Like Monkey Island 2?
Yes, I want a clone of the Monkey 2 soundtrackā¦ I want it to be embarassingly similar.
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I wonder if it counts as āplagiarismā if you play a Monkey Island tune backwardsā¦ 
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Why donāt we keep the āclassical tunes revisited with the sound and style of MI2 locationsā theme then? 
This!
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Iām very much in favour of that! But it depends on your good will 
Anyway, letās talk again after I have the engine and Iāve tested it with ripped off music
Iām always open for creative hobbies but Iāll be waiting for the version with music
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Wait guysā¦ I think Iāve just found out a way to have the graphical interface (exactly like the mockup) and at the same time not lose the good properties of the old interfaceā¦
Let me explain: as you remember, the real problem is only for those puzzles that canāt be expressed as a combination of two objects. (like āunderstand that Jack is actually Janeās sonā , or āhide in the closetā or āput on the tinfoil hat to protect from the raysā). Of course they would become too easy if implemented simply as āuse Jackā or āuse closetā or āuse hatā (ahem). So hereās my solution: you click on jack, and you get a popup where you have to click: āis the son ofā, and then another popup where you have to click āJaneā. Of course, both choices are disguised among 5-10 red herrings.
@Guga
for āhide in the closetā, you would click the closet from the graphics, then in the popup click ācan be used to hideā. (no need for a second popup here)
for "understand that the tinfoil hat can protect you fromā¦ ", you would click on the hat, then in the first popup you click ācan protect you fromā, and then in the second popup, you click āthe raysā.
To make another example from Monkey2. Instead of āpick up the dogā (arguably an unfair puzzle), you would click the dog, then in the first popup click ācan smellā, and in the second popup , click āthe mapā.
Iām implementing thisā¦
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I figured out from your description, and have my approval, man! 
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Iām curious and I think it will look good.
The current interface is cool but Iām a nerd, so I donāt matter.
One good thing would be adding more āhotspotsā which do nothing. As you donāt have to look and interact, it wonāt cost you more in terms of reactions or descriptions. In fact, a thing I noticed in the game is that you have a small list of things you see, which are almost always relevantā¦ but sometimes you have to look at the image itself (Iād say two puzzles that come to mind but I wonāt post spoilers).
So having everything image-based, at least for the first element, it would be nice.
In the current solution you first choose the verb, which sometimes help - for example, when ādeduce thatā as an option, Iād go 99% of the times with that 
so instead of āoperate on - the chair - so that - it breaks when Gianni sits on itā, you first click the chair, and youāre presented a couple of verbs and then the reasons.
a digressionā¦ I am starting to believe that the fact that you donāt have to look and interact has contributed to the frustration that people (like Gffp and friends of mine) had with the game. I think this is what happened: seeing that they could not interact and mess around in this game, they turned to the āsentence composerā interface, believing that was the way to interact. And then, seeing they couldnāt use it to interact or investigate or explore, they got frustrated. They didnāt understand that there is (almost) no way to interact or explore in this game. You can only solve puzzles, and the needed clues are given to you automatically. So, paradoxically, if I had put two interfaces, one for simple interaction/discovery, and one for solving puzzles, maybe they would not have been frustrated.
Thatās what Tangle Tower does: there is an action composer, where you assemble bits of sentences, but thereās also a heavy exploration component (which I hated ā you need to examine hundreds of objects).
To be continuedā¦
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Same here. 
Sounds more that you need just a tutorial explaining the interface.
Yeah, butā¦ any tutorial would simply be a copy of the first puzzle. I donāt see what more I could do . But since people who had already solved the first puzzle are still frustratedā¦ the tutorial canāt helpā¦
or maybe, the tutorial should do something moreā¦ somehow make it clear that they shouldnāt try to use the composer to interactā¦
You already had all the elements to give the solution So, you āshouldnātā have tried to interact, if you know what I mean. But how to explain that? I donāt know. ā¦
Like you did here. Explain the interface. For example put this sentence/explanation ā¦
ā¦ into the game. You can show such an explanation after the first login.
