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Wormwood_Studios - 09 May 2021 08:19 PM
Baron_Blubba - 07 May 2021 04:31 PM
Wormwood_Studios - 01 May 2021 02:16 AM

The latter part of the game is a little more rigorous in its logic, though it has the single puzzle that most often causes players to get stuck.

 

It’s the kiosk bread-crumb trail to find Memento Moribuilt.

There’s nothing you can do to help the sad robot; it’s meant as a cautionary tale of passivity in the face of problems.

Okay, I’m just one person (on my better days), but I thought that the kiosk puzzle was the best one in the game. I don’t play adventure games to breeze through them; sometimes I like to stare at the screen for a few minutes *knowing* the answer is there but I’m just not seeing it. It reminded me of all the laptop puzzles in Gabriel Knight 3, only those grew tiresome for me because eventually it became too much of a clever thing and I just wanted to close the computer and go play outside (in the game world…although also in the real world).
In my opinion, you nailed the difficulty on that one. It’s one of the final puzzles in the game, so it’s appropriate as a ‘boss fight’ puzzle.
And too many adventure games end on a whimper precisely because of the lack of an escalating difficulty curve that culminates in a boss fight puzzle.
The last *click* in any game should be momentous.
I recently played a game where the last click was walking into a screen you’d been in a thousand times before, and the ending started to play. Totally buzzkilled the climax.

     

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Yes—it’s one of a small number of puzzles that is well received, but also one that stumps and frustrates a lot of players.

Your point re: “boss puzzles” is interesting. My opinion, and the way I designed both Primordia and Strangeland, is that the last 15% or so should be a bit easier than the prior stretches of the game because a climax needs momentum—if a player gets really stumped just as the plot is trying to crescendo, things break down. So while the kiosk and code were relatively tough puzzles, from the code onward, the puzzles were pretty easy.

I think the best boss puzzles are ones that call back to earlier puzzles. The LeChuck showdown in MI2 is the best, in my opinion.  Not hard per se, but interest mechanics, good callback, satisfying to prevail.

     
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The kiosk puzzle is my favourite part of the game, because of puzzle itself and when Memento Moribuilt appears, is one of the best moments I have ever experienced in an adventure game: the music, the words, the voice…

Translating it was challenging but very satisfying.

     

Currently translating Strangeland into Spanish. Wish me luck, or send me money to my Paypal haha

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Wormwood_Studios - 11 May 2021 12:05 AM

Yes—it’s one of a small number of puzzles that is well received, but also one that stumps and frustrates a lot of players.

Your point re: “boss puzzles” is interesting. My opinion, and the way I designed both Primordia and Strangeland, is that the last 15% or so should be a bit easier than the prior stretches of the game because a climax needs momentum—if a player gets really stumped just as the plot is trying to crescendo, things break down. So while the kiosk and code were relatively tough puzzles, from the code onward, the puzzles were pretty easy.

I think the best boss puzzles are ones that call back to earlier puzzles. The LeChuck showdown in MI2 is the best, in my opinion.  Not hard per se, but interest mechanics, good callback, satisfying to prevail.

I agree with you here. Perhaps a super crazy brainbuster would kill momentum at the very end. Like, the story and suspense are building building building and then…stop…think for a few hours…or days…and then proceed. The buzz is gone. So yes, perhaps the ‘boss puzzles’ should be *near* the end, but not *at* the end. However, this does not preclude the final interactions from being momentous and meaningful. One of my favorite examples of this might be Full Throttle. The last two clicks in the game are: Turning off the weapons system so Ripburger falls to his doom (or does he? Stay tuned for the sequel, folks!), and then performing the iconic action of the game: Getting on your bike. Neither of those things were very difficult to figure out, but hooo boy were they satisfying! Awesome way to climax the gameplay portion of the game, and a natural segue into an ending.
I think one of the worst things a game can do is have the player thinking ‘wait…that’s it?’ as the credits start to roll. Not in a sense of ‘I wish the game was longer’ but in terms of ‘man, all I had to do was have a casual conversation with this character, and the game enters its end cutscene?’

 

     

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Update on my adventures in Kyrandia:

Are you gosh darn fudge fruitin’ kidding me? I found the magic water, I used the blue spell on the royal chalice, which was stolen by the Satyr-like fellow. I went back to Zanthia’s hut and ...she’s gone! Okay, fine. I try to drop the blueberry into the laundry water and Brandon says ‘I wish I had her spell book.’ Great, I start looking around for it. Oh, what’s that? A spell book, right out in the open, just sitting there on her lab table…or is that a science book? Perhaps she’s a wizard and a scientist? Wizard-scientists are currently trending you know, ever since ‘philospher-king’ went out of style. It must be a science book, because Brandon refuses to acknowledge its existence. So I poke around a little more, find the secret passage under the rug, toodle around for a bit, get a rainbow stone and a unicorn statue, and find a couple of big crystals sticking out of the ground with bottle shaped impressions in them. Great, I have bottles! I’ve got a bottle full of every type of water in the whole game! Salt water, clear water, magic water, and I think some other type of water. I try using them on the impressions…nothing happens. Okay, well, obviously I need to brew some potions to use here instead. Off I go to find the spell book!
.
,
.
.
Hours later, Brandon has met his step goal a grillion times over, and I give in and look at the walkthrough. Oh my. Fruit. Fudge. Flip. Seriously…I’m trying very hard to keep the F in Eufemism here, because I am so very tempted to break character and use a bad word. You mean, I’m not supposed to find Zanthia’s spell book after all? You mean I’ve been trolloping around for the last two hours trying to use a unicorn statue on a golden horse and seduce a satyr with a flute over and over again like a very-definition-of-insane person, when what I was supposed to be doing was the even more insane act of randomly dropping fruits and stones into a cauldron full of laundry water until I figure out how to make magic potions? I can’t believe it. No wait, I totally can: This is an also-ran early 90’s adventure game! It makes perfect sense, and the joke is entirely on me. I take back all those fruits and fudges and flips, I should have understood this all along! But seriously…why tell me ‘I wish I could find her spell book’ and then NOT NEED THE #$@#%$#^@$^GROWLIXING-TO-INFINITY@%$#^#^ spell book at all?

