Choice-based puzzles

To defend my own honour a bit on this one:

[spoiler]

– I think I didn’t have an a-ha moment here. I think I tried it because I thought it was worth trying - and then was pleasantly surprised when it worked. That could totally be replicated in a choice-based structure, although it wouldn’t be quite as cool, because there’s something particularly nice about the moment in a parser game when something works – the reason for that niceness, though, is because parser games are, by default, totally truculent and unhelpful.

But replicating S&W in choice isn’t the point anyway; it is what it is. The point is more that moment is probably the singlest hardest moment to replicate in choice imaginable, and it’s not that hard to imagine, and it wouldn’t be quite as cool, but it would still be cool. So if that a-ha moment works out okay-but-not-great, I suspect that 90% of parser puzzles would work just fine.

Which still isn’t a reason to write choice games, except they also afford a bunch of cool stuff you can’t do well with a parser. Like, fast plot progression, automating tedious passages, quick shifts of perspective, easy to write & rich conversation, extraordinary accessibility and a far simpler UI problem.[/spoiler]

jon

Once again, response under the spoiler (the quote levels have gotten messed up somehow, BTW):

[spoiler]

Hmm, I’m not Emily but I was kind of defending systematic puzzles and I don’t think that’s a good description of how they work or ought to, especially in IF. Byzantine Perspective, which is on that list, is hugely an aha! puzzle (one which could be done in hyperlinks, BTW). So, as I’ve said, is Faithful Companion. What IF can let you do with systematic puzzles is figure out how the system works and then when and how to break it.

Also even outside of IF the most satisfying systematic puzzles give you aha! moments; I get a bit of satisfaction out of Mastermind/Sudoku-type things that are extended logic puzzles (I’m a logic teacher, after all) but I get a lot more satisfaction from Braid/Elarel/Sokoban puzzles which make you say “But that’s impossible! Hmm… hmm… aha!” The particular kind of puzzle that works well here often doesn’t work well in IF, though, because it’s harder to experiment with multi-turn sequences – if you have to hit the arrow keys ten times to try something that’s one thing, but entering ten commands or even clicking ten hyperlinks over and over every time an attempt fails would get tiresome.[/spoiler]