Favorite Puzzles?

[MarkDarin]

You've played the game. You've debated the ending. You've expressed your feelings about the puzzles. Now we'd like to know which ones were your favorites. If we end up making more Puzzle Agent, what types of puzzles would you like to see more of?

[Harald B]

I loved A Quorum of Crows. Gnegative Gnomes was delightfully unique too.
I really like the logic puzzles where you have to reconstruct the situation from a few statements. A few puzzles like that are pretty much a must for every episode, and ideally they could use one or two more than in this one.
The Bugs in Boxes and crate carrying bird series were very nice as well. Those particular types have run their course, but I'd love to see more mini-series like that.

[caeska]

Logic puzzles like frantic fish and wrangling watchmen are my favorites.

[thom-22]

I voted for four of the more unique logic puzzles as my favorites. But I pretty much liked all the puzzles, including the jigsaws and tile rotation and snowmobile ones.

[Hassat Hunter]

Hydraulic Headache - Factory

Yup, that's the only one I picked (can't pick a bunch, only one favorite. Well, I can't).

[adventureaddict]

I liked all the puzzles, but I voted for Room Key Confusion and Diners and Dishes.

[SHODANFreeman]

I want the next game to include the 14 or more puzzles cut from this game.

[taumel]

Puhhh, honestly for giving an in depth answer to this one, i think i would deserve a free game, a rendezvous with Glori and a membership in the NRA.

What comes to my mind is that i like some of the puzzles they are making in the genre called adventure games. I also liked the puzzles in Impossible Mission on the C64. Overall i would welcome some new, better balanced, less repetitive and more interesting puzzles.

It's really hard to imagine all those puzzles without some images but let's give it a try, and i might be wrong here:

The snowmobile ones, also if it shows up more than once were nice but they should have been spiced up more, different routes, additional elements etc.

I kind of liked the Tapeworm Twister because i liked the gfx although i had no idea what to achieve from the instructions. I also liked some of the other rotation puzzles and mainly the effort of trying to make them different with not this much changes was quite good but some like the snowmobile motor were still too easy again and lacked an additional element.

The Security Screw puzzle could have been great if it wouldn't have been so damn easy, more of them please!

The Maw of Madness wasn't this logical, as there is no need for the second arrow from the top, beside of this okay for one puzzle but too easy.

Employee error puzzle serie was okay as well but too easy again and it should have been less repetitive.

Changing chairs was ugly but kind of weird, i was definitely missing more Escher inspired puzzles.

The bug puzzles were okayish to good but too easy again.

The Window Watcher puzzle was okayish.

Screw-up in space was way to easy but i liked the perspective idea.

Needed more tries for the fish riddle, so good from this point but somehow too standard.

Barrier Blot-Out was unprecise to steer but i liked the idea like the arrangements puzzle with the food.

Those bird holding weight puzzles were too easy.

The finding out the correct line puzzle was too easy but normally i like them.

Gnegative Gnome was boring and way to easy.

The Key Confusion Puzzle was not this well designed as it offers too many valid solutions.

The Fuse puzzle was ugly and boring.

Arm-Wrestling was meh as well.

Frantic Fish was badly described and boring.

Locksmithing was boring, too symmetric and too easy, the master version had the same issues and you more solved it by the automatic snapping.

Some of the more text driven riddles had not this clear instructions.

The last puzzle with the arrows was too easy again.

:

Some were enjoyful, others were too easy and some completely sucked. Overall i had the feeling that you can come up with way more interesting non standard puzzles and spice up the standard ones if you want to and have the time for doing so.

[StrongBrush1]

Originally Posted by taumel

Puhhh, honestly for giving an in depth answer to this one, i think i would deserve a free game, a rendezvous with Glori and a membership in the NRA.

What comes to my mind is that i like some of the puzzles they are making in the genre called adventure games. I also liked the puzzles in Impossible Mission on the C64. Overall i would welcome some new, better balanced, less repetitive and more interesting puzzles.

It's really hard to imagine all those puzzles without some images but let's give it a try, and i might be wrong here:

The snowmobile ones, also if it shows up more than once were nice but they should have been spiced up more, different routes, additional elements etc.

I kind of liked the Tapeworm Twister because i liked the gfx although i had no idea what to achieve from the instructions. I also liked some of the other rotation puzzles and mainly the effort of trying to make them different with not this much changes was quite good but some like the snowmobile motor were still too easy again and lacked an additional element.