Then tell the player how he can solve the first puzzle ā give him the solution. You can do this by telling (or showing) him which buttons he has to click next to solve the first puzzle ā for example with tooltips pointing to the next button to click.
Remove the many possibilities in the āsentence composerā until the player has reached some point in the game. And lock him into the first (few) room(s) so he canāt move around and is only able to solve the first puzzle. Each new room or section (like to forrest) should be a ārewardā for solving a puzzle.
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Dammit man, youāre right about everything!
to summarize
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The tutorial must tell you that the clues are given to you automatically, you just need to walk everywhere to have them.
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it must tell you that you donāt have to try to use the sentence composer for interaction, but only after you already have solved the puzzle in your mind, to express the solution.
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the tutorial will contain the monkey2 peg leg puzzle, which is a copy of the first puzzle in the game. BUT with only 2-3 possibilities, as you say. So it will be clear how to solve it.
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I need to close many rooms until you have solved the first puzzle.
What this still does not cover:
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the possibility that there is a problem in the first puzzle. Maybe Iāve disguised the clue for the first puzzle too well (it looks like a joke). You need to read between the lines of what the newsboy says. Maybe itās better if I put a cutscene showing clearly what the newsboy is telling.
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the possibility that the lack of interaction is a problem. Maybe itās true that adventure games also need a part where you discover things by looking around. Maybe you just donāt have a rich enough world experience, if all you can do is solve puzzles and the clues are given to you automatically when you walkā¦ (to be precise, I do have some buttons for common interaction, but apparently they are not satisfactory because they are completely predetermined choices: ātry to climb the wallā; ātell the guard that you are a princessāā¦ itās like they arenāt there)
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For the first puzzle: Yes.
(You should/can assume that each new player is really, really dumb until he has solved the first puzzle. )
It could be fun to explore the rooms more. But if you have introduced the player to the game mechanics I donāt think that this would be necessary.
Maybe you should remove them? 
They arenāt necessary and imply that there have to be more actions. So maybe they are confusing. On the other hand they are leading to very funny reactions.
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I donāt know how you populate your list of objects; maybe you could require players to look at or examine them before they become available for solving puzzles. That could help with the exploration part. From what Iāve read I assume right now theyāre just there automatically. If so, you could even keep that as a sort of āeasyā mode.
Yes, I think I will require to examine them, instead of examining them automaticallyā¦ or semi-automatically by pressing the ātalkā button repeatedly, like it is now.
This means that when you enter some locations youāll have a much shorter greeting dialog, instead of a long one that examines everything automatically.
Then there is another issue: in this game there are very few objects. Because itās not a game about object usage. I almost only put those that are required by the story. (Because the difficulty was there anyway, because the UI forces you to know what you are doingā¦)
But I still havenāt solved the first puzzle? Iām guessing the joke is that itāll be the last puzzle to be solved, butā¦
Yup, exactly. (But only for the first few rooms, and I think itās fine if a puzzle is in two or three rooms even early on.)
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If youāre referring to chopping, thatās not the first puzzle he means the first actual puzzle that allows you to solve your first objective.
That was not my problem. My problem was that I was looking for something to use. I already had in mind what I had to do, but I was still in the āclassic mindsetā so I roamed around looking for an object so I could go āuse THIS to DO THAT on OTHER THING because YOU KNOW WHYā. Only after a while I noticed that I already had āDO THATā as a verb, and I had to go in the room where āOTHER THINGā was. I didnāt need any THIS to solve it. And thatās something it took a bit to get used to.
Edit: this, however, could be weakened by what you were proposing, that is, having the verb āDO THATā turn out when you click on the target. I think it makes clearer that you donāt need the first object. You know you have to do something on the target, so the logical thing to do is to try to interact with that (youād ālookā it in adventure games to find hints), and your hint is, you have the correct verb. Then you explain why (seriously, thatās the easiest part in that puzzle) and, done.
And again, you can add bogus hotspots at no cost, because clicking on them just shows a bunch of verbs that wonāt help.
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