Foreverhood sanity stories

Skadoomer · Post by **Skadoomer** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 20:59

Funny, there all working for me. There also all there on the server. Which ones can't you see?

Psycho Siggi · Post by **Psycho Siggi** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 2:31

The pictures are amaizing

Post by **ellmo** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 16:24

NVM, Ska... I see them now. Something was wrong with my connection yesterday IMO.

Skadoomer · Post by **Skadoomer** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 23:57

My mind recoils.
I'm trying to come up with some 'innovative' puzzles for foreverhood (since one of the later areas is puzzle basted) And i have to say, its not an easy task. Aside the limitations on my abilities to use ACS, i'm pondering what makes a good, coherent puzzle. So far the rtc floor pattern in one of the coolest i've seen outside of hexen, but ther than that what has really been done? Throw a few switches here and there, lineup the symbols there and what not.

Basically i think all comes down to this: Pattern, series and sequence. Hopefully i can build on that enough to band out 6 really badass problems that will remain fun the 60th time as they do the first. Then again, once you know the puzzle, it gets really easy to solve it.

Post by **wildweasel** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 0:08

How about a riddle puzzle or something? Give the player a riddle that describes, in some way, a certain shape or symbol - the player has to figure out what the riddle is describing and go through the correct door/tunnel/button, or else they recieve a small amount of damage that gets more severe each time they mess up (the first hit only takes five health, the second takes 10, then 20, then 40, then it kills you).

Phobus · Post by **Phobus** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 16:47

A good platforming section or jumping puzzle never goes amiss. Or perhaps a maze? They both count as puzzles in their own right.

Post by **Paul** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 17:43

If that maze was randomised somehow.. then again, mazes are pretty hard. If there was an obtainable map to guide You through the current randomised combination of walls each time You play the game it'd be much more interesting In my opinion.

Personally, I think a puzzle should be hard to solve without a proper clue or hint that should be obtained elsewhere, however if they are too hard it's not fun in my opinion.
I remember playing my way through RE original back in 98 and I had no damn idea how to solve the pictures puzzle to get the Star Crest in the mansion. I used to look the house up at every corner for hints-nothing, until my brother got the walkthrough. I may add I had the german version of the game, so I understood 1/8 of it

MediEvil (PSX) had some of the coolest puzzles. Even children would solve them-like moving colored chess onto respective fields (color coded) or pursuiting a mouse to wind up in front of a grass-made elephant blocking Your path. Once the sucker sees the critter he goes wild and moves out of the way. Simply great.

ASh · Post by **ASh** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 18:29

I'm glad to join this board to contribute to another great project recently discovered by me!
Conserning puzzles: Please, no jumping puzzles! You have a first person game with ZDooM engine! Did you ever wonder why there was NO jumping from pillar to pillar in DooM? It's a bad thing to do with doom engine!
And, for a shooter, there not so many puzzle types availible! They are:
Push buttons in a correct order or find a hidden key or find an item somewhere.
Good story-based game with nice and easy puzzles is American McGee's Alice.
I belive that in an action game puzzles shouldn't be too tough, but they have to have a BIG visual/audio effect, meanng that you should see the result clearly.
Remeber Duke3D where you push certain switches and then you can see a building coming down?
Sam with Half-Life 1 and 2... Puzzles are not too hard and they give you a sence of accomplishment.
Also Psychonauts are good to check out, but it mostly relies on destroying a specific item to progress throught the game.

And I must add that I'm really excited for Foreverhood and I just can't wait to see a demo or something, but I'm willing to wait as long as it takes because I know that it's no good to rush a developer. Especcially an indie one.
Good luck!

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:21

ASh wrote:Did you ever wonder why there was NO jumping from pillar to pillar in DooM? It's a bad thing to do with doom engine!

LIES! There was no jumping in doom because there was no jumping in doom. Not because ID thought it would be a sucky idea. Also jumping puzzles rock. Shame on ye.

Skadoomer · Post by **Skadoomer** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:14

To recap

Paul wrote:If that maze was randomised somehow.. then again, mazes are pretty hard

Funny, that was an idea i had for an underwater level that never went anywhere. You had to follow a creature through a maze and if you deterded away from him, you wound up being nandomly teleported from cavern to cavern. While conceptually it sounded freakin awsome, i could see a few people (myself included) getting frustrated with their inability to find there way back onto the path.

Mazes would be tough because i pulled the automap from foreverhood, and that would further make it impossible to see where your going.

A good platforming section or jumping puzzle never goes amiss.

Then you won't be dissapointed but i'm still looking for something more.

Good story-based game with nice and easy puzzles is American McGee's Alice.

Those where alright, and though i did get some inspiration from that area, most of the puzzles where pretty tame.

I'm teetering on the possibility of breaking one of the unnofical dev rules i've been working by whgich is the use of the inventory to store items for item collecting puzzles. There are no keys in foreverhood (theres something far better) and there is no action that currently requires a 'use' button. In a way i've really shot myself in the foot here because i've set these rules in place, i don't know wether its wrong to change the rules at this point in the game to make things more interesting.

I keep going back to hexen because they really got it right in my mind on how to make a challanging puzzle that is doable, but at the same time dosn't get really old after you play through it a few times. While a good chunk of there puzzles rely on flipping switches or collecting a set of keys or objects, its still a really simple and elegant way of challanging the player.

I have a good idea for one puzzle, but i first have to see what the limit on polyobject movement is. If the player can push them then i think i have puzzle number 4 figured out.

Post by **wildweasel** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:23

Here's an idea I haven't seen anybody do yet.

A gigantic Simon game. You're in a dome-like area (or a large cavern or something) divided into four sections. As the sections light up, you have to jump on them before they go out. Making a mistake or just plain missing the button five times in a row will cause the area to cave in on you. Ouch.

ASh · Post by **ASh** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 17:05

Cutmanmike wrote: LIES! There was no jumping in doom because there was no jumping in doom. Not because ID thought it would be a sucky idea. Also jumping puzzles rock. Shame on ye.

Why start with accusing me of something? Well, as we know from doom source that jumping and transparrency WAS in doom engine, it just wasn't used in DooM! (It was used in Hexen, though). There WAS jumping of sorts in it - you had to run to fly over to another sector...
So far, I haven't seen a good jumping puzzle in a first person game. It's really hard to do if you don't have a reference for landing (like a shadow or player's character).

As for untraditional puzzles in shooters: There was this game "Realms of the Haunting" where a player had an inventory, like in an adventure game. There were A LOT of items to go there. But they would be applied automaticcaly if the player would you the object they applied to. Really cool, but it made "RotH" more of an adventure game of sorts, than a shooter (It was made using the engine of a 3d adventure game "Normality"). I'll be happy if you go the "inventory" direction because I'm a huge adventure games fan.

TheDarkArchon · Post by **TheDarkArchon** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 21:39

Ash: This is the reason why Cutmanmike likes jumping puzzles

Skadoomer · Post by **Skadoomer** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:58

Made from scratch in photoshop with a Wacom Tablet:

Use in a screenshot:

Build time: 5 hours.
No filters where used in the making of the above texture.

Post by **ellmo** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 15:12

You know what?
I've played dozens... no... hundreds of FPP games. And I haven't seen something like that. This is exquisite.