Puzzle Room Kit

Puzzle Room Kit — Guide

Thirty classic puzzles for Unreal Engine with a built-in solver. Every start arrangement is generated by the solver, so it is always solvable and its difficulty is measured: you see the exact shortest solution in the Details panel before you press Play. Puzzles chain into an escape room — one solved puzzle unlocks the next, a gate waits for several, a door opens.

Everything is set in the Details panel and driven from Blueprint. No code, no input assets, no data tables.

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Quick start

1. Enable the plugin: Edit → Plugins → search “Puzzle Room Kit” → enable → restart the editor.
2. See it working: Content Browser → Settings → Show Plugin Content → Puzzle Room Kit Content/Demo/Maps → open PRK_Demo and press Play: two rooms, fifteen puzzles. Click the door to walk into the second room (PRK_Demo_Study, an always-loaded sublevel of PRK_Demo; open it through PRK_Demo). PRK_House holds all thirty: a hall, a corridor and six rooms, every door unlocked so you can walk in anywhere. In the hall, pull the lever on the theme console to switch the theme while you play; the board on the wall lights a lamp for every puzzle you solve. Walk with W A S D, click a puzzle to work on it, walk away (or Escape / Tab) to step back, H for a hint. A gamepad works too: sticks walk and look, A uses, B steps back, Y gives a hint. One-click themes: Project Settings → Plugins → Puzzle Room Kit → Theme (Vintage, Sci-Fi, Horror, Modern).
3. Use it in your level: Content Browser → Puzzle Room Kit Content/Blueprints → drag a puzzle (e.g. BP_PRK_SlidingTiles) into the level. Every kit actor has its Blueprint there — puzzles, door, gate, theme switch, progress board, name plate — and Ctrl+B on a placed one finds it.

4. Pick a difficulty: Details → Puzzle → Difficulty → press Generate. *Puzzle

   Stats* shows the exact shortest solution.

5. Play: World Settings → GameMode Override → PRKGameMode. Or keep your own game mode — see Using your own player.

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The puzzles

#	Actor	How it plays	Main settings
1	PRK Sliding Tiles	Slide numbered (or picture) tiles into the gap until they are in order. 3 × 3.	Tile Face (Numbers / Picture), Picture
2	PRK Toggle Grid	Each button flips a pattern of lights. Turn them all off (or on).	Columns, Rows (2–4), Pattern, Goal All On
3	PRK Ring Lock	Concentric rings; turning one turns its linked rings. Align every symbol.	Rings (2–5), Positions (4–12), Link
4	PRK Tower	Move the tower to the glowing right-hand peg; a disc never goes on a smaller one.	Discs (2–8), Classic Start
5	PRK Rotating Tiles	Turn picture tiles upright; linked tiles turn too. 3 × 3.	Link (Alone / Cross), Picture
6	PRK Memory Sequence	Lights flash in order; press them back. A mistake replays it.	Columns, Rows (2–4), Flash Time, Pause Time
7	PRK Linked Sliders	Click above a knob to push it up, below to pull it down; linked knobs move with it. A knob glows on the middle notch: bring them all there.	Sliders (3–6), Link
8	PRK Sliding Blocks	Drag blocks along their grooves to free the key block. 6 × 6.	—
9	PRK Laser Mirrors	Turn mirrors so the beam reaches the receiver. 5 × 5.	Mirrors (3–8), Beam Color
10	PRK Pressure Plates	Floor plates: stepping on one flips it and its neighbours. Walk the solution.	Columns, Rows (2–4), Pattern, Step Margin
11	PRK Rotating Pillars	Four-sided stone pillars; turning one turns its linked pillars. Show the sun on all.	Pillars (3–5), Link
12	PRK Knight Swap	Brass and bronze knights trade sides with chess knight moves: each heads for the edge of its own metal and glows there.	Columns, Rows (3–4)
13	PRK Frogs and Toads	Frogs hop right, toads left, one step or over one of the other kind. Swap the sides.	Per Side (2–4)
14	PRK Water Jugs	Pour between jugs of 8, 5 and 3 units until one holds the target amount.	Target (1–7)
15	PRK Peg Solitaire	15-hole triangle: jump a peg over a neighbour, the jumped peg is taken. Leave one.	Start Hole, Finish In Start Hole
16	PRK Combination Safe	Wall safe, right-left-right dial: each number clicks and lights a lamp when reached turning its way.	Numbers, Positions, Code, Tumbler Feedback
17	PRK Code Breaker	Guess the hidden four-pawn colour code; solid pins = right colour and slot, ring pins = right colour elsewhere.	Colors, Rows, Code
18	PRK Gear Train	Turn the crank gears; meshing gears turn the other way. Point every arrow up.	Layout
19	PRK Tilt Maze	Tip the box by a handle: balls roll until they hit something. Drop each ball in its own hole.	Columns, Rows, Balls, Layout
20	PRK Crate Push	Walk the little worker, push crates onto the brass plates. Crates can’t be pulled.	Columns, Rows, Crates, Layout
21	PRK River Crossing	Ferry everyone across; the boat won’t leave a bank in danger. Wolf-Goat-Cabbage or Goats-and-Wolves.	Variant, Start Across
22	PRK Balance Scale	Level the beam: weights on either pan against a canister of unknown mass.	Weights, Masses, Unknown Mass
23	PRK Pipe Flow	Turn pipes until water runs from the tap to the outlet; sight glasses show how far it gets.	Columns, Rows, Layout
24	PRK Nonogram	Fill stone squares so every row and column matches its numbers; a picture appears. 5 × 5.	Picture
25	PRK Clock Hands	Buttons wind several clocks by different amounts. Set every clock to the small dial’s time.	Button Minutes, Turn Back, Target Hour/Minute
26	PRK Fuse Box	Knife switches feed AND / OR / XOR gates; light every gate lamp and the main lamp.	Switches (3–8), Gates
27	PRK Queens	Place queens so none attacks another; one solution, Difficulty sets the logic it needs.	Size (6–8), Layout
28	PRK Ball Sort	Move balls between glass tubes, onto an empty tube or the same colour, until each tube holds one colour.	Colors (2–4), Spare Tubes, Layout
29	PRK Chinese Rings	Take every ring off the loop; a ring moves only when the one before it is on and all earlier ones are off.	Rings (3–7), Classic Start
30	PRK Cryptex	Turn letter rings (linked rings turn along) until they spell the word on the clue card.	Rings, Letters, Word, Links

