Riddle Games?

#1 I'd say: Yes, riddle games cabn be fun.

#2 I think it could be. But you would have to make it seem bigger than what it really is. Add some kind of story or substance to it. I wouldn't want to play a game where I'm solving riddles just to solve riddles.
-Ajari-

#3 Another question: in your opinion, would something like "a detective is trying to find a gang of criminals and needs to solve riddles on the way to them" be good enought?

#4 Yeah I think that's a perfect base for a riddle game plot. Who doesn't want to feel smart by being a detective and cracking a big case. Sounds like a lot of fun actually. Definatley go for it. Good luck.
-Ajari-

#5 Take a look at the game "You dont know Jack" .. they encorporate riddles in some of their questions, and are done well.

-J

#6 As long as the riddles can be worked out by deduction and the provision of clues in the game, then it could work well. It's when the player has to guess what the designer was thinking at the time that they become frustrating.

#7 Yes, definetly the could be fun, if fitting well in the feeling of the game world and, and in my opinion this is important, help is given by the game. the answer for a riddles can be very mysterious to one person, but clear for another one, so the game has to give a support to the player, so he / she wont get stuck. multiple choice, perhaps an adivsor appearing while the riddle is displayed, giving hints, or anything else which makes the search for the answer easier if needed would be appriciated. just to mention it, i dont mean that the player shouldnt think on his own...

ka
www.3dtowns.at

#8 There's no doubt that riddle games work, but, as with all things, it's all about the execution.

I suspect that riddle games does not have as large target audience as action games. This, however, is not a bad thing; it means riddle games are a niche market, and that niche is most likely large enough to sustain several indie developers, but not large enough for retail developers to bother with it. I personally think niche markets are the way to go for independent developers.

But you'd still have to get it "right", or people won't buy it, niche market or not. And there lies the problem: getting a game based on riddles right can be quite tricky.

With riddle games, you don't have a couple of basic gameplay mechanics that you can use and reuse over and over again; you don't have timing, reflexes and those other things that make up action games. Instead, you have the riddles. The riddles are what makes up the gameplay, so if the riddles are not fun, the game won't be fun. If the riddles are too easy, the game will be too easy, and so on. What makes it hard is that every riddle is going to be unique, and will have to be carefully crafted by hand to be fun, as opposed to action games where you usually have a set number of elements that you combine in different ways to provide variety.

I think making a riddle game where you are playing a detective is a really good idea, just be aware that the game will only be as good as the riddles. If I were to make a game like that, I would start by coming up with ALL the riddles. I'd even try it out on people using just pen and paper. Then I would KNOW if the game is fun or not, and I could then devote my time to making an implementation of it that suits the riddles.

#9 On the Sega Genesis there is an rpg game called Landstalker, (one of my favorite games of all time) and there is a part in the game where you have to go into a crypt and solve a series of riddles that was really a lot of fun. I was actually disappointed when I solved all of them heh.


If they had made a game that consisted entirely of solving riddles like that I think it would have been very cool.

I riddle game could be a very fun idea.

#10 How do you think the riddles should be shown and solved on screen?
should it be something like this: if the riddle is "you have ten identical boxes ful of gold coins that look identical. one box has fake coins. the fake coins weigh 11 grams, and the real coins weigh grams. with only one weigh, you must know what box contains the fake coins." should I show screen with 10 boxes and a scale and then wait for them to choose the right box after using the scale once, and give them the ability to put the coins on the scale and take them off without limits?

thanks to all of you who answered,
lee-orr

#11 I just thought I'd point out the game "Castle of Dr. Brain", an old (DOS) Sierra game, where you had to solve riddles and puzzles to make your way through a castle. I quite liked the game, and played it through to the end.

www.mobygames.com/game/dos/castle-of-dr-brain

#12 I want to know, how do you think I should layout the game?and how should the riddles be seen?
here is a simple layout idea for the riddle I posted above. what do you think about it?

thanks again,

lee-orr

#13 It could take place in ancient china, where you must travel between monasteries as a Zen monk in training :)

Really, it depends on if you want anything else beside riddles in the game. If it is a riddle-RPG then the above setting would make a wonderful layout, but if it were treated more as a puzzle game you may have them be passcodes to hacking into a computer or a sadistic trivia gameshow. Really, I like the above rpg'ish nature the best :)


Edit: I think that may not have been what you were asking. About the riddle you posted above, give a scale and the objects to a few people in real life and gauge the difficulty and their actions. Then decide how that one should be presented in-game. Or you could always have "Standard" and "Mega Monkey" modes, where the harder mode doesn't have the interface to play with... though usually multiple modes means your puzzles are too frustrating...

#14 I heard and solved the riddle above alot of times, and I tested it in more then 5 different places, and it is a pretty easy riddle in my oppinion. in addition, I already played a version of this riddle in a riddle game I played.

I will probbly make it an Riddle-RPG, and I am thinking about making it take place around the whole world.

thanks for the ideas, they will surely be very helpful.

lee-orr

#15 Be useful to hunt down some info on designing riddles. Maybe its just me, but i wouldnt know where to begin if i had to come up with a riddle.
BTW didnt the zodiac killer send riddles and clues to the police who were hunting him at the time? That might work well in a detective/riddle type game, try and hunt/trap the killer before he stops.

#16 Hello!
I made a demo for the riddle I asked about in this form. can you try this riddle and tell me how can I make this riddle, or the riddle interface, better?
I yes, the demo is downloadable from here

#17 I think you need to give the user a lot more visual feedback about what's going on.

- visually show the coins.
- limit the number of coins in each bag to 10 coins,
and visually show them in the bag, and on the scale.

- show how many coins have been used from each bag

- have a way for the player to put coins back in a bag, off the scale.
- when i clicked one too many times on the 8th bag (say) it was frustrating
to have to start all over.
- at least give each bag a display that shows the number of coins on the scale
and has a + / - button.

- keep the riddle on the screen, don't hide it in a pop-up box.

#18 I would like to see the demo be more interactive. Maybe a top-down view of the sacks and the ability to drag the coins around. Also, there is not enough information on the screen to make my actions intuitive. When I click a sack, a tiny counter appears in the top left corner, but I really don't know what the counter is supposed to stand for, since the label is "The number of coins used", and I didn't even think I was "using" coins, I thought I was weighing sacks.

If you are trying to count the number of coins taken from each sack, I would say you should either be able to see the coins inside the sack, or have a number on the sack that says how many are left. Then, you should have a pool of coins that are your coins along with a counter telling how many you've taken.

Then again, I'm not much of a fan of the type of puzzles that exploit some mathematical anomaly, so you probably want to get feedback from others also.