Yeah, I can understand that. That was pretty much why I asked. I definitely agree that certain puzzle types are just out of place in some settings. I guess to a degree though, the concept of a "dungeon" comes with some level of expectation that players will suspend their disbelief of how or why certain elements of that dungeon exist, but how far a designer of dungeons can push that suspension is the real question. It's interesting stuff.
Quite agree. The setting is entirely artificial really, but I think I and other players kind of accept that as a given and move on. I think even the sudoku puzzle can be made to work if it is abstracted away from the pen and paper version and is interestingly presented... that's the hard part of course!
I think this stuff deserves a place. It doesn't have to be hard, you get puzzles like this in some of the most basic and easy RPGs around. Ni no Kuni has a couple of cool statue-moving puzzles and I watched my 8-year old cousin figure them out with only a moderate amount of sighing over five minutes.
Well, one reason they don't bother me that much is that anything that's easy enough to be in a game for a general audience is going to be completely trivial for me (and probably for you) and so it's silly to get too upset about something that is, after all, trivial. But by the same token, I find it adds nothing, because it's trivial.
My two cents is that the puzzle must make sense in the context of the dungeon, like the pit puzzle in Darkwurm, and it mustn't be too long like those Sudoku puzzles in The 1112's Episode 2, which really made me wonder if I was playing a point and click adventure game or a Sudoku game...
I think that Coldfire's puzzles are pretty well integrated, and pitched at about the right level. Of course, it's hard for me to be objective I guess history will decide!
Are they related to the Grulumps in any way? If they are I think it'd be cool to make their name sound kind of like an evolution of the other, like Vaargru or Gruthrog or something.
No. Pretty much a separate race. Think goblin/orc/ogre. They are related only by their... EVILNESSNESS! Mwahhahhaa... I think in the Tolkien world there's some debate as to whether or not Goblins and Orcs are related though. Let's not go there - in our case, these two creatures are separate races. Done and done. "Throg" is still making me happy. That's what we're going with unless someone pulls out the BIG GUNS real soon.
Just because it's such a pretty screenshot that I wanted to share it... and to let everyone know I've posted a quick update on the status of things at my site. The short version: it's almost done.
Certainly is! The game itself is complete at this stage. I'm just play-testing now. Fixing up the odd bug, and adjusting some of the balance here and there. Here's what I'm looking at on screen right now.
Thanks! Regarding price, no - the game is being published by Crescent Moon, so they'll be managing the pricing. I don't know those details yet.
Pricing Sure thing, I'm obviously interested as it potentially sets a precedent for this game type and naturally we have a vested interest for our own project. I wish you well and look forward to taking it for a spin. Do they spend 6 weeks building an audience or will it go out pretty quickly?
Stop asking me questions I don't know the answer to! Seriously, I've just been running myself into the ground getting this thing finished. I haven't really got into those details just yet. I'm sure we'll be getting all that info out in the not-too-distant...
