Ethical re-use of your own puzzles.

[Squinky]

Hey folks!

I'm working on a new game, and during the course of designing it, I keep getting this urge to mix in some puzzles from a few of my unfinished games. And that gets me thinking about my completed games....

I don't think I will scavenge any from them, but when your old games are around ten years old it can be sort of tempting. Nobody would ever know

Am I the only one to consider this? What are your thoughts guys?

Thanks!

[Anian]

2 things - definitely repackage them, so it's not obvious (different items etc.) and I think it's ok to do it (especially if the game is rather old), but to rely completely on them for a new game, is kind of lazy and shows lack of ambitions.

[Squinky]

Well, I don't think I will. I don't have problems with coming up with the puzzles, they typically show up in my head when I am supposed to be sleeping. To me puzzles are better if they are tied to the world of the game, not just crammed into it.

But it was something I was just contemplating, and wondered if others ever had as well.

---edit----

Well, I am repackaging a "Trapped in a room" puzzle that I was going to use in a game I worked on and never completed called "Stan and Sancho". Since I no longer have the files for it.

[Charity]

Some scattered thoughts:

Not sure this is really an ethical issue.  Maybe if it was a commercial game that you were going out of your way to market as new and innovative and then the vast majority of puzzles were repeats of ones from your earlier released games?  That could feel like a bit of a rip-off.

That said, there is an aesthetic issue.  You don't want to reuse material so much you get predictable--especially with something like puzzles where half the fun is figuring them out.  The ten years old thing helps, because people who play your new game are less likely to have played the old ones (especially recently), but if they enjoy your new game, some of them might be more inclined check out your earlier titles, so if they are still available online, people might still find the old puzzles.  Some people might feel retroactively ripped off.  More people will probably just feel clever, though, like they've discovered a special little secret.

If the puzzle was especially clever or memorable when you made it the first time, you might risk undermining the artistic integrity of the earlier work.  Depending on how much you still care about the original, that might matter, or it might not.

On the other hand, with some subtle (or for that matter not so subtle) lampshading you might be able to get away with reusing the puzzle as a nod (or even a thematic allusion) to an earlier work.

Most adventure game puzzles are fairly derivative anyway.  Depending on the focus of the game, this can be entirely forgivable.

Sometimes when people reuse tropes and content it feels like branding or continuity building.  Other times it just looks lazy.  If you reuse a puzzle try to make sure you know exactly why you are doing it.  Own the thing.  Or re-own it.  Don't do it too often, and most likely people won't notice or care, and a few might even like you for it.

[Paul Franzen]

I think if it's a puzzle from an unpublished game, it's totally kosher, so long as the puzzle makes sense within the context of the game. As far as the wider public knows, it's a brand-new puzzle; the reason it'd be a problem is if people had already solved this puzzle in a previous game.

[Eggie]

I recycle EVERYTHING. Jokes, puzzles, characters, stories. It's good for the environment!
Plus it makes me feel better about never finishing/releasing anything. I'm like "The ideas I developed there will no doubt be of invaluable use to me later and therefore my time was not wasted"
And then I DIED.

[Squinky]

This post reminds me I want more Eggie on this forum.

[Eggie]

TOO BAD I'M DEAD!

[Blaze]

I don't think there's anything wrong with reusing puzzles and stuff. Some developers make it a habit.. kind of like a series trademark, you can tell it's from the same creators etc. Anyways, I like it