Frogs and Toads, Water Jugs, Peg Solitaire, Crate Push and Ball Sort have moves that cannot be taken back, so a player can get stuck. The puzzle notices: it plays its Locked Sound and puts itself back to its start a moment later (Reset When Stuck), and fires On Stuck.

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Settings every puzzle shares (Details → Puzzle)

Setting	What it does
Difficulty	Easy / Medium / Hard / Expert = the shortest solution is 25–40 / 45–65 / 70–90 / 92–100 % of the hardest start this puzzle can have. Custom = exactly Target Moves.
Target Moves	Exact shortest solution (Custom only). Clamped to Hardest Possible.
Seed	Same seed + same settings = same puzzle.
Generate (button)	New seed, new solvable start at the chosen difficulty.
Generate On Begin Play	A fresh start every time play begins, instead of the one you see in the editor.
Lock When Solved	Ignore moves after the puzzle is solved.
Reset When Stuck	When no solution is left, say no and go back to the start (puzzles whose moves can’t be undone).
Start Locked	The puzzle can’t be used until something activates it (see Escape room chains). When it is unlocked it plays Unlock Sound and glows for a moment.
Activate When Solved	Doors, gates, lights or locked puzzles to activate when this one is solved.
Stats (read only)	Shortest Solution, Hardest Possible, Reachable Arrangements, Starts This Hard.
Focus	Close-up camera: Field Of View, Pitch, Margin, Blend Time, Leave When Solved. The camera frames the puzzle on its own and moves in front of a wall or shelf that would block it; change Pitch for a floor or table puzzle. Focus Light (lux, 0 = off) is a soft shadowless fill from above the camera while focused, so a puzzle reads in a dark corner too.
Look	Meshes, materials, colours and animation times. Every mesh slot says where its pivot must be.
Sound	Move Sound (every move, hints included; each puzzle type has its own), Solved Sound, Locked Sound (a locked puzzle is tried, a move isn’t allowed, the player is stuck; Memory Sequence: a wrong press), Unlock Sound, Sound Volume. Played at the puzzle, fading out by 15 m. Empty = silent.

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Escape room chains (no Blueprint needed)

• A door the player just opens: place a PRK Door. By default it is unlocked: look at it and click.
• One puzzle opens a door: tick Locked on the door and add it to the puzzle’s Activate When Solved.
• One puzzle unlocks the next: tick Start Locked on the second puzzle and add it to the first one’s Activate When Solved. A locked puzzle refuses focus until then.
• Several puzzles open one door: place a PRK Gate (invisible in game), add it to each puzzle’s Activate When Solved, tick Locked on the door and add it to the gate’s Activate When Complete. Required sets how many solved puzzles open it (0 = every puzzle that lists the gate). Looking at a locked door shows a padlock and one pip per puzzle, filled as they are solved.
• Your own actors: any Blueprint can be a target. Class Settings → Interfaces → add PRK Activatable → implement Event Activate (Source = the puzzle or gate that fired). Lights, drawers, sounds, cutscenes.

