Feedback on SotA Con puzzle talk

Hi [person-who-attended-the-SotA-Con-puzzle-talk's name here],

There were several ways to tackle the topic of puzzles in our game, and I think we covered a few of them during our "What the puzzle?" panel for this year's SotA Con. We'd like to know if we addressed what interested you all about the topic, in case we can do any better if we were to ever give a similar talk in the future.

Thanks!
- Dan and Keith

@Sannio, @Winfield, @Brickbat, @Berek

 

@Sannio Constructive feedback only, please!

 

Is a video of the talk available somewhere for those of us who didn't attend Sota-con to give feed back?

 

I wish I had an excerpt of the discussion. Sounds interesting.

 

Here are some of my thoughts:

1. You presented the ideas of puzzles very well. Screen shots, descriptions, etc.
2. Puzzles in SotA are wonderful ideas for new, medium and expert players in a variety of scenes.
3. Puzzles should make sense of course, like turn on pipes for steam to push a wheel to open a door.
4. I feel your pain to design these puzzles for multi-player environment -- keeping things synced between players and multiple players pressing switches and such.
5. For offline solo play, consider you could add MORE complex puzzles to encourage people to play the offline mode of the game too!
6. You could tie puzzle quests/completion with Lum's quests too I would think. An NPC could say "remember when you were in the sewers with the pipes and ... , so I give you a fine looking cloak to keep the water off your back" - maybe reward, but not when the puzzle is completed. Tie more things together.

So personally, I am very interested in puzzles and your presentation was spot on to inform us and get us thinking!

Thanks!

 

Video is up at:

I have passed this thread and the video link to those with more experience doing the quests and puzzles they are discussing than I.

V/R Brickbat

 

The puzzle talk was very very good in my opinion. You went into great detail on not only how the puzzles work, what your thinking was for clues/tells, how they were implemented, etc.

I think many players (myself included) have gotten used to having our hands held through puzzles in game. It's super rewarding when I finally figure them out, but the challengeI face now is that while I'm busy struggling away and find myself wondering if it's a bug or my brain not getting it. I'm loath to post about them (other than as a last resort) because if I'm being dumb I'd rather not get spoilers.

It may not be easy to implement but I'd love too see the game send you a hint if you've struggled on a puzzle for a while, especially in 'beginner' zones. In the steam vent puzzle, as an example, perhaps after 30 valve turns with no success an alcove opens containing a note with a clue explaining how the venting steam indicates where pressure is getting to.