Should adventure games have inbuilt hint systems?

[LowLevel]

@maritzac

Example: In TWP, I knew Franklin could zap open the door, but the door never opened. It never occured to me that Reyes had to PUSH the opened door, because when you use the card, the door opens itself without having to push it.

The reason why that part didn’t confuse me is that I had perceived that when Reyes uses a card to open a lock, he also automatically pushes it. I never thought that the door automatically opens whenever someone uses a card. So, when Franklin opens the lock, I still thought that someone had to physically push the door.

[maritzac]

True, but there’s not a clear animation of that. “Use the card” implies already pushing, but “zap the door” does not. In my system of game-puzzle logic is the same action, not two separate ones. If I had to “use card” then “push door” every time, there would be less confusion. But of course, the best would be to simply let franklin zap the door, then click with Reyes on the door and he goes through.

[seguso]

@LowLevel

I have just thought of anther situation where this hint system would “help too much”. Let’s say that the player has a battery and that he believes that to charge it he needs to go to the sewers because there is a room with exposed wires, there.

The same moment the player reaches that location and the hint system does not show the puzzle icon (because the planned way to charge the battery has nothing to do with those wires), the player immediately understands that his intuition was wrong, even if he has not even tried to use the battery with the exposed wires.

Maybe this is an additional way in which this hint system helps the player a bit too much.

I am torn about this… because the example reveals a puzzle design problem. (the developers did not think of a combination that makes sense). So , I can’t imagine if, in the absence of design issues, there can still be a problem. I would need another example without a design error…

[RonGilbert]

To open a door that Franklin has zapped, you just use OPEN, you don’t need to use PUSH. Both work, and both verbs use the exact same code.

[LowLevel]

I think that @maritzac is saying that when a (living) character uses the card to open the lock, he/she also automatically opens the door. This behavior has led her to believe that every time the door is unlocked (even by Franklin), the door also automatically opens.

[nihilquest]

@LowLevel

Do you remember any other adventure game that used a sidekick as a hint system?

I think there were few of them, for example (to some extent )- Telltale’s Sam & Max. I hope I remember it correctly. The recent one is Paradigm, where the hero has a sentient tumor that can give hints to the player when asked. It’s a crazy game.

[maritzac]

Is it? I apologize. I must have been misclicking the whole time, I guess.

[maritzac]

Yeah, just like that. Blablabla fluff so character count

[LowLevel]

@nihilquest

I think there were few of them

I think so as well.

I played “A Vampyre Story” some time ago and I don’t remember exactly what the player can do with the sidekick, Froderick, but I’m sure that it’s possible to both talk to him and use him as an item to solve puzzles. Its purpose is to help the main character but not mainly through hints.

@nihilquest

The recent one is Paradigm, where the hero has a sentient tumor that can give hints to the player when asked. It’s a crazy game.

I played a demo of that game, in the past, and I loved the surreal humor and visuals. The game is in my Steam wishlist.

You made me remember of a few songs of its soundtrack that were spectacularly weird, I’ll post them in the soundtrack thread.