The Security Screw puzzle could have been great if it wouldn't have been so damn easy, more of them please!

The Maw of Madness wasn't this logical, as there is no need for the second arrow from the top, beside of this okay for one puzzle but too easy.

Employee error puzzle serie was okay as well but too easy again and it should have been less repetitive.

Changing chairs was ugly but kind of weird, i was definitely missing more Escher inspired puzzles.

The bug puzzles were okayish to good but too easy again.

The Window Watcher puzzle was okayish.

Screw-up in space was way to easy but i liked the perspective idea.

Needed more tries for the fish riddle, so good from this point but somehow too standard.

Barrier Blot-Out was unprecise to steer but i liked the idea like the arrangements puzzle with the food.

Those bird holding weight puzzles were too easy.

The finding out the correct line puzzle was too easy but normally i like them.

Gnegative Gnome was boring and way to easy.

The Key Confusion Puzzle was not this well designed as it offers too many valid solutions.

The Fuse puzzle was ugly and boring.

Arm-Wrestling was meh as well.

Frantic Fish was badly described and boring.

Locksmithing was boring, too symmetric and too easy, the master version had the same issues and you more solved it by the automatic snapping.

Some of the more text driven riddles had not this clear instructions.

The last puzzle with the arrows was too easy again.

:

Some were enjoyful, others were too easy and some completely sucked. Overall i had the feeling that you can come up with way more interesting non standard puzzles and spice up the standard ones if you want to and have the time for doing so.

Here's the condensed version: Blah blah blah I'm a big jerk blah blah blah all the puzzles sucked.

[taumel]

Actually that's not what i wrote but you're free to misinterpret it this way.

You know, it's okay if they were challenging for you.

This reminds me of Detlef Kersten's Kommissar Kniepel. Very enjoyful riddle books for children which still are also interesting for adults. Interesting cases and they are harder than compareable ones in puzzle agent.

[Zomantic]

I've voted for Wrangling Watchmen, The Maw of Madness and Changing Chairs. These are not the puzzles I consider the cleverest or the most fun (which would be, for instance, A Quorum of Crows or Bugs in Boxes): they are just the ones which worked better in their context.

The Maw of Madness is a perfect example of how puzzles can fit well in a storytelling game: it's bizarre and disorienting, just like the situation Tethers is actually facing at that moment; it's atmospheric, perfectly coherent with character development and the general progression of the story. Many other puzzles do the same in a fine way: Room Key Confusion introduces us to the awkward puzzle-fixation of Scoggins' inhabitants; Wrangling Watchmen and Security Screw-up engage us in Tether's inevitable detective job; Hydraulic Headache is a credible but complex puzzle which provides a satisfactory ending.

Some other puzzles, however, have simply nothing to do with the events taking place. I'm referring, of course, to the three nonsense riddles in the Lodge: I know that Bjorn and mates just love solving puzzles for its sake, but give me at least the illusion of mystery, or some vague consistency with the characters and the situation at hand. The socks puzzle is probably the worst, most insignificant one. But there's more: some puzzles just don't feel good where they are: I found Screw-up in Space quite clever, but it completely ruined the mysterious, suspended dream-like atmosphere. It would be quite a boring nightmare one that ends with me trying to fix up a couple of cables... The same goes for the first two anti-climatic puzzles in the factory (Barrier Blot-Out and Fire Up the Furnace): too easy, and completely unrealistic. In quite the same conditions, the paradoxical difficulty of Frantic Fish was absurd enough to convey some true tension.

Facultative puzzles, on the other hand - being immersed in a slow-paced, relaxed atmosphere - have character consistency as their only prerequisite: almost no complaint here. My only issue with them is their being almost absolutely limited to a single area (the Diner) and to a couple of characters (Darrel and Steve). More puzzles with Bo, the Sheriff or the Receptionist would have been good (and perhaps would have provided a more definite feeling of "depth" and non-linearity).

All in all, good job. But Telltale must definitely try and improve the loose formula of the Layton games: it's all about storytelling after all.

[RMJ1984]

I must admit, i love the game, but i dont care one bit for the puzzles at all, im playing the game, because of the look, the feel, the atmosphere.

