Concept Refinement
By Rachel Deghuee
I designed the shelves, the room, created models for everything, and made graphics for the rest of the group.
Shelf Design
Our puzzle is a mystery/physical combination. Players must climb on the shelves to reach high jars. For that purpose, the shelves extend 7 inches beyond the edge of the jars. An easy gripping feature is routed on the edge of the shelves so players have something to hold on to.
Assume a worst-case loading scenario of 5 players, each weighing 200 lbs, standing on one shelf. Set the safety factor to two. Assuming the shelves are made out of high stiffness OSB and are 120 in long, 16 in deep, and 4 in thick. The maximum deflection will be 0.09 inches total, or 0.009 inches/foot. For cabinet building, a recommended maximum deflection is 0.02 in/foot or less. Therefore, the shelf will not visibly deflect and is safe to climb.
Looks-like Renders
I designed and modeled the room and found decorations to help create a calm ambiance.
The outside of the room must clearly show our theme. If you get a glimpse inside, you can see lots of neutral colors and light wood.
Top view showing the scale of the room. It's 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep.
after entering the room, you examine the back wall. There's a station for making tea. Inside the cabinet, there is more pottery and trinkets.
The kettle is our timing mechanism. Naturally, players will want to touch it to see if it is important. The brazier is illuminated from within. When the kettle whistles, it glows red. When the players successfully complete a level and the kettle subsides, it turns off.
All of the items are attached to the furniture and made of plastic. Inside the sideboard are some gold guardian lion statues, gaiwans, and more tea pottery.
You can not build a relaxing room without including some plastic bamboo.
Gameplay Renders
When the game starts, the scrolls display pictures of the shelves, but the image doesn't match the real shelves.
Players must climb on the shelves to reach the top row. Their friends on the ground can tell them how many faces to turn the jars on top. An average sized person will probably have to climb onto the second shelf to reach the top. This is approximately 20 inches off of the ground, well within OSHA limits.
To solve this puzzle, players must turn jars that were briefly illuminated. This is a memory game because players must remember which jars were illuminated and then consult the scroll to see what they should be. Players can split the shelves into sectors so each one is responsible for a smaller subset of jars. Additionally, they can choose a spotter to read off the scroll to them as they focus on the shelves.
The jars spin.
To play into potential Open World meta game, we designed a loot activity that doesn't effect their star rating. After successfully completing all three levels, the scrolls will show a message that it's time to reflect on the tea-tails and encourage players to pose. A camera mounted on the back wall will snap their picture and send it to their Open World app so they can post about their adventures.
Gifs
A picture is worth 1000 words. A picture moving at 60 fps has a whole lot to say.
Which jars must be changed is indicated by briefly illuminating them.
This gif demonstrates possible game plays for three different group sizes. The number of jars that must be solved at each level scales with the number of players.
The right grid represents the right wall and the left grid represents the left wall. The colored squares are the jars that are illuminated at each round. By the end of round 3 for a group of 5, all 80 jars will need to have been turned at some point during the game. Although the scroll shows the finished state of the shelf, only illuminated jars can be turned to win the room.
The jars turn.
Jars
Using our custom jar motifs, I generated and modeled 20 unique jar patterns.
Jar
The jars have square cross sections to make it obvious which face is forward.
Jar 2
Each of the four sides has a distinct motif. Zodiac critters, flowers, Chinese coins, and geometric shapes are heavily featured.
Left Wall
The two long walls of the tea house are covered with floor to ceiling tea storage in a 5 by 8 grid.
Right Wall
There are 40 jars on each wall, 80 total.
Scroll Example 1
I generated random arrangements of jars to display on the scrolls at the back of the room.
Scroll Example 2
The image displayed will change after each reset. The image represents what the jars will look like when the adventurers win the room.
Scroll Example 3
These images were made with 20 unique jars. For the final room, there can be between 20 and 80 unique jars, depending on the desired level of difficulty.
Scroll Example 4
The left and right scrolls will show different images. To reset the room between groups, the picture just has to change.