Grimrock

Without knowing more about your mod, I can't say if a movie trivia puzzle is appropriate or not.

That said, I personally try to build worlds that follow these rules:
* They are internally logical and consistent.
* They are self contained, immersive, compelling and believable
* They don't require player knowledge external to the world (the player and their world character should have equal knowledge)

So I personally wouldn't build a puzzle requiring external movie knowledge: not only would the characters not have that knowledge, it breaks the believability of the immersive world I'm trying to build.

personally I do not like such a puzzles, different people from all around the world are playing Log, not knowing about some movies at all, or not familiar with it. Definitely not good idea to use it as for some main puzzle, because it can easily get many people just stucked totally. Could be used as some side-riddle for sure on the other side.

Drakkan wrote:personally I do not like such a puzzles, different people from all around the world are playing Log, not knowing about some movies at all, or not familiar with it. Definitely not good idea to use it as for some main puzzle, because it can easily get many people just stucked totally. Could be used as some side-riddle for sure on the other side.

thats what is is...just a side puzzle to non-essential prizes.

I totally understand the frustration of being stuck totally unable to complete a mod. out of 20 mods , i've maybe only completed like 4 of them because I get stuck at a puzzle and there's no solution online, and no help from anyone else, no walkthroughs etc...
maybe I'm just bad at this game.

anyway
when I release my mod, I might release a spoiler walkthrough later, but I want people to at least try and beat it first.

gambit37 wrote:Without knowing more about your mod, I can't say if a movie trivia puzzle is appropriate or not.

That said, I personally try to build worlds that follow these rules:
* They are internally logical and consistent.
* They are self contained, immersive, compelling and believable
* They don't require player knowledge external to the world (the player and their world character should have equal knowledge)

So I personally wouldn't build a puzzle requiring external movie knowledge: not only would the characters not have that knowledge, it breaks the believability of the immersive world I'm trying to build.

my mod is using the regular grimrock assets, but it's not using the regular "grimrock fantasy world setting". I'm creating more of a horror movie themed mod. I have predefined characters for the player to use. and a narrative that goes along as they explore the mod. the characters are college students and they are in one of those cliche "cabin in the woods" scenarios. I made up my own characters that fit horror tropes.
"the jock" "the cheerleader" "the token black guy" "the nerd".
so yeah this horror movie themed puzzle is totally relevant to my world.

i realize that there are people from all over the world, so I worry that all the reading involved,with the dialogue, non-english speakers are going to have trouble.

when I finish it, i'm just gonna publish it and see what people think. I'll accept the criticism but be fair. don't just say it sucks because horror characters don't belong in grimrock. if you think it sucks then give me a real reason like my code is sloppy or the puzzles aren't hard enough or something.

I bet only like 5 people are even gonna see it anyway...

my mod can't be any worse than "Crab Hell"

(i'm really trying hard to make a decent mod. it's not just one long hallway full of dialogue and monsters)

besides, i'm putting enough clues in there, to help the player to know what to do. I just hope my clues aren't too specific I don't want people to think i'm holding their hand

Your mod sounds like a refreshing change . As long as it's all internally consistent with your horror theme, then I don't see the harm in the movie-trivia puzzle as it sounds like a cheeky little nod to horror pop-culture. Just make sure it's not a "main path" puzzle as you don't want player's lack of movie knowledge to stop them from completing the mod.

Remember: If a player has to "mind read" the designer to complete the game, that's a sign it's been poorly designed. As long as you bear that in mind, you should be fine.

gambit37 wrote:Your mod sounds like a refreshing change . As long as it's all internally consistent with your horror theme, then I don't see the harm in the movie-trivia puzzle as it sounds like a cheeky little nod to horror pop-culture. Just make sure it's not a "main path" puzzle as you don't want player's lack of movie knowledge to stop them from completing the mod.

Remember: If a player has to "mind read" the designer to complete the game, that's a sign it's been poorly designed. As long as you bear that in mind, you should be fine.

yes, I'll do exactly that lol.

there will be clues, nobody should have to "mind read" me to complete my adventure, and the movie trivia puzzle is not a "main puzzle". perhaps this puzzle should not belong, it started off as some random notes I had in a cabin for the player to find, and they would read the horror movie references and it would add flavor to the atmosphere of the mod, but then i had the idea to include them in a puzzle.

this mod started off as a little side project just to get myself familiar with the editor, then I was going to make a more "classic" styled dungeon crawl once I got used to the assets and scripting.
at first I had just painted maps and laid an outline of this mod, but then I started really getting sucked in, with custom monster definitions, custom weapons, custom characters, custom music, lots of dialogue and narrative.

