The idea of making a document analysing the hints system within a specific game came to me during MIGW 2016, when I found myself talking about my past research in dialogue and puzzle design within Adventure Games. It had been a while since I spoke about the topic in great detail and the more I spoke on the subject, the more I recalled wanting to write a document like this, a document that listed all the clues within a game that are presented to the player for them to interpret.
This document is an analysis of the hints and clues featured in a game that is written alongside playing the game, in this case, LucasArts "The Curse of Monkey Island". It will list out all the possible clues or hints that may lead the player towards finding the solution to a puzzle. Some clues may be a blatant as a character telling the player to talk to a certain character to progress, some may be a visual clue that allows the player to subconsciously go where they need to, and in some circumstances the clues may be anti-clues, telling the player that they can't do an action yet. Along with listing the dialogue that is spoken upon each interaction, I also wrote a brief line explaining the significance of the hint.
So why choose LucasArts "The Curse of Monkey Island" as my first game to study? There were a number of reasons but it mostly came down to the number of verbs are only three and the game has a number of self-contained scenes. The fact that there were only three verbs in this game meant that the number of possible dialogue outcomes that would be dramatically reduced however there is still enough interaction to prevent the verbs from becoming less like clue facilitators and more like immediate actions to be taken. The game is also split into a lot of self-contained scenes meaning that there are more hints that led directly to a solution rather than a puzzle that may occur much later in the game. It's helpful in this study as it will mean that the number of locations and interactions are reduced so shifting through unneeded information is also reduced. I was also interested in how much the visuals were used in the hint system. They often tried in the past to have visual clues but due to the limitation of graphics they weren't clearly shown. This game was made at a time where visual clues were becoming one of the main staples of Adventure game design. One final reason of why I chose this game is, "The Curse of Monkey Island" is one of my favourite Adventure games which I haven't played in awhile, however, I still remember all the solutions so I believed it would fit the parameters I required.
This document is an analysis of the hints and clues featured in a game that is written alongside playing the game, in this case, LucasArts "The Curse of Monkey Island". It will list out all the possible clues or hints that may lead the player towards finding the solution to a puzzle. Some clues may be a blatant as a character telling the player to talk to a certain character to progress, some may be a visual clue that allows the player to subconsciously go where they need to, and in some circumstances the clues may be anti-clues, telling the player that they can't do an action yet. Along with listing the dialogue that is spoken upon each interaction, I also wrote a brief line explaining the significance of the hint.
So why choose LucasArts "The Curse of Monkey Island" as my first game to study? There were a number of reasons but it mostly came down to the number of verbs are only three and the game has a number of self-contained scenes. The fact that there were only three verbs in this game meant that the number of possible dialogue outcomes that would be dramatically reduced however there is still enough interaction to prevent the verbs from becoming less like clue facilitators and more like immediate actions to be taken. The game is also split into a lot of self-contained scenes meaning that there are more hints that led directly to a solution rather than a puzzle that may occur much later in the game. It's helpful in this study as it will mean that the number of locations and interactions are reduced so shifting through unneeded information is also reduced. I was also interested in how much the visuals were used in the hint system. They often tried in the past to have visual clues but due to the limitation of graphics they weren't clearly shown. This game was made at a time where visual clues were becoming one of the main staples of Adventure game design. One final reason of why I chose this game is, "The Curse of Monkey Island" is one of my favourite Adventure games which I haven't played in awhile, however, I still remember all the solutions so I believed it would fit the parameters I required.
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