Miscellaneous – WigDev

Colour-Coding and Accessibility

When you want to convey information visually, in a quick and simple manner, it’s no secret that colour-coding can be very effective. But if you aren’t colour-blind yourself, it can be easy to forget that not everyone sees different colours in the same way. I actually am slightly colour-blind, but only mildly, so I completely forget about it most of the time!

Up until now in my games, I’d never thought about specifically catering for colour-blind players – but my graphics had all been distinct in shape as well as colour, so I got away with it. In my latest game however, there were some graphics (mice, cats, etc.) that differed only in their colour – and their colour was a core part of the puzzles! As some of you rightly pointed out: that needed fixing.

So I’ve been busy! Luckily I had already been using blue and red as the most common colours, meaning many people with red-green or blue-yellow colour-blindness (the two most common varieties) may have no problem with the graphics. For those who do though, I’ve just updated the Miriam’s Mice Beta to version 0.51, which includes a new Colour-Blind mode. This adds high contrast borders and patterns of vertical or horizontal lines to the shapes so that they can be distinguished even by somebody with complete Achromatopsia (the impressive sounding name for rare total colour-blindness). It may not be perfect, but it should help!

(As an aside, it’s frighteningly easy to lose yourself in researching the different varieties of colour-blindness, their occurrence rates, and how precisely they affect vision. Not to mention the fascination of playing around with LMS colour-space filters to try to simulate how colour-blind people perceive different colours. Don’t start investigating unless you have a free evening/night/day/week/year/lifetime ahead of you!)

Thanks to those who pointed this out, and to Andrey for your helpful suggestions. I’m still just one guy, with limited experience, so do please let me know if I make more dumb accessibility oversights in the future!

Difficulty Curves in Puzzle Games (the WigDev Way)

Happy October, puzzlers! Apropos of pretty much nothing (but mainly because I’ve been endlessly designing rooms for my upcoming game, so it’s on my mind), I thought I’d share some of my recent thoughts about difficulty curves in puzzle games.

It’s tempting to assume that in any puzzle game, the challenges should get strictly harder – and for a simple linear game, such as a set of sudoku puzzles, that might be fine – but in a broader game with story or adventure elements, this isn’t necessarily the best option. If a player is spending many challenging minutes/hours on every single puzzle late in the game, at the same time that they’ve started uncovering and resolving some of the game’s mysteries, then their slow progress may feel annoying – just when the puzzles are supposed to be at their most fulfilling.

As with all games, difficulty should ebb and flow to provide breaks and levity, but there are some features unique to puzzle games that can allow even a ‘simpler’ challenge to fulfil a useful role. With that in mind, I thought I’d summarise my own approach here:

EARLY GAME

Basic puzzles that introduce key gameplay elements (including the core mechanics of the game, and how the interfaces work)
Easy challenges that combine these basic elements
And, in non-linear games: Moderate optional puzzles that require more complicated strategy with these same basic elements (to reward players who want to put extra thought in, without yet requiring it)

MID-GAME

Puzzles that introduce new gameplay elements (these might be new features that have been unlocked as the game/story progresses)
More complex puzzles that combine all the elements so far
Short puzzles that require one clever insight to solve (such as a way different gameplay elements interact that the player was not explicitly told)
And, in non-linear games: Challenging optional puzzles that also require obscure tricks to solve (to reward those who want to fully explore all the gameplay elements so far)

LATE GAME

Moderate puzzles that introduce any final new gameplay elements
Very tricky puzzles that combine all elements (expected to take significant time to solve)
Relatively simple puzzles featuring earlier gameplay elements (to provide downtime between the tricky puzzles where a player can reflect on any story, as well as a reminder of mechanics the player may have forgotten)
Short but complex puzzles that require (and guide the player to) obscure key tricks to solve (so that a player, once they have solved these, can return to earlier optional puzzles armed with the tools necessary)
And, my favourite: Gimmicky or outlandish puzzles that are more about humour/entertainment than any true challenge (again to provide levity between the more difficult puzzles, as a sort of reward)

ENDGAME

Fiendish puzzles taking advantage of all elements and tricks in the game (possibly including some more gimmicky, but still difficult, challenges)
And of course, the WigDev classic: One final puzzle that, within its complexity, subtly hides a trick that hasn’t yet appeared anywhere else in the game (to give one final ‘Ah-hah!’ moment for the player when they spot it, while providing payoff to those who had worked out such a trick in advance)

Now, to be clear, this is not some sort of ‘manifesto’ for how all puzzle games should do difficulty curves. (If it was, I’d make it look nicer, with pictures and examples.) Every game is different, and ideally the spread of puzzles should uniquely reflect the features and tone of the game they’re in. But this list does neatly summarise the way I approach the issue – The ‘WigDev Method’, if you like.

If you’ve played my games, you’ll likely recognise levels and puzzles that fit with what I’ve written about here. And the next time you’re late in a WigDev game and come across a surprisingly short or simple puzzle… You’ll have a good idea what’s coming next.

Thoughts about Walkthroughs

Given the (slightly infamous) difficulty of my puzzle games, I’m often asked whether I can provide walkthroughs, either video or simply text-based. I know how frustrated I can get at other people’s puzzles, so I understand the appeal, but I feel there are a few downsides to having an official walkthrough alongside a puzzle game:

The temptation to look at it too early is overwhelming. If a walkthrough is available from the very beginning, it can be tempting to look at it for some early puzzle – and once you’ve looked at it once, it’s easier and easier to keep looking at it for future puzzles, before you’ve really thought hard about them. In the end you may look up answers to puzzles you would have been able to solve if you’d given them more time, and miss out on a lot of the fun. (I know this happens to me!)
It discourages others from helping each other/creating their own walkthroughs. Although I gain some satisfaction from people struggling with one of my tricky puzzles, it may surprise you to learn that I get more satisfaction from seeing people solve them! It’s great to see a community develop, and fan-created walkthroughs are the icing on that cake! And they also lead into one last point…
Without walkthroughs, people may discover unexpected solutions to puzzles. It’s inevitable that in a complex puzzle game, people may find tricks I missed. This is great! Even when they completely break my levels, its fun to know people have outsmarted me – but when a dev-made walkthrough exists, it implies there is one ‘correct’ solution to each puzzle. I’d much rather see what people come up with on their own.

Of course this is just my opinion! I don’t disapprove of walkthroughs in general, nor of looking up solutions when you’re really stumped. If you’re currently stuck on one of my puzzles and there’s no solution out there, you could always try asking me directly. If you’re playing on another site, you can message me on Kongregate or Newgrounds, or you can email me: david@wigdev.com

I cannot promise a quick reply, and sometimes I miss messages completely, but if you’re really tearing your hair out over a puzzle and are willing to be patient, I do know the intended solutions. (…If I haven’t forgotten them…)

I’ll take this opportunity to ask that if you are enjoying one of my games enough to bug me about solutions, you consider supporting me. I’m just one guy with limited time, so any donation is appreciated. Thanks!

As always, I wish you all the best of luck in your puzzling!