Walkthroughs should you give one or not ?

[Candle]

Walkthroughs should you give one or not ?
Do you think it is better to have one with the game or not?

[Gilbert]

I'll say, not WITH the game, but if you really have to, put it as an option in the site for players to download.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Heh. You should NEVER give hints or walkthrough, but people will desperatly want them anyway.

[MichaelJackson]

I don't think the creator of a game should give hints or walkthroughs for their games at all. I think it detracts from the immersion into the game, and then there's always the chance of using a walkthrough too much (and we all know how easy that is!)

Really, though, if it's a game that a few people download, chances are that it wont be more than a few days that someone beats the game on their own, and then they can start giving hints to anyone that asks, anyway.

I plan on giving absolutely no hints, big or small, out when I release my game; but then again it's going to be a fairly simple game anyway.

[Ishmael]

Simply: Never.

The hints and tips board is here for that, and there are a lot of walktrough sites. If other players want to give hints and walkthroughs, why not? But should you use them if you get stuck? Not before you've been stuck long enough for something to start growing from the point where your feet meet the floor.

My first game's ending scene was complicated, so I gave a hint about it in the hints and tips board, but understandingly, now thinking of it, the ending was unlogial and stuff...

[Candle]

Thank you guys for the insight . i didn't know what to do about something like this but I can see you guys know what you are doing so will listen to you .

[Eggie]

Yes.

Sorry to go against the majority opinion here, but I'm really not very good at computer games. In fact, I don't really like them. To me, adventure games are a way of presenting a story. If it's a good story I don't want it to stop just because I can't figure out to put three biscuits on my head blablabla.

Yes, I know there are some really well-designed games where everything takes exactly the right amount of time to solve and nothing gets boring and you don't mind getting stuck because the world of the game is so interesting but those are rare, at best.

I play a game, I explore everything, I talk to everyone and when I want to move on...I look up a walkthrough. I love that 'Yay! I solved a puzzle' feeling as much as any other person but more often than not, if I'm going to enjoy the game at all, I need a walkthrough.

[jetxl]

I make games because I like making games. It's great if other people enjoy playing them, but that's not the main reason.

I think that there should be at least one walktrough of a game floating on the internet. However, that doesn't mean that the creator of the game has to write one.

Personally, I don't care if people finished my games. I'm already happy if people play them. And when I look at the amount of times my site goes down because of the bandwith limit, I become very happy.

[Pelican]

Personally I think it counts against a game if it needs a walkthrough. I actually feel annoyed at myself if I get so stuck that I need one (or alternatively get annoyed at whoever made the game  ). I was actually really miffed that I had to search for some tips for 'Moment of Silence' only to find that there was a misprint in the clues, so there was no way I could solve it anyway.

I'm not so bothered about giving hints, whether it be on the Hints and Tips board, or an in game hint system. Like I just got Myst 4, and I'm usually not too bad at the Myst games, but occassionally I get stumped. This has a nice little hint system, which gives you 3 levels of hints, 1 being rather vague, and 3 telling you the exact solution. It suits the game, because sometimes you get so distracted by the pretty graphics that you miss things.

In conclusion: IMO I like games for the story AND the puzzles, so if a game is so illogical it needs a walkthrough, then it isn't worth my time. Hints are fine, because not everyone has the same 'skill' level for these games. And an in-game hint system is perfect, because it doesn't break the suspension of disbelief as much as shutting down the game and connecting to the net.

[MillsJROSS]

I too will go against the majority. While a well designed game should have no need of a walkthrough, or rather, the player should never feel a tendency to use a walkthrough. This is an amatuer community. Not that there haven't been some great games to come out of this community. Most poeple here are creating a game on their own free time, and can't spend all day making the perfect game. They also, most likely, don't have a team of testers that complain when something is difficult, so that they can't or don't go back and change a hard puzzle.

What I'm basically saying, is that some puzzles that make sense to the one creator of a game, might not make sense to the general majority. And while people are able to ask and recieve hints, it's much easier to provide a walkthrough. You might argue that when one presents a walkthrough, some might become too dependant on it, and their enjoyment of the game might be depreciated. While this may be true, some of us don't have gobs of time to spend playing games. From a personal standpoint, if I'm playing a game, and it doesn't look like I can go anywhere (and the game's atmosphere isn't enough to keep me playing), then I'll probably stop playing and never touch the game again. Not that I won't spend time looking for the solution of a puzzle but if I don't come upon a solution and feel movement in the story, I don't have any motivation to play.

When I am given a walkthrough, I am more prone to finish a game and still enjoy it. I just don't have to time to spend trying everything out. And there get's a point in a game, where it's not so much figuring out a puzzle as it is just clicking the mouse, and hoping you get lucky with Object A and Hotspot B. Anyway, if people don't like walkthroughs, then they are free not to use the resource. That said, you could probably wait a week or two before releasing a walkthrough, giving people who want to beat the game without the lure of the walkthrough a window of opportunity in which they can play the game on their own.

So yes Walkthroughs are good.

-MillsJROSS

[strazer]

I'm terrible at playing adventures and thus I'm often frustrated.
But I don't like using walkthroughs either, in fear of spoilers. I prefer hints like the ones from the Universal Hint System and I plan on including something similar in my game: http://www.strazer.net/ags/hints.htm

[Lucky]

Actually I could promise that if I ever finish a game, I won't write a walkthrough for it. Actually, I won't even help people who are stuck in it.