction: Game type

The Game type selector is not a configuration; its purpose is to simply categorize your game so as to indicate its nature to the users: treasure hunt, mystery quest or trivia quiz. You can create any type of challenge regardless of the type of game you choose.

1. Game built around a topic

Game type: Mystery Quest or Treasure Hunt

1. Set a goal: Identify a person, an event, a famous work of art, etc. that is related to the topic of the tour.
   e.g. Identify Francis I of France.
2. Scatter both more and less difficult clues that the player should collect throughout the challenges.
   e.g. a salamander, an inscription with the number 1515 on it, a reproduction of the Château de Chambord, etc.
3. At the end of the game, the player should take a look at their inventory, where all the clues they collected throughout the game are stored, and complete the final challenge.
   e.g. Which famous person are all the items you collected linked to?

2. Mystery Word

Game type: Mystery Quest or Treasure Hunt

1. Choose a word that you want the player to discover and that is connected to the topic of your tour. The number of letters in your word should match the number of challenges you plan to create.
2. The player will gradually collect the letters from the word throughout the challenges. They will have to put them in the right order so that they can answer the final question.
3. Be careful not to place the letters in your challenges in the correct order. If you do, the mystery word will already be revealed in your inventory.
4. Do not assign a letter to your final challenge. They must all be distributed already up to that point.
5. Select Letter as your inventory item in order to add a letter or a number to a challenge.

   

At the moment, it is not possible to verify if the player has reassembled the word correctly in the inventory. This is why you should create a final challenge where the solution is the reassembled word.

3. Jigsaw Puzzle

Game type: Mystery Quest or Treasure Hunt

Creating a jigsaw puzzle consists of dividing the pieces of a picture connected to the topic of the tour between the different challenges of your game. After collecting all the pieces and solving the puzzle, the player will be able to answer an additional question.

Here you will find all the explanations that will help you to create a jigsaw puzzle.

4. Trivia Quiz

Game type: Trivia Quiz

If you prefer a simple game mechanic, then create a trivia quiz. The player should collect points until they get the best possible score.