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| Message Board > Game Designing > Puzzle games without a world map? |
| August 31, 2010, 12:34 | |
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DTM
Earthling! 823 posts 
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Hello! Consider puzzle games where each "level" is a self contained puzzle with little relation to previous or subsequent levels. (so it's not really a story based game and will not use story to show progression). Examples: World of Goo, Crayon Physics. Usually these types of puzzle game will have some fancy map to show the progression through the game, the map itself is often a work of art with animation and stuff. But even if a game doesn't have a map it will still generally have a GUI for selecting from levels. (e.g. that "Guru Logic Champs" remake from rockford/Ian Price). So, for research purposes... Can anyone give me any examples of existing puzzle games that don't do these things? No world map, no level selection GUI, perhaps no GUI altogether? ... I'd really like to have none of these in my game either. It seems like it would be quite an original thing to have the complete game take place in the puzzle environment with no menus or other complications, with the puzzles just running one after another. And no level selection mechanic that will jar the user out of the world. I suppose level selection mechanics exist for a reason though. Perhaps it is a stupid idea not to have them. Hmm. [Edited on August 31, 2010 by DTM] ____________ :o |
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| September 1, 2010, 14:07 | |
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Dennis
どこかにいる 2098 posts 
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Look at this lode runner remake movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Fe5e-s598 You have a GUI to select levels, but if you pick "adventure mode" all the levels come sequentially. As you see in the movie: When all the gold pieces are found a block appears and you are able run into the next level that comes without even a transition. Is that what you mean? ____________ Kwakkel |
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| September 1, 2010, 20:02 | |
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Rincewind
programmer 1554 posts 
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I don't think you can select levels in this Puzznic game. There are some other similar puzzle games by Nimusi on this website too, without level selection too I think. I'm not sure whether this is the puzzle type you mean though. [Edited on September 1, 2010 by Rincewind] ____________ Personal website: http://www.loijson.com |
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| September 1, 2010, 23:01 | |
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rockford
Oldskool 94 posts 
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BoulderDash springs to mind - most see it as an arcade action game, but in reality each screen is a puzzle.I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a puzzle game, but it certainly has all the elements there before you. Super Puzzle Fighter II - not sure it's a puzzler really (any more than Tetris is), but it has Puzzle in it's title! Erm... And cheers for the Guru Logic Champs mention - BTW my Wiz version came 2nd in the recent GP32Spain competition - beaten by a game that was in development for four years! ____________ I came, I saw, I played some Nintendo. |
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| September 2, 2010, 00:51 | |
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DTM
Earthling! 823 posts
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Yes that lode runner seems to be like what I mean, except in my game there is a fade out and back in again between levels (it's not one continuous world). I'll check out Numusi's games and those other suggestions tomorrow, thanks  The definition of Puzzle can be flexible, I think the key here is that the game does not have much of a story, and is a loose collection of levels rather than a journey through a large continuous world. I.e. the sort of game that *does* generally allow for level selection (and even level skipping). So I'm going against the grain here. Quote: And cheers for the Guru Logic Champs mention - BTW my Wiz version came 2nd in the recent GP32Spain competition - beaten by a game that was in development for four years! Cool. It's a great game! The puzzles are good enough that you don't really need a story or any form of selection, I guess that's what I should aim for. Although the GUI in Guru does allow you to choose the order of solving puzzles, and skip ones that are too hard. That would not be possible if I just ran the levels one after another. Yet most big budget commercial action games seem to manage without letting you skip things, but I suppose the presence of a story helps excuse that limitation a little... I guess my game is somewhat similar to Guru too in that it involves a tile based world, shifting blocks etc. [Edited on September 2, 2010 by DTM] ____________ :o |
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| September 2, 2010, 14:28 | |
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Dennis
どこかにいる 2098 posts
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But Boulder Dash had a World Map ? [Edited on September 2, 2010 by Dennis] ____________ Kwakkel |
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| September 2, 2010, 23:55 | |
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rockford
Oldskool 94 posts
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Quote: But Boulder Dash had a World Map ? The original (and best) BoulderDash didn't have a world map. You could select a certain cave (from a limited pool (every fifth cave IIRC)) to start in though, via the title screen. The remakes/updates on arcade, GB, DS and recent pc are all horrible and don't have the right to call themselves BoulderDash! 
____________ I came, I saw, I played some Nintendo. |
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| September 3, 2010, 16:42 | |
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Dennis
どこかにいる 2098 posts
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Quoting rockford: Quote: But Boulder Dash had a World Map ? The original (and best) BoulderDash didn't have a world map. You could select a certain cave (from a limited pool (every fifth cave IIRC)) to start in though, via the title screen. The remakes/updates on arcade, GB, DS and recent pc are all horrible and don't have the right to call themselves BoulderDash! :P boulder dash on the DS is to boulder dash as parodius is to gradius.  (altho parodius was pretty sexy )[Edited on September 3, 2010 by Dennis] ____________ Kwakkel |
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Message Board > Game Designing > Puzzle games without a world map?