PRK Door: Locked (off = the player clicks it open; on = a click rattles it and plays Locked Sound), Motion Swing (Open Angle) or Slide (Slide Offset), Open Time, Start Open, Open Sound, Next Level (walk through the open door → short fade → that level loads); Blueprint Open, Close, Rattle, Is Open, event On Opened.

Showing progress. PRK Progress Board hangs on a wall: a brass slot per puzzle with its name and a lamp that lights once it is solved (up to 30). Puzzles sets which and in what order; empty = every puzzle in the level, by name. Title is engraved above the slots. Get Solved Count, event On All Solved (e.g. open the final door from the Level Blueprint). PRK Name Plate is a brass plate engraved with a puzzle’s name (Puzzle) or your own Text: on its stand for a table or plinth, or flat for a wall (Stand off). The names use the kit’s relief capitals A–Z; the letters take the theme’s ink colour. Puzzle Room Kit Content/Showcase/Meshes has the display plinths the demo uses (tall 70 × 70 × 86 cm, low 70 × 100 × 45 cm).

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The player

PRKGameMode gives you a first-person player that walks, looks around and clicks puzzles. Its controller (PRKPlayerController) has: Built In Movement, Interact Distance (300 cm), Look Sensitivity, Interact Keys (left mouse, E, gamepad A), Leave Keys (Escape, Tab, W A S D, gamepad B), Hint Keys (H, gamepad Y).

Gamepad, no setup: the left stick walks, the right stick looks (Gamepad Look Speed). In a close-up either stick moves the cursor (Gamepad Cursor Speed), A clicks under it and X right-clicks (Gamepad Click Key, Gamepad Right Click Key). Every puzzle can be solved with clicks alone, so every puzzle works on a gamepad.

Players learn it by looking, no text needed. A small dot marks the centre of the screen. It turns into a ring over a puzzle or door that can be used, while the puzzle glows softly, and into a padlock over a locked one; under a locked door, pips count the puzzles its gate still waits for (PRKHUD, Reticle Color). In the close-up, the piece under the cursor glows with everything a click on it would move, and the cursor becomes a hand. The glow is custom primitive data 1, read by the kit materials. To light your own materials the same way, read a scalar parameter with Use Custom Primitive Data, index 1.

Using your own player: in your game mode set Player Controller Class to PRKPlayerController (or reparent your own player controller Blueprint to it: Class Settings → Parent Class) and HUD Class to PRKHUD for the reticle. Your character keeps its own movement and camera, first or third person. The interact key uses the puzzle or door in the middle of the screen, and Interact Distance counts from the character, so a third-person camera behind it does not shorten the reach. If a key clashes with your game (left mouse fires a weapon, say), edit Interact Keys on the controller.

Your own player controller logic: call the puzzle yourself — Focus (Player Controller) when the player interacts with it, Unfocus to leave, Play Hint Move for a hint. Focus moves the view to the close-up and turns on the mouse cursor and click events, so the pieces work with your controller. For gamepad cursors or touch, call Click At Screen Position on PRKPlayerController, or Begin Drag At / Drag To / End Drag on Sliding Blocks.

Pressure Plates need no focus: any pawn that walks onto a plate presses it.

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Blueprint API

Every puzzle

Node
Generate	New solvable start at the current difficulty.
Generate At Difficulty (Difficulty, Target Moves)	New solvable start at another difficulty — e.g. harder each level.
Reset Puzzle	Back to the start arrangement.
Play Hint Move → bool	Plays the next move of a shortest solution (from a dead end: back to the start).
Set Solved (Play Sound) → bool	Jumps straight to a solved arrangement and runs the chain as a real solve does — for loading a saved game.
Is Solved, Is Locked, Get Moves Made, Get Moves Left	State. Moves Left = shortest number still needed.
Focus (Player Controller) → bool, Unfocus, Get Focused Player	Close-up view.
Activate (Source)	Unlocks a locked puzzle (PRK Activatable).
Event On Solved (Moves Made)	Once, when the puzzle is solved.
Event On Moved (Moves Made, Moves Left)	After every move.
Event On Stuck	A move left no way to the solution (puzzles whose moves can’t be undone, e.g. Peg Solitaire, Crate Push).
Set Hovered Part (Part, Location) → bool, Set Highlighted	The glow, for your own player or UI (PRKPlayerController calls them).

