Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here, and today I'm discussing the evolution of video game puzzles
with a soft focus on the Sierra adventure games.
As you can see, I'm showing the original King's Quest, a graphic adventure game
designed by Roberta Williams and released in 1984.
The reason I'm using this game as an example is because
the entire King's Quest series is one of the most iconic within the genre,
and the one that sparked what we know today as moon logic puzzles and unwinnable situations.
A lot has changed since Sierra's golden years.
What we consider moon logic puzzles that were generally liked in the past
are now considered annoying and cumbersome.
So how did we get here? Was bad puzzle design a factor in the decline of adventure games?
Why are certain puzzle designs considered obsolete,
and how have they evolved from their early beginnings in text adventure games?
Well, first things first: What defines moon logic?
You may have heard that term being used in the gaming community, mostly pointed at the older Sierra games,
and primarily the ones designed by Roberta Williams.
To put it simply, moon logic is used to describe puzzles, mostly ones that involve using inventory items, that are not lucid.
For example, here in King's Quest V, I have to squirt some honey on the ground
on this screen where nothing was happening previously,
then I have to drop emeralds in the honey, and that is how you escape the forest.
I know what you're thinking: "Well that's bullshit, how would I have ever known to do that?"
Well, you wouldn't. You would've had to just start clicking everything on everything else until something worked.
Logic puzzles have solutions that you generally know how to get to.
That doesn't make them easy, it just means that you know what to do to get to the solution.
The 7th Guest is known for logic puzzles:
Even though it took me forever to work out some of these chess-themed ones,
I knew there was a method here, an equation if you will, that needed to be completed,
and after I solved it, the method made sense.
Now, moon logic doesn't necessarily mean the puzzles will be more difficult than logical ones.
I spent hours on games like The 7th Guest and Catherine.
What makes something moon logic is when the solution doesn't come from rational thought,
as in, you'd have to be a lunatic to come to that answer, the word 'lunacy' being related to the moon.
It was once thought that its cycles triggered brief periods of insanity,
and the word 'lunatic' is derived from the Late Latin word 'lunaticus', which means 'moon-struck'.
The first instance I could personally find of someone using the term 'moon logic' comes from 1976
in an article discussing symbolism in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
The author states that some of the symbolism is too simplistic,
and says that an overdose of 'moon logic' would not lend a deep understanding to the scene's symbolism.
Now, in terms of its usage towards video games, the earliest thing I could find
was directly referring to Roberta Williams' games as having 'dream logic' from 2000.
And of course, as the internet became more of a staple in people's lives
and old games became more accessible to people young and old, the more the term was used.
Alongside these notorious moon logic puzzles were ways to get yourself in unwinnable situations.
This normally happens when a puzzle consists of multiple parts
and involves more than one inventory item,
though sometimes it can be the most mundane action that puts you in an unwinnable.
Here in The Dagger of Amon Ra, I got a sandwich with a coupon I found!
Now, what you have to do with the sandwich is not moon logic: You have to give it to a hungry officer.
Makes total sense, food is typically made for consumption!
That being said, maybe you didn't know to give it to this guy.
Maybe you wanted to take a bite of that delicious corned beef sandwich yourself.
If you do this, you lose: You cannot progress, you need that sandwich and you just ate it.
There is no way to get another sandwich in this game.
And this happens in the first act, so it might take you a long time to figure out what you did wrong.
Another example is Dark Seed. Just the entire game of Dark Seed, created solely to make you lose your mind!
While some games might only have a few unwinnable states,
Dark Seed has an incredibly specific process to get to the end,
and if you stray even a little bit, you're fucked.
Maybe literally, 'cuz pulsating penises.
So are these absurd puzzles and unwinnable situations done on purpose, are they design flaws,
why are these games just so damn difficult?
A lot of people would argue that these older games really are just designed poorly,
but I believe they were purposefully hard as being opposed to unwinnable-by-oversight.
Roberta Williams was heavily inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure, a text adventure game released in 1976.
Like many others, she obsessed with figuring out the puzzles, getting stuck months on end.
She enjoyed the challenge and the fact that you could screw up!
She would draw elaborate maps, take a perverse amount of notes, and find genuine enjoyment in doing so.
An excerpt taken from Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy quotes her as saying:
"I just couldn't stop. It was compulsive."
"I started playing it and kept playing it."
"I had a baby at the time, Chris was eight months old."
"I totally ignored him. I didn't want to be bothered. I didn't want to stop and make dinner."
Eeehhh... yeah, I just wanna say that I don't condone ignoring your child for a video game,
but yes, the games Roberta designed were meant to be challenging.
Really, really challenging.
In regards to what people want in an adventure game, you'll find the majority of people desiring a good story,
and the more modern ones do have engaging stories, and that's what we've come to equate them with.
But if you really think about it, the early King's Quest or Space Quest games were not reliant on story,
they were about exploring this new graphical world and figuring out the puzzles.
The early stories prior to games like Gabriel Knight were simple.
