Re: [Bookclub] [Late] Puzzles in _John's_Fire_Witch_

[cerutti@together.net (Neil Cerutti)]

Gabe McKean posted:
>Neil Cerutti wrote in message ...
>>There is a nice feeling of openness in _John's_Fire_Witch_.
>>After solving the game, I was sure that finding out how to use
>>the card was a huge bottleneck in the game.
>
>In a sense, it was.  The card is really the key to the entire
>game, and you probably won't get very far without figuring it
>out.  I, for one, didn't make much progress until I realized I
>could use the card to move around freely.

Yes. I'll have to figure out a way to account for that in the
puzzle plot.

>>But this plot doesn't account for everything. There are some
>>unwinnable states reachable in _John's_Fire_Witch_, one very
>>easy to reach.
>>
>>  1. If you cross the pit before finding the magic card, you
>>  are stuck. This has been accounted for by placing the card in
>>  the same spot as the batteries, which you must have found by
>>  that point.
>
>Finding the card isn't too hard.  Realizing that it's one of the
>items you need to take with you over the pit is the sticking
>point (assuming you haven't figured out how it works yet).  If
>you ask the devil about the pit, though, he'll tell you that you
>need the card.

That's interesting, though it's a hollow hint if you hadn't
brought the card with you, or read the diary (thanks).

>>Individual puzzles:
>>
>>Have a dream:
>>
>>  This is an unoriginal idea, but it is fit well into the
>>  story. I got an feeling of reliving whatever John had gone
>>  through. It is well-clued by John's diary, and the "you are
>>  really tired" messages. Nobody is likely to miss this one.
>>
>>  You have to wait around 150 turns before you can have the
>>  dream, but even on replays, there is enough stuff you can do
>>  before having the dream that it doesn't amount to a waste of
>>  time.
>
>I didn't think to sleep in the bed until rather late in the
>game, so I didn't even notice that.

What happens if you fall asleep elsewhere? Nothing? I forgot.
>
>>Find and use the card:
>>
>>  The magic card is an excellent and original idea. An
>>  excellent property of it is that you cannot solve it
>>  immediately. You must explore the caverns a bit before the
>>  card can be used. It is an excellent twist on the
>>  `teleporter' puzzle. You need a magic word, which is written
>>  on the card, to use it. More complexity could have been added
>>  if the magic word were hidden somehow.
>
>Actually the magic word was written in the diary, not on the
>card.  Since the card doesn't work right away, the player will
>probably forget about it until he/she gets bored and starts
>playing with it again (hopefully after visiting at least one of
>the crystal grottoes), or asks the devil about the pit, which is
>what happened to me.

Thanks. I missed that.

I loved the coy way that it says: "This John's Diary. You aren't
going to read it are you?" Hee hee.

>>Kill the goblin:
>>
>>  This is a poor puzzle, but it's easy, so nobody minds.
>
>I minded.  There are 4 'baddies' in the game, and you defeat 3
>of them by outsmarting them (though you may not realize how
>until the critical moment). Beating a goblin to death with a
>2-by-4 might have been fun in a different kind of game, but it
>seemed totally out of place in JFW.

That's true.

>>Cross the bridge:
>>
>>  This is more a relief than a puzzle. The player's been
>>  carrying around these darn gems for the entire game thinking
>>  that they're red herrings.
>
>Of course, by this point the player should realize that *none*
>of the carryable items were red herrings.  They all turn out to
>have at least one use (many uses, in the case of the card).
>That's one of the reasons the sins puzzle works so well: it
>requires the player to use a bunch of items that he/she probably
>thought were there purely for atmosphere.

Don't forget the modem. I think it was stuck in there just to get
players sent to hell thinking that it must somehow stand for
pride because it's the only unused item left. I did try it,
though I knew in my heart it was going to be wrong.

>>Destroy the wizard:
>>
>>  It's hard to see how a player could guess that the solution
>>  to this puzzle would work, but it's a fun and likely think
>>  for the player to try through experimentation. It's nice that
>>  the player gets no consideration at all from the Ice Wizard,
>>  even after he's been imprisoned.
>
>It's also nice that all possible permutations of the required
>action were handled.  Of couse, only one leads to victory...
>This is definitely a 'try-and-restore' puzzle, but not a bad
>one.

I think we were all accustomed to puzzles like this in an
endgame. For instance, there's now way for a player to know which
spells to have memorized before going into the stairwell in
Enchanter.

-- 
char NeilCerutti[]= "cerutti@together.net";