Ambrosia Software Web Board: How *do* they do it? - Ambrosia Software Web Board

In Cythera, Ambrosia plants a load of secrets involving instuments and notes and secret passages everywhere...and expects you to figure all that out? Or is it all written somewhere where you discover it. If I'm making a game, I'll always provide subtle hints or the solution (written cryptically) if the puzzle is extremely hard, almost guesswork.

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by ferazel_09:
...and expects you to figure all that out?
[/QUOTE
Yeah! It's great figuring out extremely difficult puzzles, and if they are easy than the game gets very boring very fast. Besides, if you can pass the game in a few hours why pay 20 bucks for it?

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Zephrex has a point... anyway, I love hard puzzles! However, Ferazel also has a point. I never would have found all the cool artifacts (Mystic Armor...) without Slayer's guide.

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If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?
Im na si nef i nov o i hîn o gurth, thalion estel bí morchaint fuin.
I am here on this side of the hollow of the children of death, strong hope in the shadows cast by dark light.

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I just wonder how the heck Slayer found them...

Az

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If I remember correctly, I just wandered around aimlessly for way too long. For some of them, I had help from the other people on this board. Most of those people have long since moved on to other things.


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Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

I remember that the only thing I looked at Slayer's Guide for was the special pipes and notes. Everything else I figured out by doing -everything-. Even the stuff that isn't needed to beat the game, things like the maximum items in inv (really only an approximate before the game crashed), maximum weapon upgrade, maximum exp, having every space possible discovered on the map, ect. I try to do this with most games I play, but what made Cythera fun, and hence easier for me, was that there were actually things to find from such close scrutiny. And who is "they", and what is "it"?

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"Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen! ... Nai elyë hiruva. Namárië!"
The One And Only:
[url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum5/HTML/000506.html"]~Theo Nean Donly~[/url]

I think ferazel makes a very good point here... a lot of games, including Cythera sometimes, substitute a cryptic and ridiculous amount of guesswork for a real challenging, interesting, and delicate puzzle. In my opinion, this was the reason that the first Myst was so much better than Riven... in the first Myst, there were real, possible to figure out puzzles, while in Riven they were all cryptic guesswork.

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Bronze: the other gold metal.   | |   And so the space toaster hardened the outer layers of the doughy, ooey-gooey ancient Earth...
Bacchus Publishing: [url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category=guides&display=date&file=ChroniclesByJake101.sit.hqx"]Chronicles by Jake101: the unposted chapters[/url].

Heh, Myst, Riven, Exile, great series. My recomendations!

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Early one morning, late one night, two dead boys arose to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other. The deaf man heard the noise and came, and killed the two dead boys. If you don't believe this lie is true, ask the blind man, he saw it too.

I suppose the reason Ambrosia placed so many puzzles etc in Cythera was because they respected our intelligence. That, I think, is why I liked Cythera so much, it is a game with real challenges. None of this "go kill sow and sow, or go find such an such".
Cythera is unique in this aspect, which I feel makes for an amazing game.

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Yesterday we bent our necks to emperors and kings. Today, we kneel only to truth. -Kahil Gibran

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Yep. They are good - real social games, too. It's fun to sit around with your freinds and play it together.

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In general, what exactly makes a game good isn't that easily
quantified - perhaps the absense of things that make it bad? - Words of Wisdom from Glenn Andreas
     
Where do you want to [url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/tricks/rJade.htm"]teleport[/url] today?