Hi there, CKRTech. Those are pretty much my experiences, word for word, except that I started off on Police Quest and only came to KQ much later. There is something more imaginative about these games than the typical platform or shoot'em up game; you get to explore and be part of a story.
I get into some pretty vicious arguments about puzzles in KQ, because the fanboys love to say that they got through all the games with no help, and if you get stuck it's because you're stupid. I don't know how many times I've had that argument, and it infuriates me to no end. For one, I think they're lying most of the time, or at least remembering incorrectly. For two, it's not fun to wander aimlessly about a game for hours or even days on end, with absolutely no idea how to move on--then to finally give up, look it up, and realize that you or no normal person would ever, ever have thought of trying something so illogical and counter-intuitive. We're not talking about a difficult puzzle; we're talking about a badly designed puzzle. My general rule is that if I'm stuck for more than a few hours, I consult the hints. What I've found is that a good 60% of the time it's an interface issue (i.e., didn't see the hotspot, didn't realize I was supposed to talk to somebody, etc.) rather than a failure in my reasoning. The other 30% are the "crack pipe" puzzles that, I'm sorry, nobody could solve unless they got very lucky, literally tried EVERYTHING, or just got damn lucky. The last 10% are the rare moments when I actually feel bad about cheating, since I know I could have thought of the answer if I'd only been more patient. But those are definitely in the minority, and the huge number of times when it's something else has conditioned me to expect the worst--and that's bad.
Geez, enough ranting though. KQ is definitely the trailblazer, and even if a few puzzles are less-than-wonderful, that doesn't take away from the accomplishment. I'm just glad that later developers such as LucasArts were able to improve on the formula, encouraging players by not punishing them so badly for experimenting. I pretty much think everything Ron Gilbert says here ought to be the bible for every aspiring adventure game developer.
Hi there, CKRTech. Those are pretty much my experiences, word for word, except that I started off on Police Quest and only came to KQ much later. There is something more imaginative about these games than the typical platform or shoot'em up game; you get to explore and be part of a story.
I get into some pretty vicious arguments about puzzles in KQ, because the fanboys love to say that they got through all the games with no help, and if you get stuck it's because you're stupid. I don't know how many times I've had that argument, and it infuriates me to no end. For one, I think they're lying most of the time, or at least remembering incorrectly. For two, it's not fun to wander aimlessly about a game for hours or even days on end, with absolutely no idea how to move on--then to finally give up, look it up, and realize that you or no normal person would ever, ever have thought of trying something so illogical and counter-intuitive. We're not talking about a difficult puzzle; we're talking about a badly designed puzzle. My general rule is that if I'm stuck for more than a few hours, I consult the hints. What I've found is that a good 60% of the time it's an interface issue (i.e., didn't see the hotspot, didn't realize I was supposed to talk to somebody, etc.) rather than a failure in my reasoning. The other 30% are the "crack pipe" puzzles that, I'm sorry, nobody could solve unless they got very lucky, literally tried EVERYTHING, or just got damn lucky. The last 10% are the rare moments when I actually feel bad about cheating, since I know I could have thought of the answer if I'd only been more patient. But those are definitely in the minority, and the huge number of times when it's something else has conditioned me to expect the worst--and that's bad.
Geez, enough ranting though. KQ is definitely the trailblazer, and even if a few puzzles are less-than-wonderful, that doesn't take away from the accomplishment. I'm just glad that later developers such as LucasArts were able to improve on the formula, encouraging players by not punishing them so badly for experimenting. I pretty much think everything Ron Gilbert says here ought to be the bible for every aspiring adventure game developer.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com