Hint systems

[Tumetsu]

So I have been programming my adventure project's "pausemenu" which would include somekind hint system to give hints for stucked players. This led me thinking about various hint systems to implement and decided to start little discussion here If you were to include a hint system to your adventure, what kind it would be? What works best in your opinion? Do you think some restrictions would be needed? I think somekind locking could be needed but not sure yet.

I have these kind of solutions in mind now:

1) Basically player can click button to view a new hint about the puzzle up to the three hints, where final would be either solution or something very close of solution.

2) Same as before except hint is "locked" by little minigame. Much like Machinarium had that flying key shooter game.

3) Hint would be time locked. After viewing first hint, player has to wait 5min to view next. I doubt this would work well though.

4) Hints could be opened with somekind "hintpoints" which could be found randomly from the environment. There would be limited amount of them leading player to try first solve puzzle on their own. DS game utilized hint coins which could be found from objects from background and then be used in puzzles.

Any thoughs of different systems or overall experiences?

[Kickaha]

A lot depends on how high you're aiming with a game as to how elaborate a hint system you go for.

I would like a scheme where NPCs give you clues after a time period - this might feel more immersive. 

[Ben304]

Something I've had some positive comments about in the past was where I had a puzzle that required player input - every time the player gave up and walked away, the player character spoke out aloud to himself with a bit of a hint. These got progressively more and more helpful, meaning that the more you tried and failed at the puzzle, the more help you got.

Lots of people said they thought this was a good idea, and it doesn't break the immersion of the game because you're not requiring the player to use menus or anything.

The Machinarium minigame and Professor Layton hint coins ideas are both interesting because the player still has to earn their hints, which I think is quite nice. As long as the minigames are fun and the hint coins not impossible to find, I think either is a good method. The progressive hint system is nice, but I imagine those who just want to get the answer will click straight through them.

As for time locked things - depends on how long the timer is for. I always thought this was a less elegant method than the others.

[Tumetsu]

@Kickaha
Ah, obvious solution which didn't came to me since my game is rahter like Myst with very few NPCs :S Thanks though!

@Ben304
Actually that really sounds like good idea and would solve one of my problems as well, though I have to figure out how to add this kind feature to my engine

In my game player has an intelligent computer as a company/sidekick whose interface can be used to run different "programs". I though about adding "Hintbook" program to it explaining it as somekind of virtual trivia book. So in my case it's not in sheer menu but rather in gameworld object which acts as tool and menu.

[ad7venture]

I guess my feeling is that it should be there, but I think programming in a hint system with characters, etc, would be too much work.  I think at least a two layer progressive would be nice because some people don't really want the answer.  I know I would be quite happy when playing games if the hint system was on the menu.  Asking people to do a search on the internet is going too far.  The PDA idea would be quite nice, I think.  It's combined with other things in the game world.  There's also something to be said for going to the main menu and doing a little search for a hint because it makes you stay a little longer and try to find the answer on your own.  If it's too easy to get a hint, it becomes a crutch, which is why people do these coins and things.  The important thing is not to have a walk through but hint questions with a pop up answer, I think, because then you aren't reading ahead and spoiling the game.  The truth is that a hint system alone is work and I think that's the reason a lot of authors don't include one, so programming in something elaborate is for the very industrious. 

[Tumetsu]

Yeah, thanks ad7, I personally don't mind hint systems and actually like them better than talking to every NPC with huge dialogue trees

I guess I'll add those little hints like Ben suggested for first level where player doesn't have hintbook yet and hintbook system later since it's easier to program in. Not sure though how I'll limit the hints.

Sometime ago I had this idea of huge list of trivial information in book etc. which player could study whenever they want. It would include every hint for the main puzzles. Thing would be that they are in alphabetical order, not progression order and there would be lots of useless info too. Basically player should look up things which would be related in the puzzle at hand. Not sure if I'll implement it this time and how much work it would take.

[Ben304]

Hey, glad the suggestion helped!