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1. Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:34:51 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

   in reply to

   • Spindley Q Frog

   @SpindleyQ Well, there is that cuckoo clock in the plant one.

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:34:55 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     Two main categories of problem:
     * don’t know what my immediate goals are
     * don’t know whether they’re achievable yet

     The actual puzzles themselves were largely fine I think? Definitely no cat hair moustaches yet. Generally when I looked up hints my reaction was “Oh. Ok.” Not “I should have KNOWN” or “that’s RIDICULOUS”, just kind of, “so that’s the next thing to be done.”

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:34:59 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     But I reached for hints a LOT, and I’m hard pressed to think of a significant puzzle that felt satisfying to solve. The storytelling is compelling but the adventure gamey stuff ends up getting in the way as much as it helps.

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:02 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     Digesting Gabriel Knight 2 a bit more. I think the overall structure of investigation / research focused mechanics works really well, but the puzzles are almost universally badly hinted. I think they recognized this and tried to address it but they didn’t quite get there - the “is there still stuff to do here” button on the map helps sometimes, and during the endgame you get a literal todo list which is perfect for that section.

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:06 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     “The player is gonna sit and watch this opera performance in German with no subtitles for at least five solid minutes, but if they read the program before the cutscene happens they’ll probably have a vague idea of what’s going on, so we’re good”

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:10 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     Finished Gabriel Knight 2. Say what you will about FMV, not enough game designers today are like “ok so for this part of the game I’m gonna compose an opera, we need someone to translate my lyrics to German, and also hire some jugglers”

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:13 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     and Grace, supposedly the logical skeptic-type, just immediately trusts her more than any other character, _including the woman who worked intimately with the previous Schattenjäger_

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:16 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     I just love that this moody game that tries so hard most of the time to ground its supernatural elements in reality and history has these yokels crashing in and _actually being psychic_

     like you have to get a tarot card reading and dream interpretation from her and she gives you a warning from the spirit realm and _it's all true_

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:19 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     Best characters so far are definitely the tacky demonologist couple from Pennsylvania making a tourist pilgrimage to rural Germany in the hopes of meeting a real live "shatten-jagger"

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:22 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     in reply to

     Mechanically, the biggest problem it suffers from is not providing enough hinting towards what your goals are. Numerous times I've hit up the UHS hint file because I had no idea what to do next, only to have a puzzle spoiled that might have been reasonable to solve if I'd known it existed.

   • Spindley Q Frog (spindleyq@gamemaking.social)'s status on Monday, 24-Jan-2022 20:35:25 UTC Spindley Q Frog

     My wife and I have been playing Gabriel Knight 2. It's... good? Kind of? It's weirdly structured and a lot of the puzzles aren't super great and there's a bunch of untranslated / unsubtitled German dialog for some reason and the acting never quite gels. But like, I dunno why so many FMV games are space shooters instead of adventure games, because adventure games as a genre _actually continue to work_ if you put FMV in them.