Puzz-3D Victorian Mansion (PC)(1999)

Puzz 3D: The Victorian Mansion is a virtual 3D jigsaw puzzle with a twist. When the puzzle is completed the player can enter it and attempt to solve a murder mystery.

The game has four levels of difficulty. The simplest level, the Bronze level, only gives the player access to the first floor and two of the mysteries. In this level the player has only one hundred and fifty pieces to assemble, and all the pieces come pre-sorted into wall pieces, roof pieces etc. They do not overlap and they do not need to be rotated to make them fit. The player also has access to pictures showing what the completed house looks like, and a 3D construction grid that they can place sub assemblies into. The toughest level gives access to all four floors and all the mysteries. On this level there are seven hundred pieces that are not sorted, may overlap, and there are no aids at all.

The player assembles the house by completing sub assemblies such as a complete wall section or a piece of the roof which are then placed into 'the gold tray'. When the player changes view from the assembly view to the construction view they take sections from the gold tray to build the house. There is a 'book' in the top right corner of the screen which can optionally be suppressed, when present it alerts the player to pieces of relevant information that become available when certain parts of the jigsaw have been completed. Some of this information is in the form of video sequences such as the one which welcomes the player to the game, others are facts such as the date of the Gettysburg Address, while others are in the form of short QuickTime videos.

The Mystery is played in a smaller window as the player moves around the house in a manner not to dissimilar to the way Myst plays. Once in a room the player can rotate through three hundred and sixty degrees, look up and down, while remaining fixed to the spot. In each room there is something to find, typically one or two of the following; an informative piece describing it's use, a puzzle, a video featuring a character who gives some information, or a fragment of paper that gives the player more clues.

All clues are entered into the right hand side of player's 'notebook' in the form of the name of a person or a room. When they are ready the player answers the questions on the left hand page of their notebook by dragging across the appropriate answer. If the player answers the questions successfully the game is over. As a final act the game tells the player that, should they replay the game at a higher level, the place where their notebook, containing the clues they have already found, can be located.