Are there going to be walkthroughs?

[Haley]

Are there going to be walkthroughs for the game?

[Yonkey]

Most likely.  There are walkthroughs for all King's Quest games!  

But I think our fans would probably make walkthroughs before we could!

[Oldbushie]

Yeah, if you build it, the walkthroughs will come.

But as long as we have a few really hard to find easter eggs or secrets, we can still give people hints that they exist.
Not that I know anything, I'm not on the team after all. (I wish I were a programmer, but I don't understand Crystal Space at all, the 14 meg download had no manuals with it, ah well. Surely the site will have something.)

[DragonSlyr]

When the game comes out can you give us hints on forums?

[Oldbushie]

I suppose they'll open a special section for that... I've seen that in other forums before.

The only thing is that there tends to be a lot of spoilers in that kind of section, so it would be better to search it than browse it.

[Erpy]

Ha ha ha. This subject brings back fond memories. While KQ2+ was being beta-tested, I wrote a fairly big walkthrough for the game with everything I thought would be neat in a guide. I sent it in to AGD2 and he asked me if it was okay if it was held off during the first few months. After all, we wanted people to experience the game to its full potential and with a walkthrough, the temptation may be too strong for some people. Besides, in the days of the Sierra-classics, nobody had internet and you had to rely on hint-lines (expensive ones) or commercial hint books or simply your own wit to beat the game.

We were quite amazed when a week after KQ2's release, someone already wrote a solution for the game and it was posted/published on multiple active adventure-sites.

I don't think that this is what you guys want to hear if you spend days on thinking up creative puzzles, but don't be surprised if a fair amount of players doesn't care all that much for the puzzles and merely plays the game to experience the story. (hence using a walkthrough if a puzzle takes more than 5 minutes to figure out)

The best thing you can do is do what we did; don't publish a walkthrough right after the release, request people not to give spoilers or walkthroughs on the forums and pray that nobody writes down a solution on any major site a couple of days after the game's release.

[Cez]

yes!

I've broken my head designing some of these puzzles! It's only fair at least one person breaks his/her head solving them!!

[Yonkey]

I like how Tierra handled the KQ2+ walkthrough situation.  Personally wasn't around when it got initially released, so I was one of the guys who could grab Erpy's walkthrough at any time.  I tried to get as far in the game as I could though, then searched the forums for a post relating to my puzzle problem.  If there was none, then I'd go to the walkthrough.

It's nice how Erpy's walkthrough doesn't directly tell you what to do.  Well, maybe some hints do, but I like how they point you in the right direction, rather than some guy posting "use gem on lion".

When our game gets released, our of course, we'll have to ensure that people hopefully remember to post a *SPOLIERS AHEAD* message or something like that in their subject.  Our trusty webmaster should also be on his/her toes.  By the way, when that time comes webmaster, if u need any help with that just ask me!

[Yonkey]

One other thing I forgot to say...

The reason people want walkthroughs is because of what Erpy said:  

...don't be surprised if a fair amount of players doesn't care all that much for the puzzles and merely plays the game to experience the story.

It's not really about not caring, but sometimes we like seeing the proper sequence of the game.  If it has a lot of timed puzzles or death-traps (like KQ6), then a walkthrough is good, in the sense that it warns you beforehand to save first.  

I bought the official hint book for KQ6 a bit after I got the game because I was stumpted about which magic spell to use first and the timed puzzles (i.e. iceburg lettuce melting, hot coal cooling).  

For KQ5, I bought the hint book because of the way too many mapping scenes (desert, ocean, labryinth - although that one was easy).  The desert looked exactly the same on every screen, who knew you'd die if you didn't get water within 7 screens?  Plus, I didn't have the manual for KQ5 so I was even more lost.  I could have made maps but the thought never crossed my mind at the time. Plus, I was too little and impatient.  Again, no internet back in those days (well, there was, but I didn't know it existed or that I even had a 2400bps modem! ).

What it comes down to is the player.  If they want to complete the game on their own, they will.  If they want a little hint, they'll post.  If they want a walkthrough to experience the game in sequence and without fear of dead ends, they will find one.  All we can do is moderate what is posted on this site.  

[KatieHal]

We should encourage playing in pairs, it makes solving so many puzzles so much easier!

"I'm gonna go play KQ9, mom!"
"Is your buddy with you?"
"Yup! Let's go!"
"Yeehaw!"

This touching scene brought you by me!

[copycat]

I'd rather have hints than walkthroughs.  Since I'll probably solve at least some of the puzzles all by myself ,  I'd probably read things I've already done in a walkthrought trying to find the spot where I'm stuck. Or worse, end up in a section I'm not in yet, and thus reading something I still have to find out.

So, a hint-forum on this site would suite me fine, where I can post in order to gain assistance, if needed.

But, that is still a long way ahead of us. Let us concentrate on the present and the not-too-far-ahead future.

[Oldbushie]

That would be kinda interesting, having a buddy system for games... Kinda like cooperative multiplayer, only the two people are playing on different computers and sharing solutions with each other.

One frustrating walkthrough experience I had took a long time to resolve. I was playing an old text game called "Keys to the Kingdom", and I got stuck halfway through the game. I searched and searched for help (as well as trying every conceivable sentence, text games are trickier that way) and didn't find an actual walkthrough until two years later. Man, I was relieved to finally finish the game.