What Makes a Good Mystery in Games?

5 tips to create engaging mysteries in games

Throwing a mystery into their laps and challenging them to solve it is a great way to lure players into the story. That’s why many games, including mine, revolve around a big mystery in the story.

But what makes a mystery engaging and satisfying?

Let’s try to find out the answer from GURPS Mysteries and from Brandon Sanderson, who’s great at mysteries that keep fans theorizing forever.

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Firewatch

What Makes a Good Mystery in Games?

In my game, Herald of the Mists, your only main quest is finding an army, which disappears without leaving any trace. Solve the mystery, and the game ends. So it’s important to get it right. That’s why I wanted to give this matter some research. Here are a few tips I learned.

1. Information Management

Solving a mystery involves revealing information bit by bit until the truth is completely unveiled. The pacing of your mystery, the impact of the final reveal, and the player’s engagement will be determined by how you spread the information among scenes. According to GURPS Mysteries, every significant scene should move the mystery forward, giving players at least one important clue and bringing them closer to the solution. The given clue should be clearly communicated to the players.

2. Rule of Seven

To easily manage the information and keep things simple, GURPS Mysteries suggests using the Rule of Seven. According to the Rule of Seven, each mystery should only contain seven essential elements of any kind. That means seven NPCs, seven items, seven clues, etc. We don’t have a long attention-span and details can easily get lost in the air. Limiting the point of interest will help players keep things on track and stay enagged.

3. Player Involvement and Agency

What invites players to solve the mystery? Are people paying them to solve it? Will solving it help them aid someone they care about? Does their life depend on uncovering this secret? Whatever it is, players must have a reason to be involved. Equally important is how the mystery is woven into the game's mechanics—players should be the ones actively solving it, not just following along as the game reveals the answers.

4. There’s Always Another Secret

One thing Brandon Sanderson is great at is how he adds multiple layers of twists to mysteries. Just when you think you’ve uncovered the whole truth, BAM—another wave of reveals hits you. The secret to making these twists impactful isn’t about hiding the truth but about cleverly misleading players and making them believe in a false reality. It’s showing that the thing they just assumed without being told is not what they assumed.

5. There’s a Cost?

The most satisfying part of solving a mystery is, of course, reaping the rewards of solving it. What are the positive and negative outcomes of uncovering this mystery? How was the world the player inhabits affected by it? How were the figures involved in the story impacted by the revelation? What kind of consequences did the player face after bringing this secret to light?

Wrap Up

To sum up, it’s important to plan ahead and manage the information in a way that’s interesting and engaging. Limiting yourself to seven key items while layering multiple twists helps maintain intrigue. The player should have a clear motivation for revealing the secret, and the mechanics of the game need to give a sense of agency. And when it’s all done, it’s time for the player to face the consequences.

NOTE: I’ll be away from my computer for a couple of days, camping in a mountain. So I won’t be able to see and reply your comments immediately, but do let me know what makes a good mystery in games in your opinion.

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To-Do List

Watch: An in-depth look at romance in video games

Learn: The allure of mysteries

Play: Return to Sender

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Me

Reading: Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee, the third and final entry of the Green Bone Saga. When I read the first book, I was sure the series would become one of my favorites. Although the second book was good as well, it felt a bit weaker and made me somewhat doubtful. So, determining where the series stands for me has been left to the third book.

Playing: I had decided not to play any games this month to focus on my game, but... I couldn’t stop myself from occasionally jumping into The Witcher 3 and No Man’s Sky to wander around and relax a bit.

Listening:

Thanks for reading!

And that’s it from today’s issue of GameDev’s Journey. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you did, please like and leave a comment. Reach out for suggestions, objections, questions, or just say hi.

But regardless, thank you so much for reading, and have a great game dev journey!