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Pixel Hunts and other Non-Apparent Inventory Item Puzzles (A Brief Strategy Guide)
I am well aware of the existence of UHS files, I’ve been recommending them myself over ordinary walkthroughs in previous threads. Unfortunately, there’s not a UHS file for every AG out there, and I think having a hotspot revealer can in many cases eliminate the need to look up hints.
And it gets even worse if all you can find is a video walkthrough, not only do they reveal much more then just the solution to puzzles, but it is also quite difficult to find the right place, which means you end up watching way too much.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
If you use hot spot revealers, what’s the purpose of the designers trying to make it hard and creating these hunts in the first place? Why not just have everything lying out obviously in the open like Mixed up’ Mother Goose?
What’s the purpose of creating those in the first place, indeed. 
Pixel hunting isn’t fun, and if the designers make it hard from the get-go, then they’re doing things wrong in my book.
Of course, you can’t expect them to have everything out in the open - objects should appear on a ‘natural’ location that fits with the environment, but those objects should also be visible on the screen. The artwork is important.
In older/retro games, it’s often hard to make out one-pixel items from the background. That makes it hard to identify them, which is exactly why they so often result in a pixel hunt. But the game’s design should work around that, either with a hotspot revealer, or with a better implementation of the one-pixel item.
You can make such a one-pixel item stand out by having it sparkle (like your signet ring in the first screen of KQ6), by making a larger area into a hotspot (if the one pixel object has a nine-pixel hotspot area, you’re more likely to find it) or by referring to it via a surrounding hotspot (if your character describes a 50-pixel large shelf with “It’s a dusty shelf - there appears to be a [one-pixel item] on it, though.” then you’re also going to find it easily enough).
As a side note, I agree with Zobraks that I don’t measure adventure games in terms of “win” or “defeat”, but rather “fun/interesting” and “boring”. I too will walkthrough-blast my way through a game that I dislike but find compelling enough story-wise to want to see the end.
Heck, I’m not above cheating my way through non-adventure single player games if I think they’re too hard, or if a certain grind doesn’t look fun.
Multiplayer’s a whole different matter, though. You can cheat yourself all you want (it’s all personal preference anyway), but not when playing against others. I’m a big advocate of fair play, always have been.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
The hell with Pixel hunt, every month we have a thread about that ...SO whoever likes it stop clicking spacebar and enjoy your hunting Season and whoever hates it shut up or get yourself a speculum .
The hell with Pixel hunt, every month we have a thread about that ...SO whoever likes it stop clicking spacebar and enjoy your hunting Season and whoever hates it shut up or get yourself a speculum .
Which is actually another reason why a hotspot revealer is so awesome: if you don’t want to use it, then you don’t have to, you can totally ignore it… 
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
As a side note, I agree with Zobraks that I don’t measure adventure games in terms of “win” or “defeat”, but rather “fun/interesting” and “boring”.
Don’t we all?
Anyway i agree with both you an Zobraks, the more interesting i find a game, the more persistent and determent to solve it on my own i become, and the more boring and uninteresting i find it, the faster i will look for a walkthrough.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
The hell with Pixel hunt, every month we have a thread about that ...SO whoever likes it stop clicking spacebar and enjoy your hunting Season and whoever hates it shut up or get yourself a speculum .
What a charming individual.
Pixel hunts are used frequently in adventure games, and this is a adventure game forum, so yes, there probably will be many threads on the subject over time. I don’t understand people who post in a thread for the sole purpose of complaining about it.
Yeah, I much prefer the “other puzzles” part of that equation. Pixel hunts strike me as rather a cheap and lazy way of increasing difficulty, and getting past them doesn’t give me a feeling of accomplishment like solving actual puzzles does…
But how common are those “other puzzles”? When it comes down to it adventure games are about finding objects and using them on other objects. You can have games like 7th Guest that are entirely based on logic puzzles and riddles, but then you start getting away from the adventure game feel that all of us enjoy.
I LOVE PIXEL HUNTS. A pixel hunt is like an Easter Egg hunt, it’s a secret item that you have to find. For me it’s enjoyable to look for them, as it makes me pay attention to the background art and locations giving the game more depth, and it also gives a sense of accomplishment once you find the item on your own.
