Messages

"In order to be successful", "perfection", "masterpiece"? Why so serious, squirrel? What is so great about a stupid film going through to the end on its own, without interaction, that you prefer that experience to being stuck on figuring a puzzle?

Okay, another example. Non logical puzzle. Broken Sword 1. For many, one of the finest adventure games, ever made. Puzzle number one. You want to take something from a tool box in the second screen of the game, where a man is working. How to get rid of that man? Give him ...... the newspaper!!!! Why the hell should I give a newspaper, to a man working? Because developers in Revolution thought that this was clever. This is not a case of a hard puzzle. Actually, I solved it before I saw the walkthrough. How I did? Because at that time in the game, you carry only 2 items in your inventory and in that screen, there are only 3 hotspots. Man, tool box, door. This is a case of, according to me,  non logical puzzle. It is a "classic" style puzzle but if you think about it, there is no...logic. As much as I try to be George Stobbart, why would I give the newspaper to that man? Because it was a lucky try. On the other hand, a big explosion happened near him and he did ..... nothing. He just continued to work.
And, as much as I try to "enter" a world of fantasy....like Space Quest's or any other game you think.....I can't think like a character living in a world like that. I believe it is not about "diving" into that world and trying to be "Roger Wilco". It is about diving into Scott Murphy's mind.......

Oh, forget it. I can't express better myself. Learn greek folks :p :p 

@Sunny Penguin: Painting, movie, book, song are non interactive. A game IS. It has to be. That's the 80% percent of success. A game is a movie or a book with paintings and songs PLUS interaction. It is a key point in order to be successful. Mostly, in the adventure game genre (and in all the other game genres of course but not so much), you have to be inside developer's mind and TRY to figure out HOW they were thinking while they were created the game. In a movie or a book, you just don't. You can sit and watch or read or listen without doing anything else. The story will go. The song will continue. Even if you see things in a movie, that you know that could never happen in the real life (okay, one stupid example. James Bond!) still you can sit and watch till the end. In the end, you will say to yourself "Oh, what a bullshit I just saw. I agree, James Bond films are stupid. Not perfect for sure. But for example, Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is considered by critics and the majority of world's population ....a masterpiece.
On the other hand, let's talk about ....... hmmmmm, King's Quest V. The puzzle with the mouse and the cat. You call that a joy ? Am I loosing something here ?

I swear God, if Roberta Williams was sitting near me, I would love to punch her. The hell I would. 

My motivation was an attempt I made to create puzzles for a story of mine.
Besides, I am on the AGS forum!!! Why do you believe I wrote on a forum, dedicated for adventure game creation?
I am not so crazy as you want to believe.... :p

Update. Guys, I am not here to argue and I am not here to tell you what is the definition of a "perfect" puzzle. Probably you misunderstood me. Because I can not express myself as I normally do, in my native language. I am limited cause of my poor knowledge in English. Sorry.

All I want to say is that adventure developers (with the characteristic gameplay of genuine "old school" adventure games we all know) will NEVER-EVER (even we talk about commercial games or indie games) find out how to create a "perfect" puzzle because ....that's how things are. JUST BECAUSE. I can not explain it.

And I wrote this post here, just to share my thoughts with other people. That's all.

When I was a young boy, I used to read a lot of magazines about computers. It was in the mid 80's (now I am 35) and all that technological stuff was something new to me and I have to admit, I was very excited by the whole thing. For various reasons, adventure games become my favorite game genre although in the end, I managed to play very few of them alongside with the date of the original releases. After high school, I went to college (1997), and computers were left aside. But 7 years ago, with the rise of the amazing DosBox utility and the abandon ware style, sites (and due to the huge amount of spare time I have and the "nostalgia" thing), I managed to play (and finish) a lot of classic and non classic adventure games (even some text-graphic adventures like the "Spell casting" series). Of course, I always made use of a walk through in order to solve them.  After playing hundreds of them, I came up to a conclusion: I wasn't anymore excited about those games. But the worst thing (and what I want to share with you guys) was that I realized that the whole "creating the "perfect" puzzle is something fake/illusionistic". It is human-impossible, a perfect puzzle to be created. Because puzzles, will be either illogical (according to common sense/not realistic), very difficult to solve them / lucky guess to solve them OR realistic but very easy to solve them a.k.a. "just click to see what is next".

So, the bottom line is that (in my opinion) adventure games were the finest example of showing off the power of the previous decades, computer systems, but for the modern days, the only thing that remains is a niche genre for the so called "hunters of nostalgia" or for those who are fans of the movies or for those who totally hate games which require quick reflexes or a strategic brain or rpg atmosphere. Anyway, I think you got the point  


P.s. I am sorry for any mistakes. My native language is greek.