Trading Places
Reaching an iron gate ahead of them, the heroes decide that Caddoc should perhaps take the lead. They interact with the stone atop a unique obelisk that switches the player's control from E'lara to Caddoc. (These obelisks appear throughout the adventure so players can choose to swap roles at discrete points.)
Caddoc uses his strength to push a pillar with a brazier atop it underneath another brazier whose fire is dropping embers. The lower brazier catches fire and (somehow) mystically causes the iron gate to open. (Many mechanisms in the world of Hunted are activated through the positioning of objects or putting flames in the right brazier.)
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Process
Before the player "says goodbye" to playing as E'lara for the rest of the level, it's necessary to add one more element to her roster of bow skills.
Hunted sprinkles small- and medium-scale puzzles throughout in order to engage more than the combat side of the player's brain. Many of these puzzles spin out of variations on the use of typical action-game puzzle mechanics such as finding a set of "key"-type items or performing a set of actions in the proper order. Frequently (because the reuse of systems justifies their development cost), these involve the player's ability to light arrows on fire.
The moment where this mechanic is taught was added out of necessity: cooperative games often "gate" player progression to keep characters together. Having just used the "buddy-opened" gate, I needed to find a different way to require the player to complete the skeleton fight before interacting with the character-swap obelisk. Since it had been decided that that sequence was to be gated in the bluntest way possible (with a gate that can't be opened without switching to Caddoc), it occurred to me to reverse the actions here—to have the gate in use a mechanic that only E'lara can use.
And since lightning was being called down from the sky anyway, why not have it coincidentally strike the brazier needed for E'lara to light an arrow?
Once the player has learned Caddoc's "unique puzzle ability" (pushing heavy objects that slide), they're free to go.
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