A lot of people love pixel hunts as shown by the popularity of “hidden object games” which are entirely based around them. Whenever I go to Target they have an entire shelf of these hidden object games. I don’t love pixel hunts to the extent I would want an entire game based around them but I think when they’re peppered into an adventure game that serves to spice things up and make it better.
If any developers are reading this, please continue to put pixel hunts in your games and try to make them as difficult as you can.
But how common are those “other puzzles”? When it comes down to it adventure games are about finding objects and using them on other objects. You can have games like 7th Guest that are entirely based on logic puzzles and riddles, but then you start getting away from the adventure game feel that all of us enjoy.
Pretty common, I’d say. First off, a number of adventure games don’t have much of an inventory in the first place, so hunting for inventory items can’t be a focus. Second, the finding the item part of inventory puzzles is the very LEAST interesting and enjoyable part of them, for me. The part where you figure out how to GET an item that you can see but can’t reach, or figure out how to use an item that you have gotten already, those are the interesting and rewarding parts of those sort of puzzles for me, NOT the part where I have to comb the screen looking for hotspots. As I said, making such puzzles harder by making it harder to find the pixels that let you pick the item up is, IMHO, the cheapest, laziest way of increasing difficulty.
Part of the issue here might be that folks could be defining what constitutes a “pixel-hunt” differently in the first place. I feel like the term denotes a process whereby you are forced to find a very SMALL hotspot without any prior knowledge of what you are actually looking for.
I wouldn’t classify most hidden object games as pixel hunts at all, as 1.) most of the objects are sufficiently large that the difficulty lies in picking them out of a visually noisy image, not in finding the specific area you need to click to get them, and 2.) you generally know WHAT you are looking for. If a hidden object game simply presented you with an image, in which several of the objects were the ones you needed to collect, but there was no LIST or other information telling you which items (or even how many), out of the many pictured, were collectable, or needed to be collected to progress, I daresay that that would tend to suck the enjoyment out of them for many people.
What a charming individual.
Pixel hunts are used frequently in adventure games, and this is a adventure game forum, so yes, there probably will be many threads on the subject over time. I don’t understand people who post in a thread for the sole purpose of complaining about it.
I think he’s just having a bad day. That post was rather uncharacteristic for him…
But how common are those “other puzzles”? When it comes down to it adventure games are about finding objects and using them on other objects. You can have games like 7th Guest that are entirely based on logic puzzles and riddles, but then you start getting away from the adventure game feel that all of us enjoy.
That’s a bit shortsighted, imo. In addition to inventory-based puzzles (combining items, use X on Y situations, etc.), there’s also dialogue puzzles, mechanical puzzles (sliders, crate-pushing and the likes), deduction puzzles, timed puzzles, varieties of mini-games, mazes, mathematical puzzles, etc.
And even the inventory-based puzzles are still based on logic, which a pixel hunt usually isn’t (well, the “hard-to-see one-pixel-wide item” pixel hunt at least).
A lot of people love pixel hunts as shown by the popularity of “hidden object games” which are entirely based around them. Whenever I go to Target they have an entire shelf of these hidden object games. I don’t love pixel hunts to the extent I would want an entire game based around them but I think when they’re peppered into an adventure game that serves to spice things up and make it better.
It’s not really the same, because you’re actively looking for a hidden object that’s usually larger than a single pixel. Hidden object games have you looking for the object and only clicking on it after you’ve found it.
Pixel hunts usually are you scanning the screen with the mouse, hoping to find a hotspot that you didn’t know was there. It’s not the same thing, imo.
If any developers are reading this, please continue to put pixel hunts in your games and try to make them as difficult as you can.
Sure, and let them add a hotspot revealer, so people like me can still enjoy the game without pulling out our hair…
Edit: I approve of Mister Ed’s post ^
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Pixel hunts are used frequently in adventure games, and this is a adventure game forum/quote]
you don’t say 
but anyways ,
i say maybe you would just better picked the pace from other dozens thread about that least to make a effort get the idea of the other’s thread and maybe add something different ,unique other that might had been missed or might had not yet clarified this issue .
for a some Special individual point of view
here are some just of those threads about how the pixel Hinting i had beenable torecal at the past 2 yeas that above all other issues that ruining the genre already.
What is wrong with Pixel Hunting?
Pixel-hunting now is a separate genre that belongs to Hidden object’s
the worst Pixel Hunting Award goes for :...
