Quote:
Originally Posted by DAISHI
Player Freedom by its nature, means including the ability for a puzzle to be solved. It's why you have easy modes on games.
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That doesn't make any sense. I've never heard of an unsolvable adventure game, and I doubt very much you have either. If that was the case, said game wouldn't have a walkthrough, and I challenge you to find an adventure game not recently released that doesn't have a walkthrough.
I don't know if you guys have stopped to think about how subtle storytelling is in a lot of adventure games, and how much story is fed to you in the course of the gameplay. The only time that story actually grinds the game to a halt in many adventure games is when the player character isn't there. But that's necessary. In most adventure games, this doesn't even take that long, and most of the story-building unfolds as the player moves around and uncovers it.
You people keep fighting for this imaginary slight on videogames you imagine puzzles have caused, but what you don't seem to get is that without those puzzles these games wouldn't be GAMES anymore.
From Wikipedia: Games are structured playing. Key components of games are
goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.
Stories in games are there for entertainment, as are settings, and to make games more interesting, but the GAME ITSELF in an adventure game is the fact that you must solve the tasks set before you using the inputs you are given. That is how adventure games work. Anything can be an adventure game. Contrary to popular belief, you can make an adventure game with a gun as your only input if you want to. You can make an adventure game with your colon as the only input if you want to. You can make an adventure game where you're a rock at the bottom of the ocean. As long as you can create an input, a goal, and a challenge, you can make an adventure game. When you take away the challenge, it's not a game for intelligence anymore. About the best it is is a game for kids. Hell, even when I was a child, I played adventure games. If you take away puzzles altogether, it's not an adventure game, it's just a set of menial tasks.
The difference is, player freedom is what adds the biggest element of ENJOYMENT and FUN. When I say player freedom, I don't mean godmode where Guybrush sees the Matrix code. Adventure games aren't GTA. There will always be some restrictions. Puzzles are restrictions. That's why you solve them. When I say player freedom, I mean let the player have room to breathe. And never ever push him at a puzzle. Let him initiate it on his own. Let him find it, say oh hey I have to do a thing here and something neat will happen or I'll find something or someplace or someone. And then figure it out. That's how it works.
By the way, I break the don't push the player rule at the beginning of my own game. I'm currently trying to figure out how to fix that.