Stolen Pixels #167: The Solution to All Puzzles

[ritchards]

I love these guys' games, and picked up the full game (a while ago) after playing this demo. They do gorgeous work, and this is a full project for them.

While I haven't completed the game, I have been taking breaks between playing due to needing a lot of thinking time to get past the next bit. So far, yes, I have used Google once to get past one bit that was stumping me (I had been close without getting it, dangnabit!), but stopped after that.

And yes, that in game mini-game to get to the walkthrough ticked me off as well (which is when I repeated what the robot said in the strip).

 

[Zulu-Echo14]

You don't need Google in Machinarium, the game has a built in walkthrough, you just need to get the key to the lock by avoiding blocks and shooting spiders with it. So a brilliant adventure game becomes a shitty SHMUP.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Whooooo! You just earned them $20! After your comic, I checked out the Demo. After the Demo, I bought the game.

 

[WaderiAAA]

I know someone who loves this kind of game with this kind of artwork, and he would never ever google it.

 

[viciouspen]

HA!
Alright I tip my hat to you on that one. So true.

 

[Dhatz]

wow, how old are you? you are the first person I've ever heard of who's seen anything in such style as machinarium.

 

[insectoid]

'Google' is a verb now.

 

[Dirty Apple]

Of course, if you were Sierra On-Line, you set up an 800 number and CHARGED your customers for answers to your indecipherable puzzles.

Quite a racket they had going until Google came along...

Leslee

I remember those days. Playing King's Quest for hours, yet accomplishing nothing. Then something would happen either inspiration, rumours, or the good ol' cheat book. I even remember calling a Sega cheat line for the original Phantasy Star. I hadn't played the game in years, then picked it up on a whim. Realizing that I still couldn't figure it out, I called their "help" line, and voila the game was beaten. Only took me 5 years.

 

[Swaki]

you dont play machinarium for the puzzles, in the same way that you dont walk on the great wall of china for the exercise.

Machinarium is one, if not the most powerful experiences I've had with gaming, its still a part of my life, i have some concept art as my desktop background, the soundtrack on my ipod and i got a poster made of the city (might be copyright infraction, if so then i did not do it).

but yes, some of the puzzles where a little annoying, especially towards the end (the last hour or so is dreadful gameplay wise, but some of the most amazing in sound, visual and atmosphere)

 

[Scrythe]

This is the exactly reason why I feel a sense of pride for being able to plow through every single Monkey Island game, and "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" without having to look up a guide. It's such a satisfying feeling.

 

[Madshaw]

shamus I am never going to read the text before i read the comic ever again you gave it all away and completly killedtghe joke, and where is the rest of chainmail bikini?

 

[Kirby Pufocia]

Haha, great comic, and thanks for the link to Machinarium! Judging by the demo, it's in the more forgiving category of adventure/puzzle games, where you're just stuck until you can figure out what to do next. I'm still not sure if I like this style better or worse than the Sierra style, wherein doing the wrong thing (or not doing something) early in the game can make it impossible to finish the game.

Okay, so I like it way better. The art direction for this game is insane to boot! I think this might have the (dubious) honor of being the first game I purchase this year.

 

[commasplice]

Hmm. I've been stuck for fifteen minutes. Bored now. I'll just Google the answer. But now I'm just reading a FAQ and following directions, which defeats the entire point of the game. Why am I doing this again?

This exact scenario happened to me three days ago while I was playing Silent Hill 2 for the first time. I felt guilty about looking the answer up, but I just cannot stand having the flow of a game be broken by the fact that I have to repeatedly canvas every floor of a hotel because I can't find a silver dollar (or some such nonsense) that is represented by a single pixel. From what I read, though, the game still seems interesting enough (even with story spoiled) that I'll likely go back and finish it one of these days...

 

[Rack]

This is something they set themselves up for, because every time I get stuck on a puzzle at the back of my mind is the possibility that it's going to be another damn "Monkey Wrench" and any time I spend trying to figure it out is a total waste of time. It's also why I love the Phoenix Wright games because there you know damn well you have all the tools at your disposal and you're not really going to be at the mercy of insane adventure logic.

Come to think of it when you're looking to Japanese titles to show a greater measure of sanity you know you've messed up somewhere.

 

[Magnalian]

Eh, probably not going to buy this game. It looks interesting, but when I couldn't figure out the 3rd stage of the demo and I used the hintbook-thing, instead of providing me with another hint, the game blatantly showed me what to do...

 

[copycatalyst]

I liked that Machinarium had an in-game hint system, so that you could move on before getting too bored if you got stuck, but still not feel too bad about "cheating" (and also only get the hint for the area you're standing, so future puzzles remain unspoiled). Too bad the way it was implemented was with a terribly tedious shmup.

 

[Pseudonym2]

Another alternative answer to "who killed adventure games"?
http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html

That's why I don't like video game puzzles. I can usually think of plenty of my own solutions that make more sense but isn't what the developer wanted me to do.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Played the Dig a while back and I am not ashamed to admit I used google for that damn bit with the skeleton. I remember the day when you would walk around for hours rubbing items up against everything and one day click on the right pixel. I have a rule no where if I am getting really frustrated I'll look up google. I only feel bad if it's a solution I should have figured out like using the stick to prop up whatever but sometimes I know I would NEVER actually figure something out and guessing by chance is pretty much the same as looking it up. You haven't figured it out you just worked it out by elimination.
And anyway considering I am mostly catching up on ancient adventure games I got for cheap I don't feel too bad about looking up where to kick that damn wall in full throttle

 

[TraumaHound]

In the before times, I remember a friend and I playing through one of the King's Quest (as well as the other "Quest" games...and Leisure Suit Larry games) titles and getting stuck. Near the back of the manual was a 900-number (do they still even have those?) help-line for stuck players. As the cost of the call was based on how long one was on the line we'd note down the question-trees to help minimize how long we were on listening to the questions read off to us. We'd get the answer, hang up, then back to the PC!

In the before-before times, on the C64, I remember Infocom's games coming with a hint-book that used an invisible-ink-revealer pen to show you clues to the puzzles' answers. If I remember correctly, there were degrees of how much of a clue the book would give you and you could choose how much of the answer you wanted it to spell out for you, up to giving you the answer outright.

I got stuck pretty early on with the first Professor Layton game for the DS. My first thought was to hit up GameFAQs for what I was sure would be a walkthrough for the game which would definitely get me through the stuck points. Then I realized I'd just take the lazy way out whenever I could and just look the damned puzzle's answer up. I didn't bother completing the game, I'd ruined the challenge for myself.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

Dammit why am I skint. I just played the demo, loved it, went to buy the game and saw the £13 price tag. I can't afford that much right now