Per puzzle — every move a player can make is a node, so you can drive puzzles from your own input, a tutorial or a test (each puzzle also has a Get Hint … node that names the solver’s next move without playing it):

Puzzle	Moves	State
Sliding Tiles	Try Move Tile (Tile)	Get Layout
Toggle Grid	Press Button (Column, Row)	Is Light On, Get Lights
Ring Lock	Turn Ring (Ring, Direction)	Get Ring Position
Tower	Move Disc (From, To), Select Peg	Get Peg Of Disc
Rotating Tiles	Turn Tile (Cell, Clockwise)	Get Turns
Memory Sequence	Press Button (Column, Row), Play Sequence	Is Playing Sequence, Get Sequence, event On Mistake
Linked Sliders	Move Slider (Slider, Direction)	Get Notches
Sliding Blocks	Move Block (Block, Cells), Begin Drag At / Drag To / End Drag	Get Board
Laser Mirrors	Turn Mirror (Index, Clockwise)	Get Turns, Get Mirror Cells, Is Target Lit
Pressure Plates	Press Plate (Column, Row)	Is Plate Lit, Get Plates, Get Plate Under (Pawn)
Rotating Pillars	Turn Pillar (Pillar, Direction)	Get Pillar Face
Knight Swap	Move Knight (From Column, From Row, To Column, To Row)	Get Knight At
Frogs and Toads	Move Piece (Pad)	Get Piece At
Water Jugs	Pour Jug (From, To)	Get Amount
Peg Solitaire	Jump Peg (From, To)	Has Peg, Get Pegs Left
Combination Safe	Turn Dial (Direction)	Get Dial Number, Get Numbers Caught, event On Tumbler
Gear Train	Turn Gear (Gear, Direction)	Get Gear Angle, Is Gear Up, Is Driver, event On Gear Turned
Pipe Flow	Turn Pipe (Cell, Clockwise)	Is Pipe Wet, Get Wet Pipes, Get Pipe Turn, event On Flow
Fuse Box	Flip Switch (Index)	Is Switch On, Is Gate Lit, Get Gates Lit, event On Gate Changed
Tilt Maze	Tilt Board (Direction)	Get Ball Cell, Is Ball Home, event On Ball Dropped
Nonogram	Toggle Cell (Column, Row), Toggle Mark	Is Cell Filled, Get Row Clue, Get Column Clue
Code Breaker	Cycle Slot (Slot, Direction), Pull Lever	Get Guess, Get Pins, Get Guesses Made, event On Guess
Cryptex	Turn Ring (Ring, Direction)	Get Shown Word, Get Linked Rings, event On Ring Turned
Ball Sort	Move Ball (From, To), Click Tube, Put Back	Get Ball Color, Is Tube Complete, event On Tube Completed
Clock Hands	Press Button (Button, Direction)	Get Hour, Get Minute, Get Target Hour, event On Button Pressed
Chinese Rings	Move Ring (Ring)	Can Move Ring, Is Ring On, Get Rings On, event On Ring Moved
Crate Push	Push Crate (Crate, Direction), Walk To (Cell)	Get Crate Cells, Get Crates On Targets, event On Crate Pushed
Balance Scale	Move Weight (Weight, To), Step Weight	Get Weight Place, Get Imbalance, event On Weight Moved
River Crossing	Move Figure (Figure), Cross River	Get Figure Place, Get Figures Across, events On Crossed, On Refused
Queens	Toggle Queen (Column, Row)	Has Queen, Get Queens Left, Get Clashing Queens

Gate: Get Activated Count, Get Required Count, Is Complete, event On Complete. Player controller: Get Focused Puzzle, Get Puzzle In View, Click At Screen Position.

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Level Blueprint examples

1. A message when a puzzle is solved. Select the puzzle in the level → Level Blueprint → right-click → Add On Solved. From the event: Print String (“Solved in {Moves Made} moves”). The puzzle already plays its Solved Sound; add Play Sound 2D for music or a voice line.

2. A hint button in your own UI. Button On Clicked → Get Player Controller → Cast To PRKPlayerController → Get Focused Puzzle → Is Valid → Play Hint Move.

3. A move counter. Add On Moved for the puzzle → set your widget’s text to Moves Left (“{Moves Left} moves to go”). Because the solver knows the exact shortest solution, the counter is honest: it drops by one for every good move and grows after a bad one. In puzzles whose moves can’t be undone (Peg Solitaire, Crate Push…) it reads -1 once the player is stuck — a good moment to offer a hint or a reset.

