Pixel hunt puzzles

[m0ds]

Okay, I have a question. Theres something I'm not entirely sure about when it comes to pixel hunts.

A game that uses a pixel hunt puzzle - does the GUI usually say something when the cursor is moved over that pixel, or is it usually left up to a clever guess?

For eg, I think in Indy: TLC when you have to jump past the razor blades, you have to find the pixel but I cant remember if the GUI remains blank, or if it says "Walk to ?"

Whats the score? Do games that use pixel hunts normally help the player or not?


m0ds

[Miez]

I completely hate and despise games that give the player no feedback when it comes to hotspots. FoA gave a text feedback, as did the MI 1&2 games. Making your puzzles harder by just filling the BG with intricate detail and then have the player try to click on EVERY little bolt, bit, bob, nook or crannie with a 95% "no response" result is a crime against humanity. Sort of. And it sucks. And I hate it.
I think giving a hotspot feedback doesn't make puzzles too easy, with some creative thinking you can make great and taxing puzzles (even if you show labels for "three levers", a "caged mongoose" and an "underwear cabinet" in the room).  

[MachineElf]

I believe that is changing a lot between games. In Last Crusade you there was practically no way of telling that those were the places you had to click to avoid decapitation.
The books in the library in the same game is also kind of a pixelhunt puzzle although there the only way of showing what was an interesting book was that the caption changed to "Book" from "Books".

I think you really should add more hints than that towards what you're actually searching for. I don't think there were any hints to what books you needed, although I'm not sure. What happened if you didn't get the airplane book? Because wether you embarked the zeppeling or not, you needed to start a plane up.

So basically, just like all other puzzles, a pixel hunt puzzle must MAKE SENSE (some BASS-speech here...). And definately don't leave the player walking dead if not found! If it's not in any way pointed out to the player you just get frustrated.

For example:
You know you have to search this particular room for something. If there are no captions (Walk to Book etc) or other ways of showing interesting parts in your game, you don't need any other hint than that. The player would probably search around the room and look at things in the screen that look in interesting and would after some random clicks find it.
However, if your game uses some way of pointing out interesting spots, flashing cursor or captions, you'll basically HAVE to do that on the things interesting in this room as well. If not you'll have to deal with a great deal of player frustration. Unfortunately this makes the pixel hunt quite unnecessary as the player, instead of looking at the graphics, will just brows the cursor over the screen, looking for the flashing cursor. Basically: You can't change the interface to make your puzzle harder!

Hope these random thoughts helped a little! :)

[n3tgraph]

I think the feedback is nessecary... I always hate it when a game doesn't show what an object is or if it IS an object...

Monkey island does that good I think.

In simon the sorcerer 2 you could press f12 to show all the hotspots in the area... but I'm not sure THAT is a good idea although it was handy sometimes :

But a good game definitly has pixel hunts imo

[Pet Terry]

Feedback surely is necessary, but I think it's not necessary to show objects name in GUI, if you have made the objects look that they are interactable But if you have to find a screw for example and it's 1x1 pixel then it's useful to show objects name in GUI.

[Nellie]

The rule I follow with game objects is:

If there's no reason for the player to investigate that particular spot, then it's unfair.

So if the object is small, but still big enough to be clearly seen, that's fine by me.  For example, in Pleurghburg: DA I initially missed an object in the scientist's house and so got stuck.  When I found out about the object, I immediately thought 'pixel hunt!', but later realised that was bullshit - the object could clearly be seen and the only reason I missed it was because I was being lazy and not looking carefully enough at the screen.  Another good example of small objects that can still clearly be distinguished is Rode Quest 2.

Or if it's not big enough to be clearly seen, but there's a clue in the game telling the player to look at that particular spot (or around the area), fine again.  Eg, in an online adventure some of us played a while back, there was a room where you had to take a pin that was holding up a flag.  The pin was tiny, and I would never have discovered it by accident.  However, the puzzle required me to pick a lock...  which made me think of finding a long, thin object...  which led me directly to look at the corners of the flag to see if it was held up by pins.  Tiny object, but still not a pixel-hunt.  A damn good example of this is in 6-Day Assassin.