I would be nice to see Puzzles being based in the world the character is, like say the movies the beautiful mind, that he see's stuff no one else do, and you complete the puzzles in that world.

Hope we will get more of this game, and that it will continue where the pilot episode left off.

[jp-30]

I liked the room number puzzle the best. Stumped. All the clues. Finally it dawned.

Doh!

[Bloody Eugene]

Originally Posted by jp-30

I liked the room number puzzle the best. Stumped. All the clues. Finally it dawned.

Doh!

It's my favourite too: well integrated to the story, and when i solved it (with no hints) I said: WOW! It was always in front of me!

[jeeno0142]

I just realized you could pick more than one. Oh well. I like logic puzzles although I'm really bad at them. I really like the stovepipe puzzle, but mainly because it's the first time the hidden persons shows. I thought that was really good. Took me totally by suprise.
I also really enjoy easy-to-do puzzles inbetween the harder ones. That way when I'm feeling particularly stupid, I can do one of the easier ones and feel better about it!

[taumel]

In germany we have a good daily newspaper called Süddeutsche and there is a guy with the pseudonym cus who does really hard riddles where you almost never have to think in an obvious way. When you're trying to solve his riddles, it can be quite frustrating but after a few times you get more used to his style, although they are still more unique and harder than the usual ones, great!

[Butterscotch-Biros]

argh, damn it's multiple choice?

well, in that case I would have chosen all the bug puzzles and the passing footballer puzzles, I really liked them

The fish one also deserves a mention for clever design and difficulty reasons

[Tjibbbe]

Originally Posted by jp-30

I liked the room number puzzle the best. Stumped. All the clues. Finally it dawned.

Doh!

That was the only puzzle I really didn't like to be honest. I don't mind puzzles based on perspective (I don't really know how else to describe this one), but it was way too early in the game for a puzzle with such a vague description. It was a puzzle that only made sense after you solved it (at least for me and the people I played it with), which, just like with 'normal' adventure game puzzles, is never a good sign.

I really liked the bugs in boxes-series and the air mail-series. The puzzle where you figure out which guest gets which meal and the puzzle with the rivers and the fish were both great as well.

The biggest complaint I had about some of the puzzles (and again, the people I played with) was that some of them didn't really give you a clear sense of what you were supposed to be doing. I can understand that it's hard to give instructions without giving too much away, but some of them just didn't give you enough information. I'll give some examples later if needed, when I have time to start the game again.

Even if I have some complaints, I really liked most of what was there, and the fact that I was able to play the game with a group of people in the same room (connecting a laptop to a big screen-tv is the best!) made the experience really special. At one point it sort of turned into a drinking game with everyone shouting answers at the same time.

So yeah, I'd like more.

[Jessica]

Originally Posted by jeeno0142

I just realized you could pick more than one. Oh well. I like logic puzzles although I'm really bad at them. I really like the stovepipe puzzle, but mainly because it's the first time the hidden persons shows. I thought that was really good. Took me totally by suprise.
I also really enjoy easy-to-do puzzles inbetween the harder ones. That way when I'm feeling particularly stupid, I can do one of the easier ones and feel better about it!

I agree with you, when I stuck on a hard puzzle it feels better that I at least can solve a easier one.
I liked the mix of different types of puzzles.
Love the story, the characters and the athmosphere in the game.

[Sarendor]

I will have to say that the puzzle which surprised me the most was Find the Fuse.
Personally, I recognised the symbols in, perhaps, less than a second, as I saw this puzzle many times earlier. Really, it took me more time to understand how the puzzle works. (I thought that I had to put the symbols in order.)
However, when my brother played the game and reached the puzzle, he was absolutely clueless, and I forbade him to use the hints, hehe. Then our friend came, and took a look at the puzzle. His reaction was same as my brother, and he sat with him, trying to figure out the answer. At one point I allowed my brother to use the two first clues. Needless to say, I was shocked by the fact that they did not know the puzzle. So I called my father, in order to prove that I am not the only one in the world who knew about it. This was not a good proof.
So my brother, friend and father didn't know the answer. Well, my mother, at least, should know. She didn't.
I was completely surprised. I let my brother take the last clue to the answer, and I had to wait for the next day in order to confirm that I was not the only person who knew this puzzle.
So, I wonder, how many of you had similar cases?