Author Topic: Designing Quest For Infamy  (Read 16798 times)

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Blackthorne

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Designing Quest For Infamy
« on: July 30, 2012, 08:18:37 PM »
So,  you know - I love writing. I like making worlds come to life with just the words, and I like seeing where things go.  It's even more fun when your writing is brought to life by collaborating with an amazingly talented group of people!

So, I'm writing more and more of the intricate bits of Quest For Infamy these days.  The wide swath and overall plot and picture of QFI has been set for a long time, but now filling in the blanks - character interactions, quests, and especially puzzles are being filled in.

What kind of puzzles do you enjoy in an adventure game?


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Lambonius

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2012, 08:53:21 PM »
Item combinations are always fun, provided they aren't ridiculously obscure.  And I like the idea of boss monsters that you have to solve a puzzle or two to beat.  And honestly, it wouldn't be a good retro Sierra style adventure game without a solid maze.  ;)

Dialog puzzles are probably my single least favorite.  Telltale has thoroughly killed them for me.  That said, however, I did enjoy the exploratory dialog of the QFG games, especially in QFG1 and 2, where smart inquiries based on subtle dialog clues earned you points.

Also, if I had my druthers, I'd love to see a parser option for dialog, a la AGDI's QFG2VGA or LSL7.  ;)
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chucklas

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2012, 09:09:03 PM »
parsers suck...to program.  ;)
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sickfiction

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2012, 09:40:05 PM »
Love a good maze too,
love bartering/haggling puzzles
Love having to take items a long way before you use them, collecting pieces to a puzzle (ie treasure map in MI2) always nice when you need a whole bunch of things for one puzzle like an extension of the beast's head/markus' blood.
love versions of classic games, see machinarium...
That's all I can think of for now
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1eyedparrot

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2012, 02:17:52 AM »
I would love to see a parser system in QFI, it's tough to program but you can allow some really wacky stuff with it.

I see you're going with a QFG4 style combat system, was that your first pick or are you considering others?

*Addendum:

PC only, or are you looking to put this on a console as well? The movement would port nicely to a controller, but you might have problems with pixel hunting.

Blackthorne

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2012, 07:57:01 AM »
I would love to see a parser system in QFI, it's tough to program but you can allow some really wacky stuff with it.

Yeah - I don't want to implement a full parser in the game, but I've been thinking of some puzzles that might require a parser.  Not sure yet, though.


Quote
I see you're going with a QFG4 style combat system, was that your first pick or are you considering others?

Well - honestly, we were trying to think of ideas for a combat system - and though it might seem a little like QFGIV, there's definitely elements of games we played growing up in there - like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat.


Quote
PC only, or are you looking to put this on a console as well? The movement would port nicely to a controller, but you might have problems with pixel hunting.

Licensing for consoles, like Xbox, is ridiculously cost prohibative for a little group like us - but there's this new console on the horizon, OUYA, which is powered by Android.  I'm definitely looking into publishing the game on that platform.

Also, good to see you around these parts, sir!


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sickfiction

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2012, 09:38:32 AM »
I only really see the parser system working for spells/incantations (like what would have been KQ3Gold) or passwords, no need to type 'Look at tree' that's what the bleeding point n click is for.
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Blackthorne

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2012, 09:51:57 AM »
Yeah, passwords or word puzzles, etc.


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Lambonius

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2012, 12:29:17 PM »
My interest in the parser would only be for dialog.  The absolute BEST part of the QFG dialog was using context clues to figure out the right things to ask to further the conversation and gain important information.  The point-and-click dialog tree format just absolutely ruins that sense of discovery.  Playing QFG2VGA with the dialog trees on completely breaks the flow of dialog information in that game.  Thank god they included the option to do parser-only dialog.  That's what I was talking about--not a full parser for all interactions.  But there are definite gameplay and immersion benefits to be gained, in my opinion, from doing parser dialog.
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Goatmeal

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2012, 12:58:25 PM »

Love having to take items a long way before you use them...


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Ilyich

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2012, 02:31:07 PM »
Investigational puzzles/gameplay is probably something I tend to enjoy the most. Talking with various characters in a logical order, picking the right topics and making decisions about what to do/where to go next based on what you know and progressing bit by bit with every right action. Gabriel Knight kind of things, basically.

I also like when adventure games use the basic game mechanics for puzzles. For example, the ability to walk around in most classic adventures (QFGs excluded) is pretty much useless gameplay-wise. Which is why it can be nice to encounter the parts where you have to navigate the player precisely, like stepping on some plates in a correct order or run through traps etc.
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Lambonius

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #11 on: July 31, 2012, 03:36:14 PM »
Yeah, I agree--I know most of the Sierra navigation puzzles are much derided nowadays, but I never had much of an issue with them.  I think the main problem was that they were either a little too pixel-huntingly difficult (SQ2 Maze), OR the player was forced to do them OVER AND OVER AND OVER (KQ3 mountain.)  KQ6 did it well, when you had to walk on the correct floor tiles to get through that one trap in the labyrinth.  I could see something like that being cool if it was a one-off situation.
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rugged

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2012, 08:05:35 PM »
One of my favourite puzzles was in the text adventure Hollywood Hijinx. You had a broken lift that was not going all the way to the floor above. You had to place a bucket that was operated by some form of lever, You need to fill a bucket of water that had a hole in it and place it on the lever which held the lift in place. You could then exit that location and find a way to climb on top of the elevator, once the water emptied out of the bucket the water was released and the lift went up.  Looking back it was a fairly simple solution but I liked it cos you at first assumed the hole in the bucket was going to be a problem to be fixed but it ended up being the ideal solution to another problem. Funny the things you remember from gaming of years gone by.

I also enjoyed the riddles in one of the camelot games, that was a lot of fun.

Lambonius

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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2012, 08:25:18 PM »

I also enjoyed the riddles in one of the camelot games, that was a lot of fun.

I think riddles are the bane of adventure game puzzles, frankly.  Too often, they rely on knowledge of obscure turns of phrase, which are often culture specific.  The ones in Conquest for Camelot were really bad about that, as I recall.  I've actually never even seen them all answered in any walkthrough.  I always had to restore several times and hope that I got a random set of five that I could actually answer or were answered in a walkthrough.  If the clues can't be found in-game, or possibly in a manual, it has no business being there.
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Re: Designing Quest For Infamy
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2012, 08:55:26 PM »
If you hadn't pirated Camelot you'd have known the answers were all in the manual. :)

I thought KQ3 and CoC were the two best examples of copy protection being made part of the game well.
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