I'm trying to make a legit adventure. I scripted encounters and boss fights. I am still adding puzzles, I gotta have puzzles but some kinds of puzzles aren't gonna fit the horror theme. like a philosopher stone puzzle, that won't make sense in my world.

and I don't want to just put basic level 1 stuff, like a pressure plate and the player just puts a rock on it to open a door...that's a bit too simplistic. the main game or the classic eye of the beholder might need to have one of those at the beginning like a tutorial level, but I'm gonna assume that anyone who bought this game is not going to immediately go for the mods and would at least have took a few minutes playing the main game to learn how to play...

my puzzles are all going to make logical sense. like something that would exist in my world.

Drakkan wrote:personally I do not like such a puzzles, different people from all around the world are playing Log, not knowing about some movies at all, or not familiar with it. Definitely not good idea to use it as for some main puzzle, because it can easily get many people just stucked totally. Could be used as some side-riddle for sure on the other side.

One Room Round Robin 2 - Drakkan's Room
https://youtu.be/8kl8lqk3qNU?t=2414

Zo Kath Ra wrote:

Drakkan wrote:personally I do not like such a puzzles, different people from all around the world are playing Log, not knowing about some movies at all, or not familiar with it. Definitely not good idea to use it as for some main puzzle, because it can easily get many people just stucked totally. Could be used as some side-riddle for sure on the other side.

One Room Round Robin 2 - Drakkan's Room
https://youtu.be/8kl8lqk3qNU?t=2414

lol hypocrisy much? (just kidding, drakkan)
although in all fairness it looks like the drakkan's trivia, there was technically no way to get "stuck" in that room, the correct responses just gave extra bonuses.
That player made sure to point out every grammar error...

edit:
but wait...he said the wrong thing, and it killed him....instant death for not knowing some external trivia, that's harsh lol.

FeMaiden wrote:...although, on a tangent here, what's your opinion on my using movie trivia as part of a puzzle?

It limits the number of players who will actually solve your challenge, as opposed to just randomly shuffling the scrolls until the way opens for them. Many players when confronted with a switch puzzle, will just randomly flip switches instead of trying to figure it out... But It's worse when the designer intentionally makes the puzzle with nothing to figure out. Most good riddles can be worked out... "What do I have in my pocket?" is not really a good riddle.

*Of the movies listed in your code, I've seen probably none of them; unless 'nightmare' means 'Nightmare before Christmas', or the original [first] 'Nightmare on Elm Street".

**As a side note [of preference]: The movie challenge relies on player experiences, instead of party experiences, in the sense that none of the characters could be expected to have the slightest inkling of what a movie is.

Isaac wrote:

FeMaiden wrote:...although, on a tangent here, what's your opinion on my using movie trivia as part of a puzzle?

It limits the number of players who will actually solve your challenge, as opposed to just randomly shuffling the scrolls until the way opens for them. Many players when confronted with a switch puzzle, will just randomly flip switches instead of trying to figure it out... But It's worse when the designer intentionally makes the puzzle with nothing to figure out. Most good riddles can be worked out... "What do I have in my pocket?" is not really a good riddle.

*Of the movies listed in your code, I've seen probably none of them; unless 'nightmare' means 'Nightmare before Christmas', or the original [first] 'Nightmare on Elm Street".

**As a side note [of preference]: The movie challenge relies on player experiences, instead of party experiences, in the sense that none of the characters could be expected to have the slightest inkling of what a movie is.

well, yeah, the scrolls the player finds are basically plot synopses of the movies.
later they will find a library and the library says "all library materials must be returned to their proper places".
and then i will have signs listing the movie titles.
all the player has to do is match the proper plot description with the proper movie title.
like the candyman scroll, it basically has in part of the description, "they chanted his name, candyman, candyman,candyman,candyman,candyman" (its importnt to say it 5 times, people who saw the movie will appreciate it)
that one is obvious, i gave that one for free.
it should be easy to figure out, even if you never saw the movies.
besides, I'm not calling them "movies".
the scrolls are called "Scary Story". in my world, the "movies" are actually library books written on the scrolls.
but maybe thats me being egocentric again, assuming because I know something that everyone knows it...

but in the example of drakkan's room, he expected people to know the names of characters and fantasy locations from old school pc games, just based on a screenshot image. many of which I have never even heard of. and one of the questions was a "bunda" guy asking who sent you, and the player got it wrong and BAM! instant death. (although I DID think it was hilarious, I almost spilled my coffee on my laptop and destroyed all my work)

I think his puzzle was clever and cute, with the dialogue boxes, but it basically boils down to "trial and error". you know most players are gonna just reload their quicksave to test all the dialogue options.

if you don't know the movies in my puzzle, I think it could still be worked out through the process of elimination plus some "Random placement"