Nay-there are no 'this isn't use full now, oh wait it is' items. MOST items found per chapter can be used in that chapter. There wont be a significant item found in room A, that is only useful in room Z.
This also goes against my philosophy of really trying to constantly push the player forward. I don't want backtracking to take place, unless it is pivotal to the story.
From a design point, I want the puzzles to have an almost MacGyver feel to them. MacGyver never picked up a paper clip and a rag, for 'just in case'. No, when he needed them, he would find something like a paper clip, and a torn off shirt strip. When obstacles need to be passed, I want the player to look for inventive ways to pass that obstacle...not look for things that could be used to pass something in the future.
I think that this is in keeping with Maracheck. He is there on a job. He isn't going to stop, dig through the trash, and take a bottle for later. He is going to need a container, and dig in the trash for something.
As for puzzles with multiple solutions, i'm all for that but i think you have to be careful not to make one solution easier than the other, or you'll have some people feel cheated by the experience. So if you have one puzzle where the player has to make a magnet, then you should have a similarly difficult puzzle involved in the player finding the key to open the locker containing the ready made magnet.
Well you see-thats the rub. Is putting in 'bypasses' like that really helpfull to the player? Or just something to make the game easier? I want them for atmosphere reasons....but is this going to end up hindering the gameplay? Honestly, the puzzles arent 'that' difficult. I want to make this a game that will hopefully introduce people to adventure gaming-not just be for the hardcore adventurers who want to break out engineering manuals when they get stuck.
And as for a cluttered inventory. The setting of your game makes for some good possibilities to unclutter the inventory at regular intervals as part of the story. Perhaps your character gets caught in an area of the ship with a hull breach and some items get sucked out of his pockets, or perhaps there's an area of the ship with a metal detector and won't let him pass with certain items, or a bio filter which won't let him pass without dropping some items of an organic nature. Of course they would have to be choke points otherwise it'd be possible for the player to lose items they might need later on.
I like the idea of certain detectors not allowing certain items to go past. I have designed the game to have natural 'choke points' (Ive called them BLOCKS) which are ways that stop the player from moving backwards. These have all been put in places that ensure that inventory items that haven't been picked up will not be needed to continue the game.
In really looking at the practical nature of the puzzles, I've kept inventory hording to a minimum.
I really like the audio cue idea to signify pertinent pieces of info....
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