Does anyone go back and replay puzzles?

[Talisman]

Some puzzle games have a level screen or 'world map' screen that shows the player's progress. This screen often also allows the player to revisit any previously completed level and play it again. Professor Fizzwizzle has one of these.

These level selection screens are an opportunity for confusion. Almost all players simply want to progress to the next level, so why present dozens or hundreds of icons that they don't want to click on?

In my puzzle game, I will show a progress screen, but give no options: clicking anywhere simply progresses to the next level. I doubt (m)anyone will care.

However, I also want to let players skip difficult levels. (This makes the game accessable to a wider range of skill levels, and lets me be lazy about testing puzzle difficulty.)

Will players feel frustrated if they skip levels and then cannot replay them?

One solution is to unlock level selection once all levels have been played (or skipped), but I would like to hear your suggestions on this.


Professor Fizzwizzle's world map: player friendly? (http://it.download.games.yahoo.net/images/0e192c04597849a748da9a09996f259d/pfizz_4.jpg)

[GBGames]

Will players feel frustrated if they skip levels and then cannot replay them?

One solution is to unlock level selection once all levels have been played (or skipped), but I would like to hear your suggestions on this.



Immediately what comes to mind: I think that you shouldn't make level selection an unlockable feature but a readily available feature. If people don't care to do it as you hypothesize, making it a special feature is like saying, "Yay! You win! Here's your reward: nothing you care about!"

The question of whether or not people do like to select levels is a good one. I would assume yes, but I'm trying to remember if I ever wanted to replay a level I had already beaten. Games like Populous, in which it isn't a puzzle game so much as a real time strategy game, did have levels I wanted to replay, but just to try something different. Puzzle games which almost always have one solution are more conquests that I don't care to struggle through a second time.

[papillon]

If there's only one solution, *probably* not, but is there any reason to prevent someone from going back to an earlier level? Perhaps they want to remind themselves how they solved an earlier puzzle while seeking inspiration on a later, harder one.

On something like Eets where solutions aren't so rigid, yes, I do go back, especially if I'm sure I can solve something with fewer items if I just try a little bit more....

I agree that a huge list of small near-identical dots isn't the best UI. To have any benefit in revisiting an old level you need to be able to see/remember what that old level was!

[LilGames]

why present dozens or hundreds of icons that they don't want to click on?

It's psychological. It presents a snapshot of the player's progress through the game.

I've played games where I can view/cycle through screenshots of the puzzles and choose which ones to play, and I find with that model I will skip many I don't like and skim through all of them playing only the most interesting puzzles. That means once I'm done those, the remaining ones are unappealing.

Most time it's best to "lead" the player through levels.

[Ryan Clark]

We do definitely have a lot of people who replay the levels. I just got an email yesterday, in fact, from a user who posted tons of custom levels on our site and then took a break from the game while going to college for the year. He's back into the game now, and said he's going to replay all of his favourites, since he's forgotten how to solve them.

So yes, I'm sure people do this. How many people is another matter!

Good luck with your game... more puzzle games is always a good thing :)

[Drakkheim]

The only time I go back and replay puzzles is if I'm graded on performance/time/moves and the lure of an unlock, bonus, extra feature lures me.

I've spent way too much time doing the same puzzle over and over again just to get it done in 5 moves less so I can unlock the bonus character... It doesn't even have to be a big thing either, the mere promise of concept art, audio outtakes, new colorful buttons will keep me obsessing for hours on end.

[Philippe]

I'd also vote for level selection: imagine you have a friend over and want to show him that puzzle game you've purchased. You may start by showing him the first level, but you might also want to start off with some level you found really cool for whatever reason.

[whisperstorm]

Perhaps find some way to make going back over old levels an aspect of the progression in the game. Say you beat the level at a better time, or you get more combos, etc. You might also provide unlockables if the player goes through all the levels 2x times. Another aspect may be that the gameplay is so varied that it may seem that even though the user is on the same level, that it feels different this time around.

One gimmick Ape Escape 3 uses to induce the player to replay levels is that once you beat the game you are given a tool that allows you to find hidden monkeys in the original level. This is a somewhat novel idea - you might do something like that where you have a new ability in the game and playing the old levels with this new ability creates a new gameplay mechanic...