BlueCupTools Podcats! Grundislav & ThreeOhFour! Episode 82!

[Ponch]

There's a 304 cult? Why do I never get invited to the cool parties?!

Another enjoyable installment in the Wadjet Eye Podcast!

[Armageddon]

Great podcast as always.

[JoshuaSmyth]

Sounds like you guys need to get Jeff Vogel on the podcast.

[Grundislav]

Episode 33

Puzzle variety and the usual David Cage bashing.

[Ponch]

Sweet! A new episode!

[selmiak]

listened and liked! The inner world seems really a fun game to play *moves it up on to play list*

[Stupot]

I'm currently gradually working my way through Flight of the Amazon Queen with my niece (I'm turning her into a young adventurer) and I can confirm that you do find an oil can on the back of Sparkey's truck and empty the contents onto the car of the henchmen.  There's also a 'rubbing' puzzle in this game, where you rub the pencil on a blank page to see what was written on the page above it.  That's such a common puzzle that I even told my niece to expect it as soon as we got the pencil, and taught her how it works using a real notepad and pencil

[Chicky]

Stupot, consider my cockles warmed

[ThreeOhFour]

Thanks for the clarification Stu!

[Vince Twelve]

Another great podcast, guys.  Ben, you're not the only person who likes the re-wiring puzzle in Resonance.  There are at least four of us!

Re: mazes.  I added the maze to Resonance as sort of a personal challenge.  Everyone hates mazes in adventure games and I wanted to show that one could be done right.  A risky proposition, because if done wrong it can really put a damper on an otherwise great game.  Inherit the Earth, which Ben mentioned, is one of my favorite games with the one glaring exception of that damn maze.  The Space Bar, another of my faves, has a 3D maze navigated from the first person that you have to solve in the minimal number of clicks.  It's the most frustrating part of the game.  Challenge accepted. 

So here were my rules for adding a maze to a game:

1. Relevant to the story.  My maze was a child's nightmare representation of a repressed memory.  (spoiler alert?)  The dream was an integral part of the story and related, eventually, to events outside the dream.

2. Presented in a readable way. Grundislav's example of the KQ5(?) maze that changed perspectives when you turned around is a great example of what not to do.  The player has to be able to keep their bearings. I chose a top-down view for that purpose.

3. Player must be given in-game tools to solve the maze.  Yes, you can map the maze with a paper and pencil as you go, but I'm a big believer that all the knowledge needed to solve a puzzle must be IN the game.  (Which is why I put a calculator in the game with a pi key just in case some one didn't know the value of pi.)  Hence the "breadcrumbs" in the form of coins.  I also hinted at being able to use them by hiding a memory referencing Hansel and Gretel in the maze.

4. Some twist to make them unique.  As you get deeper in the maze, it starts rotating - a literal twist - giving extra challenge.  (some complained that this detracted from #2 though)

5. Optional! This might not always be possible, but I wanted my maze to be skippable.  The reward for completing it is a bit of back story and a huge hint towards solving another puzzle, namely the key to decode the journal.  The journal, of course, is also an optional puzzle, and can be decoded without the hint earned in the maze.

In my next game, I'm taking on a similar challenge: the whole game is about shaking orange juice and taking a shower.

[ThreeOhFour]

Inherit the Earth, which Ben mentioned, is one of my favorite games with the one glaring exception of that damn maze.

I wouldn't say I disliked this maze, just that it took me a long, long time with pen and paper to solve. If you can handle that, it's more rewarding to me than, say, grinding bland RPG monsters over and over and over again to level up. (I like RPGS!)

But yeah, the biggest issue is totally the perspective change. I think the fireberries section in Kyrandia is great, though, so clearly I hate fun.

[Ponch]

Everyone hates mazes in adventure games

I like mazes.

But I always make my mazes optional.

So what's this about XII Showers? Are you jumping on the David Cage bandwagon and putting gratuitous shower scenes in your games? Awesome! I'm going to do that too. Coming soon: Oceanspirit Dennis in Rubber Duck Adventures

[ThreeOhFour]

You already did that christmas cooking game, Ponch. Although that was a bath....

Not saying you shouldn't do more, just that there's already a precedent, so you can hardly start doing something when you've already done it.

[Ponch]

But I haven't done an Oceanspirit Dennis bath scene yet. And that's what people REALLY want to see. No one cares about two hot chicks in a bubble bath. It's teh Dennis they want to see!

[ThreeOhFour]

* ThreeOhFour imagines the same game remade with Ray and Dennis...

[Ponch]

* ThreeOhFour imagines the same game remade with Ray and Dennis...

Don't just imagine it! Make it happen! You're overdue for your next OSD game anyway. A tactical real-time rubber duck vs. submarine battle would be just the thing, if you ask me!

[ThreeOhFour]

After lol, Oceanspirit Dennis, I think I'm actually somewhat underdue, to be perfectly frank.

[Ponch]

After lol, Oceanspirit Dennis, I think I'm actually somewhat underdue, to be perfectly frank.

Stop making up words and start making Dennis games! And where's the next podcast? I need my fix!!!

[selmiak]

the next podcast is 3(0)4 already...

[Grundislav]

Episode 34

DANE KRAMS!