Quid Pro Quo?

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Quid Pro Quo: something for something; a trade. Any game with an inventory and a storyline is bound to have the essential quid pro quo style puzzles. Example?


As simple as his kind of 'puzzle' or interaction is to make in a game, we all know that the real world doesn't always work just like a barter system. Instead, try to incorporate different methods of making your player work for what is needed to solve the game.

Where two quid pro quo trades exist, break up the monotony with a different puzzle. One example I can cite appears in a Game Maker game; In Dex, you must perform tasks in different areas of a building to create a key. This method of obtaining a key breaks the monotony before the various trades required of the game. Working, consisting of anything from menial tasks to precision keypunching or clicking, is a way to keep the player busy but simultaneously offer a reward to renew player interest.

Puzzles with repeated actions can add more screen time and usefulness for boring areas, such as a boring tree where you pass by 3 times and a squirrel with the key appears. Other times a character can be persuaded to give away an item because they've been annoyed by your repeated actions, like trying to buy an object with no money several times, or entering a restricted area without a pass.

These puzzles can also be combined with each other as well as QPQ to create a series of events that provide a rich, detailed, and logical story for the game. Repeated actions along with a sequence of 'working' events can result in new methods of gaining materials. For example, a blender used to create shakes one too many times can break, and a certain part or two be traded or used in another puzzle. Don't be afraid to mix and match, but keep the number of things going on to a feasible amount.

Quid Pro Quo is a thing of the past. Sadly, the days of moving a solidly colored square around on an Atari game are over. With the room Game Maker gives us to expand into hundreds of lines of code and so many objects and sprites, there has to be a better way.