4. Harder every round. On Solved → Delay 2 s → Generate At Difficulty (Difficulty = Hard) → Focus (Get Player Controller). For a smooth ramp use Custom and raise Target Moves each round.

5. Saving progress. Save: for every puzzle in the level, Is Solved → store the solved ones in your SaveGame (e.g. a Set of actor names). Load (Level Blueprint BeginPlay, after loading the SaveGame): for each stored puzzle call Set Solved. The rest follows as in play — doors open, locked puzzles unlock, gates count, the progress board lights its lamps — without replaying a single move.

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Changing the look

Themes (one click). A theme is a set of look layers, not just a re-skin. Four come with the kit in Puzzle Room Kit Content/Themes: Vintage (the kit’s own look), Sci-Fi, Horror, Modern. Each DA_PRK_Theme_* holds:

• Materials — every kit material (left) mapped to the theme’s version (right): puzzles, doors, room pieces, furniture.
• Meshes — kit meshes swapped for the theme’s (the demo’s ceiling lamps and wall lights become sci-fi panels, lanterns, globes).
• Dressing Tag — actors tagged Theme.<Name> show only while that theme is on (crates and cables, barrels, plants, clocks…).
• Lights — brightness, colour temperature and a share of flickering lights. Fog — density, colour, light beams (volumetric).
• Ambience — a looping sound with its volume, cross-faded when the theme changes. Mood — white balance, saturation, exposure. Lights, fog and ambience apply in Play only (the editor keeps your saved light values); materials, meshes and dressing change in the editor too.
• Whole project: Project Settings → Plugins → Puzzle Room Kit → Theme. Open levels change at once; others when they load.

• One puzzle or door: its Theme (Puzzle

  Look / Door

  Look) wins over the project’s.

• In game: Set Theme For All (Blueprint) re-skins the level and keeps every puzzle’s progress — e.g. a lever that turns the room into its Horror version. None = back to the project’s theme.
• PRK Theme Switch does that with no Blueprint: the player clicks it and the level takes the next of its Themes. On a wall it is a lever plate; with On Console it stands on the theme console (a pedestal for the middle of a room, with a floor medallion and a lamp per theme that shows which one is on).

• Your own theme: duplicate a DA_PRK_Theme_* and change any layer. Materials and meshes you don’t list keep the kit look; your own materials and meshes are never touched unless you list them. Leave Lights, Fog or Ambience at their defaults to keep the level’s own.

• Every mesh slot under Puzzle|Look takes your own mesh; its tooltip says where the pivot must be and which way it faces. The default meshes are Nanite, modelled at real size. The mesh picker lists your project’s meshes; to pick one of the kit’s own, open the picker’s settings (gear) → Show Plugin Content.
• Your own version of a puzzle: duplicate its BP_PRK_* into your folder (e.g. BP_MyPressurePlates), open it → Class Defaults → Puzzle|Look → your meshes and materials. Every copy you place uses them, and a change to your Blueprint updates them all. The puzzle logic doesn’t depend on the meshes: a swapped mesh plays and solves the same.
• Lights on buttons, plates, squares and pillars use the material slot named M_PRK_Lens (scalar On, vector Color); set the colour with On Color.
• The wood, brass, bronze and stone are instances of M_PRK_Surface in Puzzle Room Kit Content/Shared/Materials (Tint, Roughness Add, Tiling, Detail Amount). Parts that share a mesh get their own texture offset, so a board of squares doesn’t repeat one grain.
• Sliding Tiles and Rotating Tiles take any texture as Picture. For Rotating Tiles pick a picture with no symmetric tiles, or players can’t tell which way is up.

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Good to know

• Single-player. Puzzles are not replicated.
• Packaging: only the game default map is cooked by itself. Add every other level you play — the demo maps, a door’s Next Level — under Project Settings → Packaging → List of maps to include in a packaged build.
• Solving cost: each puzzle type and size is solved once, the first time it is used, and shared by every copy. A 4-column Knight Swap board keeps 3 rows: 4 × 4 has 900,900 arrangements and would take seconds.
• Peg Solitaire: not every start hole allows Finish In Start Hole; the Output Log says so when it doesn’t.
• The demo rooms use Lumen with movable lights and a Post Process Volume set to Manual exposure, so they look the same in any project. When you copy a demo room’s lighting into your level, copy that volume too (or set your own exposure).
• Demo room props are CC0 from Poly Haven. Sounds (Shared/Sounds) are edited from CC0 recordings by Kenney and BigSoundBank.

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Support

Questions, bugs or requests: open an issue at https://github.com/josephs-assets/PuzzleRoomKit/issues. Please include your engine version, the puzzle, and any Output Log lines that start with LogPRK.