Quantifying puzzle difficulty

Max Palmer

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Jul 28, 1994, 5:27:10 AM7/28/94

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Hiya,
I've recently sent an unfinished copy of my game off to someone who's
having a look at it - and it's set me thinking. How do you know when
you've got the right amount of puzzles in a game and how do you know if
they've been pitched at the correct level ? I suppose that playtesting and
common sense are the answers ... but I would still like feedback.

Another point : -

If the puzzles in the game are all fairly logical does it make it too
easy ? The problem with this <last statement> will hopefully appear if I
try and suggest the converse. Illogical puzzles make a game hard and
frustrating to play. This is true. Thus do logical puzzles become a bore
to adventurers ? (maybe the word logical here is causing the problems !)
Essentially in my game there are a lot (but by no means all) of the find,
fetch and use type puzzles, often of the chaining variety and I'm worried
that this might bore the adventurer, who will just treat is as a walk
through.

i.e find the nails and the hammer to mend the canoe ...
find a way to get the scythe from the scarecrow to harvest the grain to
feed the eagle ...

Also I've placed a lot of the emphasis in my game on its atmosphere and
the player witnessing events (which build the feel of the land) rather
than confining the player to 3 rooms and giving him/her 4 objects and a
feindish trap to outwit. Thus often the player can roam for quite some
distance before they have to overcome the puzzles contained within an
area. In addition, they will often spend some time learning snippets of
information (from watching these events unfold) which will make life
easier for them rather than just constantly problem solving. I think this
gives the game more realism and intrigue. What do others think about
puzzle density / player confinement vs 'romability' / event watching as
different approaches to posing problems in IF ?

Maybe it's me just being nervous about people seeing my game. It has been
over 4 years in the writing and it's not done yet ! I guess it's tough to
see all that work go under the microscope ... anyone else agree ?

Catch ya later !

Max : <m...@sousun1.phys.soton.ac.uk>

BTW : - If and when I EVER finish Kalkazor I will need beta testers. It
will hopefully be a commercial product incorporating scanned location
graphics and possibly atmospheric sampled sound -but- , before all you
diehard traditional adventurers out there leap on this, it has been
written as a text adventure first, the graphics and sound are there to
enhance the game (and I've had good comments about them). There is, after
all 550K of compressed text ;-) . It will only run on an Acorn Archimedes
or Acorn Risc PC, 2MEG RAM minimum, ARM 250+, Harddisc preferred. Any
takers please email me (UK only unless you plead !) and I'll bear you in
mind. Don't hold your breath though ... it's going to be *some* time
before it gets done.

Cheers ... and yes, I do know about comp.sys.acorn.games and
comp.games.int-fiction <= (or whatever it is - you know which one I'm
talking about). Their time will come :-> !

Collin Pieper

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Jul 29, 1994, 12:33:28 AM7/29/94

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You're game sounds really cool. I like the fact that the player is
allowed to wander and witness things. As for "logical" puzzles, I
don't know exactly what to say. In my experience there are two
types of adventure gamers out there - ones who love devilishly nasty
puzzles, and those who just are along for the experience and story
and become easily frustrated. To attract both gamers your game must
have a good mix. The "find the nails and the hammer to mend the canoe"
type puzzles are perfectly fine if they aren't the whole game, and
even then they can be interesting if they take more than just stumbling
across the needed objects to solve. Maybe bartering with someone
or rescuing a carpenter or something.
The one thing that disappoints me is that it's for the Acorn only.
That pretty much knocks out the whole US market. You mentioned you
wanted to make it commercial, are you thinking of any Mac or PC ports?
If it's not in assembly a text adventure port is simple.

Collin

David Baggett

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Jul 30, 1994, 9:38:16 PM7/30/94

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In article <Pine.3.87.9407280...@sousun1.phys.soton.ac.uk>,
Max Palmer <m...@phastr.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

>How do you know when you've got the right amount of puzzles in a game and
>how do you know if they've been pitched at the correct level ?

Alpha test. Beta test. Gamma test. Ad nauseum... :)

Seriously: Even with a couple years experience, I've found myself ranging
from dead on in gauging puzzle difficulty to absolutely wrong. You have
your own way of looking at the world, and your own store of knowledge.
It's almost impossible (for me, at least) to look at a puzzle through
someone else's eyes.

Just have a zillion people play your game. There's no substitute.

>If the puzzles in the game are all fairly logical does it make it too easy?

I'd argue that all puzzles should be logical, and I try to stick to this
philosophy when writing my own games. Judging from comments here (about
UU2) and in testing (for Legend), logical puzzles are not necessarily easy.

> Also I've placed a lot of the emphasis in my game on its atmosphere and
>the player witnessing events

Excellent! I've been trying to get away from traditional
puzzle-orientation too. You may find that people don't initially respond
well to major changes to the standard formula, however, which brings us to
point two:

>Maybe it's me just being nervous about people seeing my game. It has been
>over 4 years in the writing and it's not done yet ! I guess it's tough to
>see all that work go under the microscope ... anyone else agree ?

What's the worst thing that will happen? People will hate it. Even so,
this means little. People rioted at the premiere of Rite of Spring, even
while Ravel was shouting "Genius! Genius!" My advice: don't get too
wrapped up in the inevitable criticism, but if you find a Ravel, talk with
him at length. :)

Dave Baggett
__
d...@ai.mit.edu MIT AI Lab He who has the highest Kibo # when he dies wins.
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