Point and Click Puzzle Design
22,523Point and click adventures get a bad rap. Their loopy logic puzzles often come under fire for being incomprehensible and unfair. So lets look at how adventures can employ more responsible design - to stop you racing towards GameFAQs.
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Sources
Wired: "Broken Age brings back a classic feature: unfair puzzles"
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/broken-age-act-2-puzzles/
Old Man Murray: "Death of Adventure Games"
http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html
Find out more
Innuendo Studios: "Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOPiSYUSrQ0
RagnarRox: "Blade Runner - Looking back with Louis Castle"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D623rBiAVX0
Grumpy Gamer: "Why Adventure Games Suck"
http://grumpygamer.com/why_adventure_games_suck
Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance):
Broken Age (Double Fine Productions, 2014)
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (Sierra Entertainment, 1999)
Discworld (Teeny Weeny Games, 1995)
King's Quest (Sierra On-Line, 1983)
Grim Fandango (LucasArts, 1998)
Full Throttle (LucasArts, 1995)
Antichamber (Demruth, 2013)
The Longest Journey (Funcom, 1999)
Day of the Tentacle (LucasArts, 1993)
The Secret of Monkey Island (LucasArts, 1990)
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (Sierra Entertainment, 1993)
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (LucasArts, 1992)
Machinarium (Amanita Design, 2009)
Riven: The Sequel to Myst (Cyan Worlds, 1997)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts, 1991)
The Inner World (Studio Fizbin, 2013)
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (Telltale Games, 2008)
Gemini Rue (Joshua Nuernberger, 2011)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom, 2006)
Thimbleweed Park (Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, 2017)
Resonance (XII Games, 2012)
Technobabylon (Technocrat Games, 2015)
The Last Express (Smoking Car Productions, 1997)
Blade Runner (Westwood Studios, 1997)
Armikrog (Pencil Test Studios, 2015)
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (Revolution Software, 1996)
Dropsy (A Jolly Corpse, 2015)
Music used in this episode:
Overthinker, Lifeformed (Double Fine Adventure)
Locked Boxes, Lifeformed (Double Fine Adventure)
Gameboy Tune (Machinarium)
Forest Spirit Friends, Lifeformed and Vidboy (Groupees Game Music Bundle)
Cider, Lifeformed (Double Fine Adventure)
Lifeformed - http://lifeformed.bandcamp.com
Vidboy - http://vidboy.bandcamp.com
Clip credits:
"MacGyver - Parabolic Mirror" - CBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hzM1AX8iM
"Let's Play: Riven, Fire marbles" - Dilandau3000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-38Ye6ytyI
"Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Part 8" - Natenator77
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zou9hQFCypw
"Lets Play! Blade Runner, Part 1" - Vyakros
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9pe-KPywa4
Contribute translated subtitles - https://amara.org/v/C3BFr/
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