Game Design

[Yonkey]

Well it probally should be pointed out that most Lucasarts games came after most of the Sierra games. So they had hindsight to see what other companies in the industry had done.

I'm not sure when the Monkey Island games came out, but I believe they were around KQ5/KQ6.  As far as I know, no game in that series has dead-ends (and very little fatal deaths).   Due to the superior game design, I preferred many LucasArts games to Sierra.  Sam & Max being another that followed with this same design.

Regarding illogical puzzles, I can understand that to some extent.  Since that's a bit more subjective and dependant on how smart the adventure gamer is.  Even our game has a few illogical ones in later Parts that I pointed out to Cez, but he basically said that if someone was able to make it that far, they would be able to figure it out. 

I personally don't like puzzles that involve using random inventory items on stuff and hoping they work.  That's the equivalent to pixel hunting IMO, and again related to poor game design.