Conversely, there can be huge areas of interaction that I would still class as a pixel-hunt.  In Gabriel Knight 1, it is essential to interact with the ground in one screen.  The ground 'hotspot' is a large area, but it looks completely and utterly insignificant - just a part of the background scenery, and there's no clue anywhere that directs you to check it out.  Why would you interact with a bit of ground for no reason?  This breaks my: 'If there's no reason for the player to investigate that particular spot, then it's unfair' rule.  What's funny is that GK1 is chocka with small objects, but I don't consider a single one of them pixel-hunts because they're all clearly visible and/or clued.

To be honest, I don't care whether hotspots are labelled or not.  In fact, I prefer unlabelled hotspots, because I feel more rewarded when I solve things solely using my observation of the objects in a scene, rather than having everything significant pointed out to me when I move the mouse around.

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

About 90% of the puzzles I've been stuck on in adventure games have been because I've missed a hotspot. The Broken Sword put-the-metal-bar-in-the-crack-in-the-wall puzzle, anyone?

[MrColossal]

actually there was something telling you where to kneel from the razor blades in the last crusade

for all those people who downloaded it they'd never know, hehe

the game came with Dr. Jone's diary and it had the exact spot you had to walk to in order to avoid the blades, marked on a hand drawn map. just like the movie

there was another puzzle that you had to use the book in order to solve.

damn man, i loved that book. it even had coffee stains and hitler's signature in it

[m0ds]

Yeah Mine fell out of my bedroom window sometime last winter, and dissintigrated

m0ds

[AGA]

I have the Grail Diary in JPEG form. It took a lot of work to find it online, but I got there in the end. This was awhile ago though, and I can't find the site again... If anyone wants to see it, say and I'll upload it.

[Esseb_]

Woop, mememe. I spent bloody hours figuring out the three kings puzzle (which is the other puzzle eric mentioned) and the razor blade thing. I just basically clicked randomly a lot and managed it. On replaying it however, I think I remember the walk to changed to "walk to ?" or "walk to spot" or something similar. Not that I noticed when I was 13.

Oh, and the plane. The plane! I spent weeks with a friend trying to figure it out since we didn't pick up the book. We got quite close to figuring it out too I believe. In the end we started over since we lost the saves and picked up the book by chance.

[Necro]

What about that kick the wall in the right spot at the right time puzzle in full throttle, relly pissed me off !!

[Czar]

What about that kick the wall in the right spot at the right time puzzle in full throttle, relly pissed me off !!

I dont remember that one?
Anyway, I do remember not finding the sign to go back to the Kickstand, that really pissed me off.
And i remember the string from MI2, i couldnt find it for months(that discouraged me so i played less), and then my friend told me,then the things started to go faster.
I can also say i dont like pixel hunting, but dont you feel such a joy in yourself after you solve it, after days and days, sometimes even months!

[MrColossal]

necro, didn't moe tell ben about the secret hideout and that you're supposed to kick them when the lights line up?

that's not so hard, you're told what to do

[AGA]

Yeah, I got that, but she doesn't tell you WHERE to kick, and there are about a billion possible places to kick. Well, unless there is something visible and I had my screen brightness down too low...

[m0ds]

No, you pick up different items by fighting the bad guys, and eventually you get the fish ones' goggles, which then somehow tell you when you're passing the base.

EASY. Download more walkthroughs.

[Czar]

Oh, now i remember, the wall behind the Corley motors ... aaah, well that was about timing.

[Riot]

Yea, but still, she gives VERY vauge descriptions off WHERE to kick. Alignment this and alignment that. POOIE!! I stood kicking that wall for about an hour, waiting for those god dam lights to line up between every click..

[Erwin_Br]

For all those people who downloaded it they'd never know, hehe

the game came with Dr. Jone's diary and it had the exact spot you had to walk to in order to avoid the blades, marked on a hand drawn map. just like the movie

there was another puzzle that you had to use the book in order to solve.

Not only people who have downloaded the game don't know. I bought a collection pack named '10 classic LucasArts Adventures' which also included Indy: LC. It did have all the codes and other protection material but no diary

--Erwin