Sergenth wrote:
My guess is that a jumping snake puzzle would be harder with large open areas and a few single solid squares spread out inside, giving less predictable "should I jump or turn right" choices.
Yeah, I agree. The 2nd puzzle I gave didn't have that many forks, or it might have been extremely difficult.
With this third puzzle, you can figure out where the snake must end up on it's last turn (which is the neat, and FUN deduction element EDIT I think I'm wrong about that... EDIT2 Nope... just more than one way to get there!) Before getting there, I found areas that "had" to be entered from certain directions, so I was able to work backwards and fill in as I made mistakes. It only took me 4 tries where I actually filled in lines, but I did do a few minutes of analyzing before.
Yeah, I think deduction needs to be present, or the whole thing is just a big boring node search. The puzzles get more fun as the movement rules become more familiar too. I wonder if I can make the rules simpler or at least more simply expressed.
More elements would make this even more fun, just as more elements in DROD make it more fun and mentally taxing. However, I think eah map could only stand to have one additional type of puzzle element before it becomes to busy to work out on paper.
Yeah, if we were going for a computer game, then adding a bunch of elements would be easier. Also, you'd have interface advantages like undo and rule enforcement to make finding solutions easier. But I also like the simpler form of the puzzle that could be printed out on paper and solved with pencil while riding on a bus. Probably as it stands, the puzzle asks for a little too much commitment from a newcomer in learning the rules.
-Erik
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The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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