Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design by Ernest Adams

Author:Ernest Adams [Ernest Adams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Game Development
Publisher: New Riders
Published: 2014-09-11T21:00:00+00:00

Figure 2 Pettson’s Inventions

Checking the Victory Condition

Bear in mind that players don’t always find the solution to a puzzle the way that you envisioned when you invented it. There might be more than one path to the goal. When your game checks to see whether the player solved the puzzle, you should test only to see whether the player met the victory condition you gave her, not that she has done it in the way you expected. Otherwise you’ve cheated her, and she’ll be justifiably frustrated. She’s managed to get to the correct solution state, but your game refuses to recognize it.

This problem appears in the game Interstate ’76, in which players found an innovative solution to a problem, but the game did not give them credit for it because it wasn’t the “right” solution—even though the outcome was the same. When the software checks the victory condition in your game, be sure it checks the solution state that you told the player to achieve, not the way in which she achieved it. Many games also provide multiple levels of scores for different solutions, which rewards players for partial success and encourages them to keep trying for the best solution. It also makes the game available to a wider audience because even players who can’t find the ideal solution can still advance in the game. In Angry Birds you must destroy all the pigs on each level, but you get more points for doing it efficiently, and it rewards you with one, two, or three stars depending on your score.

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