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Unskippable puzzles
Zifnab made a good comment early on, so let’s define exactly how something like this would work. I’m thinking of clicking something that enables a sort of “autoplay”
Thats interesting. Essentially building in the walkthrough within the game. I mean almost everyone has access to the walkthrough online anyway, so this is just a more convenient option for those who want to use one.
Yeah. The thing with walkthroughs is that “officially” you can’t rely on their existence (though you could write one yourself, the way old games had a “hint line”), and also you still need to translate the walkthrough to in-game actions. For example, someone mentioned recently how he couldn’t solve a certain Myst puzzle because it was randomly generated and he was tone deaf. I once had an issue with Zork Nemesis where my screen was too dark and I just couldn’t make out the different sections in an orchestra sitting. If it’s a dialogue puzzle, it’s more convenient to just have the game play it out instead of memorizing the correct sequence of lines, etc.
They’re big successful boys, they can handle it.
I’m not and I can’t.
Zifnab made a good comment early on, so let’s define exactly how something like this would work. I’m thinking of clicking something that enables a sort of “autoplay”, i.e. from that point on the game plays itself for you until you tell it to stop. That way you don’t lose any context you’d have gained while solving puzzles so the game is still experienced as a game - but without the solving part.
You’re making it very easy for players. I’m oldfashioned and I’d prefer outright cheat codes, like Black Dahlia had for its cruel stand-alone puzzles. (Yes, I used some of them. 
) But the cheat code should not be advertised in the manual. Players should work for it and if they miss part of the story, that’s the price they pay for cheating.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
Players should work for it and if they miss part of the story, that’s the price they pay for cheating.
Why? Why is this behaviour you’d like to deter by setting a cost to it?
Players should work for it and if they miss part of the story, that’s the price they pay for cheating.
Why? Why is this behaviour you’d like to deter by setting a cost to it?
Because it defeats the purpose of the game.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
How long have you been an AGer Antrax? I’d say it took me around ten years to realize that using walkthroughs drastically kills my experience with a game. I now ban myself from using them and would rather be stuck for 5 hours, and having a “skip puzzle” or “autoplay puzzle” button would be too much for me to resist. It really would defeat the purpose of having the puzzle.
I’m not dead against walkthroughs. I use them myself when I’m stuck for hours and hours and lose all interest in the game. I have used them ever since I started playing text adventures many years ago. But I don’t want a SKIP button tempting me to press it and regret it later.
Butter my buns and call me a biscuit! - Agent A
I’d like to see more flexibility in the cheat/hint systems implemented in games. For example, clues to solving a puzzle would already be strewn throughout the game’s world and its characters so pressing a HINT button not only spoils the challenge - it also undermines exploration. A hint system that gives the player clues to finding and understanding the hints that have already been contextualised in the game’s environments and dialgoue would be a great option to have if there must be a hint button.
Zifnab made a good comment early on, so let’s define exactly how something like this would work.
I’d like to see more feedback from failed attempts at puzzle-solving, especially inventory puzzles, so getting stuck is less common. So if you are trying to unscrew a screw and you have many items which might work, you should be able to try a coin and instead of getting ‘that doesn’t work’ maybe a ‘the coin is too thick’. Then you know that you need to look for something thinner. Would this make things too easy? Maybe, but making us guess what inventory item we need is not a fair puzzle in the first place.
Puzzles like in The 7th Guest would need a different approach, though I’m against a ‘skip’ button. Maybe after several failed attempts a better strategy could be revealed somehow, in-game of course and not in the form of a ‘how to win’ guide.
People turn to walkthroughs and hints because they feel they’re getting nowhere and trying new things doesn’t help. This should be reversed in some way.
How long have you been an AGer Antrax?
I think something like 26 years? My first AG was KQ1 back when it was new.
I personally rarely use walkthroughs, but I have no issue with people who choose to do so.
Two people now have said being able to skip puzzles defeats the purpose of puzzles. So, I have to wonder, what’s the purpose of puzzles in your opinion? I personally play the games just for the puzzles (A good plot is nice, but I prefer safecracker to Gemini Rue for instance), but there are other types of people out there.
Similarly, some puzzles could be made skippable, but then only if it’s a standalone puzzle and/or a minigame (like putting the turtle skeleton back together in The Dig, or the broken light bridge mechanism in The Dig, or the rain dance puzzle in BoUT, or the game of whack-a-mole in Sam & Max for instance). And then only if you haven’t solved it after a few minutes / after a few tries, imo.
That sounds ominous. I’m playing BoUT right now and I’ve just met the Minotaur which would appear to be where this will occur.
Let’s hope I’m not doing this in the near future: 
Life is what it is.
The opinions are interesting. No is forced to autoplay. It’s nothing more or less than a walkthrough which already exists. It’s just there for those who might like it. I think everyone would agree that a good puzzle design that doesn’t get you stuck in the first place is good. But this is a good alternative to seeing a walkthrough and alt tabbing back and forth. Perhaps there could be an option in the game to start in casual mode or something so that folks who dont want it dont get tempted.
I’m thinking of clicking something that enables a sort of “autoplay”, i.e. from that point on the game plays itself for you until you tell it to stop. That way you don’t lose any context you’d have gained while solving puzzles so the game is still experienced as a game - but without the solving part.
You mean something like this The Secret Of Monkey Island Part 5 - Hypnotise Quarrelsome Rhinoceros ?
Personally I wouldn’t as such mind a feature like this, but I also wouldn’t use it! Unlike some I have enough self-control to not use it, that is unless I’m truly stuck and would otherwise use a walkthrough, and I would probably still prefer to grab a walkthrough instead of using an autoplay or skip feature.
In principle I like the idea that players can play a game in whatever way they like, BUT as I also wrote in a previous post, watching a game being played for you in a lets play video or using this kind of autoplay feature, and actually solving the puzzles yourself is two very different experiences. As someone else also mentioned very few AG actually has a story, acting, graphics etc. that is so good that you can enjoy it just passively watching it.
Also I believe that the span between players that want a challenge, and people who just want the story, is so large that it is simply not possible to bridge it, at least not by making a game that is effectively two games in one.
Edit:
Let’s hope I’m not doing this in the near future:
Oh, but you will 
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Puzzles like in The 7th Guest would need a different approach, though I’m against a ‘skip’ button. Maybe after several failed attempts a better strategy could be revealed somehow, in-game of course and not in the form of a ‘how to win’ guide.
The 7th Guest has a built in way to skip a puzzle. The book in the library gives hints. If you go back and check a puzzle solution 3 times, it will solve it for you. 
If a game has some sort of skip function, I would prefer that it makes the player work a bit for it.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
Puzzles like in The 7th Guest would need a different approach, though I’m against a ‘skip’ button. Maybe after several failed attempts a better strategy could be revealed somehow, in-game of course and not in the form of a ‘how to win’ guide.The 7th Guest has a built in way to skip a puzzle. The book in the library gives hints. If you go back and check a puzzle solution 3 times, it will solve it for you.
Huh. I never discovered that. It would have saved me a lot of frustration for sure! 
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