Fricking genius!!!

Johnny Walker

Just been playing Ice Station Santa and all I can say is: BRILLIANT!

The opening configuration screens and the new stylish opening just tickled me, but it's game itself which is fantastic. The humour is stronger (more satire, more grown up, love it!), the dialogue is improved vastly, even just when just looking at items. It really reminded me of Hit the Road in a way that I'd totally forgotten.

This is REAL Sam & Max!

I think if Episode 2 maintains the same standard, then Hit the Road will be a distant memory!

I thought Season 1 was great, but this is better!

Well done Tell Tale, you've exceeded my expectations!

Now: If you could just reduce the number of puzzles you solve before knowing the problem (doing something without really knowing why) and make opening the inventory animation quicker.

Great job!

Emily

Glad you're enjoying it.

If you could just reduce the number of puzzles you solve before knowing the problem (doing something without really knowing why)

Could you give an example? (Use spoiler tags.)

rowlff

I think I can answer that, too:

One example

I had the piranha foot bath sent to Stinky (because it felt like the right thing to do) and stuffed her sock with coal before I even noticed the sleigh's boiler.

And another one
Trying to get that darn elf to cry, I played around with everything in the workshop so much, that the final puzzle took me less than a minute eventually...

I'm not quite sure whether such occurences can be prevented, however. I gues once in a while you simply stumble about a solution before its time.
And it's still a great game!

Guybrush Threepwood

rowlff wrote: »

Trying to get that darn elf to cry, I played around with everything in the workshop so much, that the final puzzle took me less than a minute eventually...

You should always try every single dialogue option possible before you move on. That's my top tip!

wisp

rowlff wrote: »

I'm not quite sure whether such occurences can be prevented, however.

Why is this so bad? I happened to me with probably every adventure game I played so far. Of course you shouldn't miss any part of the story or interesting dialogue, but being able to solve a puzzle without seeing a small hint to it's solution isn't so bad.
In 201 I went straight back to the office looking for the

horsemen

and thus missed the funny conversation with the elves. This could have been avoided maybe, but it didn't bother me a second that I had the

socks stuffed with coal before reading the list next to the stuffer

.

Zeek

I must be the mixed bag of nuts then. Because I had both sides of the coin as far as telegraphing what that item does.

For example...

I picked up the Demonic Christmas record before picking up the instructions on how to execorsie the demon.

I also fell victem to not being able to figure out how to use

the world's simplest maze

until I had Sam say the left-click item description, then it made sense.

But at the same time, I was able to figure out the final puzzle simply by messing with the environments before hand much like everyone else, so it kind of evens out.

RabidZombie

I

made the elf cry first try... I wanted the funny dialogue!

:P

Johnny Walker

The elf is a good example, actually. You don't know why you need to make him cry (did anyone actually think "I think some magical fluid to make the tree outside grow". Hmm, where can I get it? Or even, "he makes trees grow... I could use that!"), but you find yourself being nudged into doing it... knowing you have to do it... but you don't know why.

Even the first puzzle is like that, in a way, as you are being lead by the characters rather than your own thought processes.

Of course it's hard to do, but I find that adventure games work best when the puzzles follow the user rather than the other way around. Sam & Max has a bit more leeway because of its surrealness, though

Brendan

Yes, I think that's a very good point. Let me explain some of our thinking in creating these puzzles. (Spoilers for Ice Station Santa, and the game design process)

We want the puzzle of getting into Santa's room to be relatively easy since it's one of the very first puzzles of the first episode of the season, and it gates the next big section of the game, so a player who can't figure it out will be stuck with nothing else to do. For this reason, we'll be a little more leading than usual. Moreover, the real mental connection of the puzzle is to realize that you can make the topiary outside grow, so since we want the puzzle to be fairly easy, we could have just given you a can of miracle-gro that you pick up like any other object. We just didn't think that would be as fun as making an elf cry, though (plus we want to encourage you to talk to the elves before meeting Santa). That segment is intended more as a funny activity than a brain-bender, so any decent interrogation of the elf will still end with you having your "miracle-gro". The only way I could see of making the miracle-gro unavailable until you realize you need it is to make it only appear at a later point in the game. That's not really possible for the puzzle that basically unlocks the rest of the game, though.

That said, we do try not to have puzzles that you'll be likely to solve before knowing why. With things like the plane and trampoline, it was very much assumed that you'd play around with them when you first arrived, and consider their usefulness in solving your current objective. The hope was that they wouldn't seem obviously useful to you then, but when the final battle came, you would have an Aha! moment where you would feel satisfied, nay overjoyed, to be able to use those things at last.

Thanks for the thoughts!

wisp

Well, to me it felt nearly the way you described it..

..on the other hand, you probably just made that up now, after reading all those comments.

Jake

wisp wrote: »

..on the other hand, you probably just made that up now, after reading all those comments.

Probably not, but as a designer it's his job to keep you guessing.

ShaggE

Brendan wrote: »

Text text text

Dunno if it was intentional, but I loved how the trampoline and plane kept leading me down a completely wrong train of thought, like a red herring of sorts. (I kept trying to get Max to jump into the plane from the trampoline throughout the game)

Johnny Walker

Thanks for the insight Brendan, it was very interesting!

I understand what you mean, but you are steered towards getting the miracle grow before you may have even noticed the plant outside (I think?). But maybe it just all comes down to the fact that the items don't necessarily create a great puzzle: I certainly didn't think that the tree outside would grow that much, for example. Also the chimney outside isn't consistently placed with it leading to Santa's room, meaning that I also probably didn't make the connection there either.

Maybe I just need to play with the hint level set higher

Brendan

I hear you there. By design, the topiary was supposed to be something that you'd notice when you entered the workshop, appearing to be right below the chimney, but for technical reasons we had to move it out from the building. I agree that weakens the puzzle, but I was hoping it would still make enough sense that people would figure it out. Thanks for the constructive criticism.

Harald B

I figured it out by accident. I already had the elf tears and just thought it might be funny to use them on the topiary, without having any particular result in mind.