Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Wed Nov 13, 2024 1:39 am
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help
How Much is Too Much?
Moderators: imbri
View previous topicView next topic
Page 1 of 1 [2 Posts]  
Author Message
Jsor
Decorated

Joined: 23 Mar 2011
Posts: 165

 		How Much is Too Much?
When do puzzles get too complex?
There seem to be a lot of constants in ARGs, for instance, encryption rarely gets more complex that a rot or Cesarean Cipher, occasionally there's a One-time pad involved, but those are usually found pretty quickly once the info becomes available. As a programmer, I have access to tools other people may not have, but obviously I'm making a game, not working for the DOD. I have a program written (from an old class), for instance, that's a variant of the poker encryption method from the Cryptonomicon (specifically, a pinochle variant). This is an example, not necessarily exactly what I'd choose, but it's an okay example.

So my question is: when making a puzzle how much is too much? Can giving hints mitigate it? How much time is a player generally willing to invest before they give up? It seems at a certain level too much encryption can be bad, but at the same time, when you stick to the same old puzzles with a tiny new twist (let's multiply everything by ten minus its value first!) it gets a little stale. On the other hand, if players can't solve it, they get too frustrated and that's not good either.

So, what say you, how much is too much, and if you want to get more complex, how many clues should you give and how many resources should you provide (for instance, in my poker encryption example, should I hide the decrypter somewhere)?

PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 9:38 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		It really depends on your playerbase. If all you have are story geeks, you'd better keep the puzzles out or at least fairly easy. If you've attracted a group that likes puzzles and who is committed to solving them... You'll be surprised how fast they'll get pwned. It's fairly common that the puzzle takes longer to create than it will take to solve. Good rule of thumb on a motivated group is that they'll solve puzzles about twice as fast as you'd think they will. Of course all of that assumes that the puzzles are of good quality, that you've paid attention to detail and that you've performed efficacious playtesting.

And... It's Solitaire. Not Poker.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:29 am
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 1 of 1 [2 Posts]  
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Meta » Puppetmaster Help
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group