People play puzzle games because they want to solve puzzles. While an adventure game is kind of like a puzzle game, the main focus is the story. In a game like Skrambler, the main focus is putting the images together. While I believe that having a back story can enrich the gaming experience, putting too much 'in-your-face' story elements can also disrupt gameplay, especially in a puzzle game.
The approach I have taken in Skrambler is to inject story elements around the game to indicate that there is a larger context to the game. For example, the Skrambler device is designed to look like an ancient mechanical artifact with a subtle marking that says "Property of Chronus" that perhaps might give some clues to the origin of the device. The splash screen also gives some indication of the world surrounding Skrambler.
These elements provides hints at the world around the game, and gives clues to why the player might be putting images together. For the player that is so inclined, he or she may delve more into the story, but for the casual player that is only interested in the puzzle elements, there are no distractions.
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