Welcome back, class! For all you aspiring Eets puzzle makers, do you remember the most important thing I said last time? If you forgot, here’s a little reminder for you:
“People look for the fastest, most direct way to pass a Puzzle, not the most complicated one . . .”
That’s nicely said, but how do you apply that to making a really bamboozling Eets Puzzle? Well, I’ll tell you something you can always do while making an Eets level:
“When making a puzzle, think of how people can solve your puzzle in the fastest way possible . . .”
So how does that work? Well, unless you have psychic powers and can read other people’s minds, there are some things that can help you out. However, let’s take a look at the puzzle I made last time.
My awesome Puzzle, complete with tons of trivial solutions!
If you’ve already tried the level out, you’ll know there are many trivial, one-step solutions that for people who think of the fastest way to pass a puzzle (i.e. pretty much everyone), they’re pretty much guaranteed to find them. So, what can we do to prevent this? How can we think of the fastest ways to pass the puzzles we make?
The items you lock & unlock make a huge difference in the Puzzle you make!
What does this mean? Well, for the items you place on the screen while making a level, what you choose to lock and unlock can totally affect the way someone plays your puzzle. For example, one way to pass the puzzle I made involves simply using one Prankster Whale to shoot Eets straight into the goal. This was possible because I gave you one (in fact, two) whales for you to place on the screen. Now, if I chose to lock both the Prankster Whales, you wouldn’t be able to simply pass my puzzle by placing a whale beside Eets. Instead, you would more forced to complete the puzzle I made in the way I intended to.
Let’s look at another example with the Puzzle I made:
What should be locked or unlocked here?
At the bottom, I chose to have the Angry Marshmallow Bud unlocked with the idea players had to place the bud beside the Exploding Giant Marshmallow so that when it exploded, it would push the Angry Bud towards the Prankster Whale. However for people who look for fast solutions, they could simply drop the Angry Bud in front of Eets, get Eets angry, and watch Eets leap into a Prankster Whale and into the goal. So perhaps we should lock the Angry Bud, and maybe unlock either the Exploding Giant Marshmallow or the Choco Pump (not with the Choco Cloud - I’ll let you figure out why. 
). But when doing this, try to think of how you can use these newly-unlocked items to possibly get Eets to the goal in a trivial (i.e. really easy) manner.
Of course, you could simply lock every item on the screen and force players to pass your puzzles in the way you intended, but that might not be so fun (there are exceptions, of course). Sometimes, it’s nice to allow players to place some items on the screen, just to see if they can find alternate (but not trivial!) solutions to your puzzles. But then, unlocking items may lead to trivial solutions. So, what does one do?
Be careful when unlocking the ‘Power Items’.
One other thing to watch out for when allowing players to place items are what I call ‘power items’. A power item is usually an item that players can control, such as the Choco Pump (with placable Choco Cloud) or Ginseng Factory, or items that cover large distances, such as the Prankster Whale. Also, items that are triggered from collisions (i.e. Bob and the Sneezy Sow) can also be considered power items. The reason why I give them this name is that you can interact with these items in many different ways. For example, where an item such as a Yellow Star just floats around, a Ginseng Factory has many more possible interactions, such as making Eets Angry, lighting Ginseng Lights, triggering Sneezy Sows, and so on. From experience, trivial solutions occur as a result of using a power item.
These items can be really good in the right hands. . .
Although locking all the power items is one way to avoid trivial solutions, keep in mind that you can make really fun puzzles if you give players the opportunity to place them on the screen and use them. The point is, think extra hard for fast solutions when giving players a power item to place on the screen.
Finally, there’s one more point that’s worth mentioning when considering how other people think in regards to quick solutions. However, that can wait until next week 
Questions, comments, stuff? If not, then class dismissed!