Sean Gugler talked at the 2011 GC summit about the Hogwarts Magic Mirror puzzle (which was awesome). (You should watch the video instead of just reading these notes. Much of the talk is about art, design layout, and other things best seen rather than verbally described. Anyhow.) How does a puzzle go from being a thought-wisp into something enjoyed by a bunch of teams?
- On a deadline: had to come up with a puzzle idea by next team meeting.
- Walking down the street, nostalgically remembering an old TV show. Show's logo was picture of a grasshopperish bug formed by writing the show's name in cursive twice: once regular and once mirror-flipped.
- That's cool! Hey, maybe there's some way to capture that "Oh cool!" moment and package it up into a puzzle.
- Beware: Hogwarts Game Spoilers ahead
- GC meeting Prototype for the next GC meeting. Grab a piece of paper, scribble a message in mirror-style. Used three "fonts" for three words. Instead of just straight-up message, used mirror cipher A=Z,B=Y,...
- Playtesters liked the idea! Got somewhat mired in details. Good news about testing three fonts: you find out which fonts are best. Bad news about testing three fonts: testers encounter two non-best fonts.
- Brainstorming at meeting: something cooler to put this on, something cooler than just some piece of paper? Hanging mobile? Tattoo it on someone? What if it's written on a mirror? Oooh, nice. And GC had a list of things we gotta have in the game, and magic mirror puzzle is one. I guess this is going to be the magic mirror puzzle.
- Writing on mirror with glitter glue. Good news: little mirrors are cheap. Bad news: glitter glue fragile.
- Etching mirror with Xacto knife. Looked like bad graffiti, and was difficult.
- Etching mirror with etching cream. Craft store had "etching cream". It sounds weird and it's a little more expensive, but hey it works... sorta. It looks good, but doesn't go well with the mirror writing style been using so far. So far, it's been kind of a thin-pen look. But etching cream wants to be wider--like brush-stroke calligraphy or something.
- Hey, it's looking good. But now focusing on the puzzle-y aspect: it's
kinda simple. So... brainstorm ways to add more puzzly layers.
- physically hide the etched message
- instead of English, use runes, more etch-friendly. Sean remembered some cool runes from Disneyland ride, the temple of Mara. Hmm, sounds like Mirror.
- but mirror the font!
- Wow, that's a lot of layers now. That's why you playtest: see how far teams make it, where they need help.
- Also: an idea from "outside": in general, it would be nice if not all solutions were words-to-wave. It would be nice if an answer was to tap out a song.
- Meanwhile, figuring out how to write pen-style english font for the not-hidden message continues. Stylistic progress on this mirror writing. Figuring out what the obvious message should say. Tough to get the fine detail for the inner ring of the circle.
- Etching the mirrors. Vinyl stencil material that comes with cream: expensive. Contact paper: works fine and cheaper.
- Art supply store had cheap plastic rings just the right size for mirror frames, yay. Metallic pen was a good match.
- So, the playtest... It looked too good. Looks pretty, you don't want to take it apart. Playtesters didn't find hidden message. But after getting hinted through that, they got through the rest OK on their own.
- Final draft: change the outside message.
- Still had to put together text for the textbook.
- Question: what does it say? "Puff the Magic Dragon"
- Question: how did they know they had it right? [strange question; if you see a song title instead of gibberish, you're pretty sure.]
- Question: How did teams deal with the mirror cipher? They figured it out. GC worried it might be a problem, but they figured it out. Playtesters figured it out, so: worries assuaged.