If you play through the first King's Quest game from 1984 with the aid of a walkthrough,
you'll notice how short it is: The game's unfair puzzles were meant to be deciphered over months, even years!
There's of course a more greedy reason to put impossible puzzles in a game.
Hint books have always been available for these games,
and in the nineties, hint telephone lines became extremely popular and lucrative.
Some speculate that developers purposely put impossible puzzles in the game to sell these services.
In my opinion, I don't think this is a conspiracy worth busting wide open,
but I suppose it's possible considering how much money I blew on the hint lines.
Initially these early adventure games were given good reviews, and they were very successful,
but over time reviews on newer games started to get a little harsher.
People were becoming impatient, stating that the games were getting sloppy.
LucasArts, known for the Monkey Island series, Sam & Max: Hit the Road and Maniac Mansion,
criticized Sierra for basically punishing the player with puzzles that don't make any sense.
They described Sierra's "trial-by-error" gameplay as sadistic,
so LucasArts went on to design adventure games that don't put the player in unwinnables,
though I'd argue that some of their solutions, mostly the ones based on puns or wordplay,
aren't a great answer to quelling anyone's frustrations,
but you would now be rest assured that you wouldn't mess up irreparably!
But I see you, LucasArts, I remember that monkey wrench puzzle.
And don't think for a second that people forgot about Zak McKracken! They never forget!
Regardless, with the success of games like Monkey Island, preferences started to change.
Around 1998 adventure games, or more simply games with both logical and illogical puzzles,
saw a decline in popularity, as other genres came in and appealed to more people.
But it wasn't just new gaming, especially in regards to Sierra.
A gaming thread from 1998 shows people complaining about the company's puzzle design,
lamenting that Mask of Eternity, the last of the King's Quest series,
would kill not only Sierra, but the future of adventure games!
It's almost prophetic! People were accurately predicting some of the near-future.
King's Quest VIII would fail and Sierra would stop making adventure games,
and a lot of their critique has to do with the suffering puzzle design in previous titles.
In 2008 when GoG, previously known as Good Old Games, launched, there was a new interest in retro adventure games.
Now more people than ever could experience these puzzles for themselves,
but titles that were once praised are now being looked at as frustrating, echoing the same concerns from 1998.
Players who had never seen these titles are now comparing them to modern games
that have already implemented less demanding puzzles.
Now personally, I don't think these games aged poorly, I do think our tastes changed.
For me, this design change is not the same as seeing old 3D that no longer looks pleasing,
though to be frank, I'm not sure I ever thought this looked good, even at the time.
Puzzle design hasn't necessarily changed as much as it's evolved with technology.
The challenge of working months on end to finish a game has lost its appeal,
especially with the temptation of multiple walkthroughs, both in text and video form, being just a click away!
Another thing to consider is the sheer volume of games out there today.
Time feels more precious than ever, we do not want to waste time under any circumstance.
We're almost inundated with media, having an overwhelming library of digital entertainment!
People are finding they do not want to dump months to years at a time on a game,
but are instead wanting a more concrete, less tedious experience.
That doesn't mean people don't want to be challenged,
there are games like Dark Souls where people love to torture themselves with extreme difficulty.
The way we like to be challenged is different though: In Dark Souls, the action is constant.
In King's Quest, if you get stuck on a puzzle, you can end up doing nothing for long periods of time.
It also doesn't necessarily mean that moon logic or unwinnable states are hated by all:
Sierra enthusiasts had once lambasted LucasArts for "dumbing down adventure games for the masses,"
and every now and then I do enjoy a more trial-by-error type of game.
There's something fulfilling about figuring out a game with so many ways to mess up,
and there's also something charming about absurd puzzles,
like this classic scene in King's Quest V, where you toss a piece of moldy cheese into a Wand Power Generator.
This machine does not have an official name, so I'm going with Wand Power Generator.
I will say this though:
There are many things that added to the undoing of adventure game popularity, I'm not gonna deny that.
New games, struggles with graphics and keeping up with technology, accessibility...
However, it's become clear that people do not want to go back
to games that fuck you over, to put it in layman's terms.
While tough puzzle design wasn't a factor for all companies,
it definitely contributed to the downfall of Sierra,
and the fact that people still criticize these games for that very reason makes it clear.
And let's be honest, it's become pointless to put impossibly hard puzzles in games these days,
not when you can just play them with a walkthrough anyway!
I would say that most players are happiest with fair puzzles and a much more in-depth story.
King's Quest 2015 did a good job on taking some of the more frustrating elements from the source material,
and making them fun and more relevant to what players find enjoyable today.
Even though I'm in that group of people who doesn't want to return to puzzles past,
early text-based and graphic adventures are some of my favorites.
So if you're interested in some of these ruthless puzzles, remember:
Save early, save often, and if you have food in your inventory,
no matter how delicious it looks, do not eat it.
Happy adventuring!
Hey everyone, thanks for listening to me discuss adventure game puzzles and Sierra, always a fun time!
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