This game gets a stupid out of 10, and if you read the spoilers in this post, you know I don’t use bad words lightly. I’m going to finish it and move on to the next one, which I think also has a spell book. But perhaps I shouldn’t say ‘also’, since this game doesn’t really have a spell book, does it?

A belated happy Mother’s Day everyone! My goodness I am so drunk on stu**dity right now.

     

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Not playing right now but eagerly awaiting the Dai Gyakuten Saiban releases on Steam! Holy smokes, can’t believe Capcom is releasing those and release date is already near.

     
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Started playing Mutropolis, and what a pleasant adventure it is! I’d say it is everything Broken Age could’ve been if Tim Schafer tried to design a proper game in the spirit of his earlier classics instead of filming documentaries and trying to appeal to modern crowds. Mutropolis has a similar art style, a traditional point-n-click gameplay, humour, but it’s also a great adventure game with a solid story about a team of archaeologists from a far-away future who research the 20-21th centuries same as we are researching ancient times. This adds a lot of fun to an already wacky world. Which, unlike the recent Encodya, does in fact feel like a properly developed universe, with each screen containing references to both the future and the past. Really enjoy the puzzle design so far: while the number of screens is limited, there is so much to do and discover, and yet no task feels forced or illogical. There was this traditional “collect 3 items” puzzle, for example, which involved a smaller multi-step puzzle which, in turn, consisted of an even smaller multi-step puzzles, and yet I was never lost, nothing felt out of the “scientific” context. Highly recommended.

     

PC means personal computer

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I finally started Inspector Waffles and it’s just so good! Exactly what I needed Heart Eyes I had aldready played (and loved) the first chapter when it was released, and I’m so glad to see the wonderful game into which it has blossomed. I’m only at chapter 3 and enjoying it immensely.

     
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Doom - 17 May 2021 01:26 PM

Started playing Mutropolis, and what a pleasant adventure it is! I’d say it is everything Broken Age could’ve been if Tim Schafer tried to design a proper game in the spirit of his earlier classics instead of filming documentaries and trying to appeal to modern crowds. Mutropolis has a similar art style, a traditional point-n-click gameplay, humour, but it’s also a great adventure game with a solid story about a team of archaeologists from a far-away future who research the 20-21th centuries same as we are researching ancient times. This adds a lot of fun to an already wacky world. Which, unlike the recent Encodya, does in fact feel like a properly developed universe, with each screen containing references to both the future and the past. Really enjoy the puzzle design so far: while the number of screens is limited, there is so much to do and discover, and yet no task feels forced or illogical. There was this traditional “collect 3 items” puzzle, for example, which involved a smaller multi-step puzzle which, in turn, consisted of an even smaller multi-step puzzles, and yet I was never lost, nothing felt out of the “scientific” context. Highly recommended.

Dang, you just sold me on this so big time. I also felt Broken Age had a lot of potential (heck, the first half was, while perhaps a little on the easy side, sublime) but completely fell apart in the second half. A game that fulfills the first half promise in the way you describe would be awesome.

     

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Whoops. Posted my review of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate in the wrong thread! You can find it in the ‘What Game Have You Just Finished’ thread.

     

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I am playing Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins. It’s a pretty typical phone game. I’ve played better. Worth getting if you can find it cheap and you must play a run of the mill phone game.

     

I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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Thanks to Doom and the AG review I’m also playing Mutropolis. Finished the short first chapter, which has very easy puzzles and is probably meant as an introduction, and am now exploring in the second chapter. In general I’m tired of the traditional 3rd-person adventures with inventory-based puzzles and lots of dialogue, they have to be very good or I won’t give them a try, but so far I sure like this one.

     

See you around, wolf. Nerissa

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Karlok - 20 May 2021 04:28 AM

Thanks to Doom and the AG review I’m also playing Mutropolis. Finished the short first chapter, which has very easy puzzles and is probably meant as an introduction, and am now exploring in the second chapter. In general I’m tired of the traditional 3rd-person adventures with inventory-based puzzles and lots of dialogue, they have to be very good or I won’t give them a try, but so far I sure like this one.

Yeah, Doom has me sold on that game too. Just a matter of when.

I am in the middle of playing The Blackwell Epiphany for the first time, and just stopped into say that blowing on the mouse to make the computer exit screen saver mode was so so satisfying. Great little puzzle.

     

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“The Last Express”.

It’s amazing. I love the setting, its style and mechanic, the attention to detail. Characters with their own interactions and agendas. They’re dealing with their own lives and with each other, rather than being passive information resources and task providers for the player.

     
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Technobabylon.

I don’t like the setting, I don’t like the story, I don’t like the characters. It’s all a little too ‘mature’ for me. I’d rather hang out with the crew from The Dig than anyone I’ve met so far in this game.
But, there have been some tremendous puzzles so far, so I’m enjoying it.
Bringing the gel up to 98 degrees was excellent.

     

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