Feedback How would I make an interesting puzzle?

I'm making a horror game with puzzles. The entire premise is that you are stuck in a blank white room (Kind of like a mental hospital). The only things in the room besides you are a cube and a vent that is on the wall. Currently you can knock down the vent and a dead body that was inside of the vent shaft falls out. If anyone has any ideas for how I could use this elements for a puzzle I would be more than grateful. Thanks!

 

Well, I do like the idea of an inverted pyramid of information.

Empty room with little details, vent, body…

Every step forward multiplies the possibilities of what the player can do.

Personally the things I would consider:

1) you have got to have a voice coming from the next room for the player to talk to and give exposition. Last thing you want is the player talking to themselves. It’s just bad writing. Saving that, saying nothing at all is better than talking to themselves.

2) I would definitely do something creepy with the body. Have it move a limb when the player looks away. Have it look exactly like the player, but only show what the player looks like in reflections. Have the body disappear. Have the lights go out and the body disappear. Swap the body out. Anything. No wrong answers. The point is to write a mystery box. Less is more.

3) Definitely do something with reflections. Maybe have the player have a lobotomy mark in the corner of the eye. But never give the player a clear view of their reflection. Use metal or tiles so they can get an idea.

4) The next step is clearly what items are on the body.

 

Another thought, you could have the voice direct the player open the vent asking them to help “get them out of there “, then the body drops down and the voice says “ aw, much better. Thank you!”

The real veal being that the person you’re talking to is a dead body.

 

Your ideas are genius man. Definitely gonna try as best I can to implement them. I was also thinking of having a rope be hidden inside the bodys guts, you could use the rope to climb in the vent and escape and go explore more of the facilities and maybe see more blank white rooms with people like you. Thanks a ton man I really appreciate it.