Pixel hunting - fun or not fun (A POLL)
Pixel Hunting Should not Exist IF:-
HotSpot Revealer’s an Innovation to AG?
pixel hunting! actually it is lot more frustrating at 3d Adventures
P.S:
The hell with Pixel hunt, every month we have a thread about that ...SO whoever likes it stop clicking spacebar and enjoy your hunting Season and whoever hates it shut up or get yourself a speculum .
and mr Admin shouldn’t judge how my day is or was ,from a post !what said was decently said.. i do respect everyone here so please do not and even if it would sound like kinda of that i know how to keep my respect for myself at 1st and for others just the same i was talking about my opinion about those repetitive threads not about the poster… and ahh ain’t no charming individual i much more worse but that is just my Problem
Advie, in AdorableMogwai’s defense: only one of those links is from the “new” forums, the rest are from the archives. So it’s basically only the second pixel-hunting thread in a year…
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
ok and you can go on to his defence ,
but now just let me be
It’s ok Advie, we all have our bad days so I can forgive you for being grouchy, and maybe if I’d been a regular on the forums for as long as you have this would seem like an old topic to me too.
I’d like to think I did bring something new to the subject with my simple idea of looking and thinking first before moving the mouse.
In addition to inventory-based puzzles (combining items, use X on Y situations, etc.), there’s also dialogue puzzles, mechanical puzzles (sliders, crate-pushing and the likes), deduction puzzles, timed puzzles, varieties of mini-games, mazes, mathematical puzzles, etc.
And even the inventory-based puzzles are still based on logic, which a pixel hunt usually isn’t (well, the “hard-to-see one-pixel-wide item” pixel hunt at least).
True, and I enjoy all of these puzzles. Variety is the spice of life, as the platitude goes, and that is why I like a little sprinkling of pixel hunts added in. To me, an adventure game just doesn’t have that same zing if it doesn’t have a few good pixel hunts somewhere.
A pixel hunt may not be based on logic, but it is based on observation and requires thought if it is gone about in the correct way. Someone can choose to do it the mechanical way and slowly move their mouse around (and still risk missing it as happened to me a few times back when I did that), or they can look at the location and think about things first in order to narrow it down to certain areas of interest. If done that way it only adds to the overall experience.
A pixel hunt may not be based on logic, but it is based on observation and requires thought if it is gone about in the correct way. Someone can choose to do it the mechanical way and slowly move their mouse around (and still risk missing it as happened to me a few times back when I did that), or they can look at the location and think about things first in order to narrow it down to certain areas of interest. If done that way it only adds to the overall experience.
Bolded for importance. It really needs to be handled well, and often it isn’t.
Here’s a screen from the game Guilty:
Find the wrench.
It’s about 12 pixels large, so it shouldn’t be a problem, should it?
I’ll give you a hint: it’s on a tile at the bottom of the stairs
The only real way to find it is by going over the entire screen with the mouse. No amount of observation is going to help you because it looks far too much like a crack in a tile (and a lot of tiles are cracked in that screen)...
Having a one-pixel hotspot that stands out is fine, but having something blend in perfectly with the background is just plain wrong, imo.
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Here’s a screen from the game Guilty:
Never heard of that game. I like the graphics style, but I have to admit to that is one EVIL pixel to spot. 
Anticipating:The Devil’s Men
Recently played:GK1 Remake (4), A Golden Wake (3), Child of Light (4) Memento Mori 2 (4) Face Noir (3.5) Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect (4) Blackwell Epiphany (4.5),Broken Sword 5(4.5), The Shivah Remake (4.5), Monkey Island 2 Remake (4.5)
Top 10 Adventure Games:Tex Murphy: Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight:The Beast Within, Broken Sword:Shadow of the Templars, Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, Lost Horizon, Grim Fandago, The Longest Journey, Blackwell Epiphany
It really needs to be handled well, and often it isn’t.
That really isn’t proved by posting a screen from one of the most notorious examples of bad pixel-hunts from an obscure game. At least give us a few from more popular or well-regarded games.
I wasn’t sure about this thread at first because I don’t believe in “strategies” for tackling games mechanically, but in this case it really does increase your enjoyment if you learn to be patient and use your eyes. In my own personal experience, the hotspot highlighter in recent games is responsible for lowering enjoyment by a LOT simply because it becomes a mechanical process.
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