Ludonarrative Dissonance

Ludo what? Yes it's a thing apparently. Sounds like flashy jargon, and maybe it is, but from what I've read, it's exactly the problem I've been struggling with in Melkhior's Tower.

Firstly, I'm a programmer, not a game designer. Game design is hard. I'm trying to create a game involving three different characters (that the player can switch between at will) and the puzzles that those three characters can solve together, either by being in the right place at the right time, or by using special skills, or by finding certain objects and using them in the right way, etc, etc.

A while back, I came up with some arbitrary rules. For example, Princess Ashby is the only character who can unlock chests, Lester is the only one who can use keys, Sir Stamperlot is there for moving heavy objects around. The mechanics work, that's the easy bit, but the game's narrative falls short, it's not obvious to the player why a character can do what they can do. This is ludonarrative dissonance, where the game's narrative and mechanics don't quite gel together. For example, if Lester and Sir Stamperlot can both pick up keys, why can't they both use them to unlock doors? There's no clear reason, it's just a rule I chose.

So, in order to the get around this problem, I've decided that a lot of the mechanics around how characters interact with objects will be available to all, unless there's a clear reason to the contrary. Special character skills will become available as the game progresses. This will happen when they each collect their special object, at which point the player will be informed, and it will become clear why a character can do a certain thing.

I don't want to give too much away, but I hope this approach will remove the problems I've been having. A lot of pondering has been done.