Looney Labs Something Mailing list Archive

Re: [Something] RE: [Icehouse] Something for Zendo Fans

  • FromKory Heath <kory@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateThu, 13 Jul 2006 13:20:52 -0700

Ok, I don't get it.  It's a random guess?  There doesn't seem to be  any
logic I can use to intuit the correct color.  Am I just dense, or  do you
have to assume that the pattern is a coherent one and use an  "educated"
guess?

I like Brian's answer to this question. I'll add, in case it's not obvious, that each pattern was designed by a human pattern-designer, whose goal is to make a fun game experience. So you can assume that you'll be able to make better and better "educated guesses" as more and more of the pattern gets revealed.

Notice that, as in Zendo, it's possible to design patterns that are too obscure or difficult, in which case the player's guesses will continue to feel somewhat random throughout the game. I've designed patterns that I knew would be good, solvable patterns, without even having to playtest them, but I've also tried some designs where I've thought "I'm not really certain whether people can figure this out." A few of those patterns worked fine, but many of them failed. Again, as with Zendo, it's taken me a while to develop my intuition about how to make good patterns.

-- Kory