Adding puzzle solutions

[coffee]

So I got this puzzle game and I want to include solutions for all puzzles (user can watch the solution play out), what im stuck with is that I dont want to give the user access to the solution right away I want the user to atleast try the puzzle. So I thought of several ways to do this.

1. User must spend at least 15mins trying to solve the puzzle
2. User must have failed/reset the puzzle 3 time or more
3. User can only use the solve button once very 3 hours of gameplay.

What do think is best or do you have a better way? or should i give in and let the user solve all puzzles when they want?

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Interesting - I'm contemplating the same issue in a game of mine. Fortunately, the puzzles are only a sideline to the main game, so if the player gets stuck, it's not TOO bad.

That said, I'm not crazy about any of your ideas. I don't have great alternatives. The best I've thought of for my game is that you earn 'hints' by completing puzzles successfully. Probably for every 3 you complete, you earn 1 hint. But I'm not sure my idea is all that hot either...

[Tom Cain]

I once used a staged hint system that customers liked. They could request a hint that would show them where one piece goes at any time. Each request would reveal a new piece. It allowed them to reveal every piece if they chose to. Customers liked having that control and sales went up after I added that feature.

If you track stats in your game, track how many hints they used to solve a puzzle. If you use scoring, penalize the score. I've found these to be the best deterrents to using hints. Many players stay away from the hint button when they know it affects their ability measurement. It's like looking in the back of a puzzle magazine at part of a crossword answer -- you know you can do it, but your victory won't be clean.

In my experience those who can't self-regulate their hint use also don't care to spend time unlocking hints. They just want the hint.

[Huge]

I once used a staged hint system that customers liked. They could request a hint that would show them where one piece goes at any time. Each request would reveal a new piece. It allowed them to reveal every piece if they chose to....

This sounds like a good idea - kinda reminds me of how some crossword puzzles work. Those puzzles also have a "check" function too - it highlights wrong letters. Maybe something like this would help too ? This way, if you have it right, you do not feel like you have cheated.

[Ryan Clark]

We allow people to look at the solutions at any time in Professor Fizzwizzle, and users seem to appreciate it. The only complaints we've had are from people who want to lock out that feature so that they don't fall prey to the temptation, or so that they can prevent their kids from "cheating".

So in Professor Fizzwizzle 2 we're adding the ability to password protect the feature or lock it out entirely.

[coffee]

Thanks for the replys guys, I think the showing hints is the best idea, a little harder to code in the game but I think it will work well.

[Ronkes]

Maybe you can simply rename the feature from something like 'view solution' to 'cheat'. It would still do the same thing, but players will be less likely to use it unless they're really stuck.

[badjim]

-nvm sorry-

[coffee]

Thanks for all the replys.. i like the idea of calling the soultion button "Cheat" I think i'll use that.

Ive decided to split the puzzles into 3 sections (section 1=easy, 2=moderate, 3=hard), each section has 16 puzzles, when they start the game, they can only play the first 16, when they complete 8 of them, they unlock the the 2nd section, complete 8 of them they unlock the 3rd section. Ive noticed many games use this as it doesnt force the player to try and try on the same puzzle, if its to hard they can try another and still progress though the game.

[kevryan]

Multiple pathways are always nice. On the first version of The Incredible Machine I made iit linear with one puzzle after the other. If you got stuck on one puzzle you were - uh - stuck - no other new puzzles to play until you got past the current one. In later versions I added "official solutions" that you could see after solving a level and also a hint system where you could click a button to get hints along the lines of "try putting the cannon here" with an arrow.

[Phil Steinmeyer]

So I just implemented something for my game. It's a free hint button, but it only works from a known state (i.e. if they've already manipulated the puzzle, the hints probably won't work), and it's progressive. First click highlights piece to move, second highlights path to move it. Then, if they move that piece, they can press hint again for the next move.

Seems to be a reasonable solution.

The downside is, after I programmed a recording tool, I had to go through and solve all my puzzles. A bunch were really hard, and I marked those to solve tomorrow when my brain is fresh - I don't remember all the solutions myself.