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“I suck at puzzles!” - An interview with Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games

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Hello again PlanetX

I am in no way against anyone making adventure games with changeling puzzles. I both like them to been made and I will love to play them. You are absolutely right that you can have success games with changeling puzzles. And in fact is puzzle games by them selves a popular genre on smartphones.

But it’s also a misunderstanding when people think that game developers simplifying there games, is doing this without understanding what players wants. Especially when big companies makes game they look at feedback, testes and on what kind of games that sells. But fortunately they are sometimes wrong, and more complex games become big sellers.

I also knows that way I play games today is not same as it was 30 years ago. 30 years ago I did not have a lot of games, and I did not have access to walkthroughs, so instead I fought through the adventure games i had. And I loved it. Today I have access to too many games, and walkthroughs is in a way sadly a thing I have way too much access to. And for me (and I know for a lot of other players) when I today meets puzzles in adventure games that I can’t solve, I sadly pretty fast uses a walkthrough or if I don’t liked the story or gameplay enough, I stop playing the game. And I am really no proved of it, but when there have been much more then one puzzle I could solve, I have way to often seen the rest of the game played on YouTube. And as a game developer(okay a hobby game developer) I hate this, because I like most other game developers wants our games to be played, not just looked at.

And again it’s totally okay to make complex adventure games with more and less difficult puzzles. And I hope this kind of games will have a lot success, and I am sure that some of them will. But there is also reasons why more and more adventure games, gets less complex and with simple puzzles. And it’s not just because game developers are stupid (and yes we are pretty stupid Smile ) but it’s also because this is what a lot players really wants. And even though I like to play the complex adventure games with some more complex puzzles, I also love playing the super simple ones with funny or interesting stories.

And to you point that it’s the story and visuals that sells games, I think you are to some degree right, but it’s not necessarily what makes us play though the games.

Regards JK5000

     
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JK5000Games - 01 November 2020 04:21 AM

Especially when big companies makes game they look at feedback, testes

Gasp

I hope they have got consent before looking at testes

     

Member of the NAALCB - (North American Anti- Lobster Cop Brigade) since 2019.

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Donuts McGee when I talk about test, it’s test made with people that is employed as play-testes.

     
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Wow.. and people get paid for this? Very cool.. no one told me about this when I left school!

     

Member of the NAALCB - (North American Anti- Lobster Cop Brigade) since 2019.

Total Posts: 34

Joined 2020-10-21

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Donuts McGee I’m pretty sure they gets payed with cookies and energy drinks. Smile

     
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PlanetX - 31 October 2020 07:44 PM
JK5000Games - 31 October 2020 06:42 PM

Hello PlanetX

I’m not sure the Zero Escape games success comes from the puzzles rooms, but more from the story. But okay without the puzzles there would be very little gameplay. And it’s also interesting that the same developers next game “AI: The Somnium Files” has much less focus on puzzles(unless you see the games mysterious as puzzles) and more on the story and player choices.

My whole point was that a narrative or stylistic hook is what drawers wider audience to certain adventure games over others. That’s why I don’t agree with the idea that adventure games need easy puzzles to appeal to a wider audience. So when you say “I’m not sure the Zero Escape games success comes from the puzzles rooms” I’m not sure what you’re responding to. That was never my point.

In the discussion about tuning adventure game puzzle difficulty for modern tastes there’s often a very overblown idea of just how dumb, impatient and perpetually bored gamers are when it comes to puzzles. It’s a total over correction to compensate for the reputation the genre earned from unfair 90s puzzles. These are ostensibly games for adults and yet the thought required can be below an average Pajama Sam puzzle, a game made for 1st graders. If your aim is to make casual games, that’s fine. Everyone should make the games they want to make. But the notion that this is how modern adventure games have to be in order to be in line with modern sensibilities is false.

The truth is if you look at the games that have have drawn bigger audiences in the modern era, there’s really no consistent level of puzzle challenge linked to success. Sometimes easier games break out, sometimes harder ones do. Sometimes a puzzle light adventure blows up like The Walking Dead. Sometimes a game with more challenge like Zero Escape or Machinarium does (which sold over 4 million units).

that was my pt as well to a degree. the walking dead game hit it big bc of its story and bc zombies were all the rage at the time, but the formula quickly wore off in popularity. Same engine, same stuttering framerate, same “choices” that actually mattered very little and no real gameplay/puzzles except for qte fights.

For me it can go both ways, take the witness, that game has fun puzzles no doubt, but it has an abstract story that is not put out front like a lucas arts game. so it is hard for that game to hold my attention as well. Adventure games have to strike a very delicate balance. That is why there are a lot of mystery/detective adventure games, bc they are easier to incorporate puzzles and story equally.

     

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