Hey everyone,
In this post, we want to give you a small glimpse behind the scenes and show how puzzles in Puzzling Places are created from real-world 3D scans. We’ll look at how we turned a Victorian-style commercial building in Baltimore into a cozy Christmas scene.
Let’s dive right in!
Creating a new puzzle usually starts with finding a great 3D scan. Sometimes we scan locations ourselves, but most of the time we license them from independent creators on platforms like Sketchfab.
When choosing a scan, we look for a few things. First, the location should be interesting on its own. Second, it needs clear shapes and distinct areas — otherwise it quickly turns into a lot of grey-on-grey puzzling. And finally, we think about theming: can we push lighting, colors, or details to give the scene a specific mood?
For Christmas on Fell Street, we already had the idea of a cozy holiday scene. On Sketchfab we found the Fells Point Mermaid Building in Baltimore scanned by our frequent collaborator Taylor Houlihan in great quality.
Here’s what the original scan looked like:
Once we have a scan and a direction, we start gathering references and building a mood board. This helps define the overall look, but also gives us ideas for small stories, lighting, and effects.
From there, we move into production. The first step is cleaning up artifacts in the scan, which is often the most tedious part, but important to get a solid base.
After that, we start shaping the mood: relighting the scene, adjusting colors, and adding details like lamps or decorations. Even small lighting changes can completely shift how a place feels.
For this puzzle, we aimed for a vibrant, slightly stylized US Christmas look, inspired by movie scenes. We added snow, pushed the ambient light toward cooler blue tones, and balanced it with warm, glowing windows and street lamps. And of course, lots of colorful fairy lights.
In the final step, we add small animated elements to bring the scene to life. Some characters move, others stay in place, and sometimes they interact. The goal isn’t to tell a fixed story, but to suggest little moments players can interpret themselves.
Here are a few examples from Fell Street:
A woman walks down the street with a Christmas shopping bag — maybe carrying a present she’ll wrap later. Nearby, a mother and daughter return from sledding and drop a letter into a mailbox. Could be Christmas greetings for family far away.
Up on the roof, there’s a small Christmas party with pizza and drinks — maybe friends, maybe coworkers wrapping up the year.
Someone has climbed up to make a snow angel in the fresh snow. And if you follow the paw prints, you might spot a small kitten hiding up there.
The last step is adding sound. We layer in ambient audio, along with more localized sounds that unlock as you complete parts of the puzzle. As you progress, the scene slowly comes together not just visually, but also acoustically.
And that’s how the final puzzle ends up in the game.
Hope you enjoyed this little look behind the scenes — and as always, we’re happy if you give it a try. Happy Puzzling 🧩✨
— The Realities.io Team