POKEMANIAC'S PROFILE

author=Feldschlacht IV

author=Pokemaniac
I'm a robot.

Affirmative.

It's not that I can't enjoy a certain amount of that type of gaming. It just can't hold my attention.

author=soniX
999 on DS had some good puzzles that you needed to solve in every room you go to. I actually got stuck on the very first puzzle in the game and ended up solving it by probability (Okay, stop laughing now!). But the rest of the puzzles were pretty easy except for one which I needed to use a walkthrough, oh and the sudoku puzzle at the end was also pretty good.

As much as I loved that game, I didn't feel the puzzles were anything special. They mostly felt like busywork(I don't know why, since I got stuck a few times :S). They weren't bad, they just didn't feel very original. But yes, the sudoku...

Ghost Trick is probably the game with the best puzzles I've ever seen. They focussed on basically 1 core mechanic that was relevant to the plot, but it was utilised in so many different ways. And it was so beautifully animated, and all the puzzles in the game went perfectly with the story.

I do, although I don't remember any parts of the argument or the participants :P
EDIT: But, uh, back on topic...

I'd prefer the house wasn't there at all to it being locked. If I'm playing a game, and tons of things that I can normally do can't be done, then it really makes the experience shallow; you start off feeling that there's a large world to explore, when in fact there's next to nothing.

On the flip-side, exploring tons of houses is boring shit. Unless you're doing something with extraordinary writing(tempted to cite Earthbound here despite never having played it...), which you probably think you're doing regardless of whether you are or not, then I can bare it. Certainly have as many relevant locations as you like, and have locked doors if they'll one day be open, but otherwise, another solution's really needed.

I like the idea of colour-coding ala LA Noire, if you can be bothered putting the time in. But that game had a massive and atmospheric world, which I doubt your standard RPG town is going to match. It literally was Los Angeles. So maybe the real answer is to just make towns smaller; although if you end up with only one location because of it then you have a problem. Another solution is to just leave doors off houses(I only skim-read, did anyone else suggest this), which is perfect so long as you can do it without it looking weird.

EDIT: Yes, Blitzen said it first.

author=psy_wombats

author=facesforce
Ah, just use Renpy then, or any other visual novel engine. You can use variables to do as you wish if that is your idea. Other wise, I would advise you to program it in C, quick and easy.

That's pretty spot on. Ren'Py might be a little harder to get the hang of but you have graphical options if you need them. Otherwise some beginner C will get you where you need to go.

(I also have the LCPANES engine Java source code if you want it. You can use it with .txt files to just turn a story into a program if you don't need anything fancier than variables and choices)

I'm actually learning Java at the moment and I was kind of interested in doing something like LC PANES at some point. Could I get a copy?