P.I.E - Player Interactive Exercise

[CriticalGames]

P.I.E - Player Interactive Exercise

Platform- RMXP

What is it?

The Player Interactive Exercise (or P.I.E for short) is a very short, 10-map game built using Enterbrain's RPG Maker XP software. It was created as a bit of a fun way to determine how players learn. In this case, does the player find a solution to the puzzle by using Trial & Error? Or do they use Observation and Intuition? Or do they use a mix of both? After completing the 10 maps, the player is told which method they used in each individual map, and then finally their overall learning style. In the end, it's just a bit of fun.

Before you begin...

While the point of this game is that the player figures everything out by themselves (which is the reason I'm not showing screenshots from the game), there are two pieces of advice that I want to give you for playing P.I.E.

1. If you're stuck, examine the map carefully for oddities. There is a clue pointing you in the right direction or telling you what to do on each map (with the exception of Maps 1 and 10).

2. You have a keyboard in-front of you - just remember that.

And that's it! I hope you enjoy P.I.E, and I encourage you to leave a response saying what result you got in the forum thread on this website.

Download

You can download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?3ey6dps4suj1445

Or find it on my site here: http://criticalgamesdev.webs.com/pie.htm

Credits

Made by Joshua Hallaran

Music: Kevin Macleod

Notes

If you have enjoyed the music in this game, I highly recommend checking out Kevin MacLeod's website here: http://incompetech.com/
He's an excellent composer and incredibly generous, offering hundreds of top-quality musical compositions royalty free to developers like myself.


Thanks!

 

[regi]

Hey, that was a pretty interesting play. The puzzles took a bit to get used to, but once I did it was easier to catch on.

While I got 9 Trial & Errors and 1 Intuition, I must say some of the clues were pretty obscure. In half of them, I just ended up mashing different buttons before getting it. Even the last one, where I got Intuition, I'm still not entirely sure how I solved it. Mind posting in a spoiler how exactly each puzzle worked? I'm just curious about the clues I failed to notice.

 

[CriticalGames]

@regi - Haha, glad you found it interesting. And sure, I'll put them below. Actually, it's interesting - including your post, I've now seen 3 trial & error players, 2 observation & intuition player, and one equal (5 t&e and 5 o&i) so I'm getting a good range =)

Okay so puzzle spoilers below (I encourage you not to read them if you haven't played the game already):

Spoiler

Puzzle #1
Solution - Walk in the same direction two times
Clues - No clues for this one - relies on intuition. It's definitely a tricky way to start, but I have seen a couple of people get Observation & Intuition here. It was inspired by the old Lost Woods style of puzzle.

Puzzle #2
Solution - Press Z.
Clues - The large letter Z written on the ground in dirt.

Puzzle #3
Solution - Walk off the cliff.
Clues - The cliff itself is a giant clue - it's the only thing out of place/different on the map.

Puzzle #4
Solution - Go into the second door on the left, the one that says 'Inn' above it.
Clues - On each of the houses next to the Inn, there is a weathervane with a chicken pointing either left or right. Not only do they all depict a chicken (the same thing as the Inn sign), but they all point towards the correct house. Additionally, the correct house is the only house without a weathervane. All the tables, stalls, etc. are placed to distract you from the correct solution

Puzzle #5
Solution - Press X.
Clues - A large letter X is depicted on the screen via the use of some bubbling water, the 5 trees, and the 4 islands in the corners of the map.

Puzzle #6
Solution - Press Enter while looking at the letterbox.
Clues - This is indeed a cryptic and misleading one. Enter is written on the ground - but whether it means to press Enter or to enter the cave in front of the player is a mystery. However, when you combine the way this clue is delivered to the player with the style of the previous puzzle, it becomes likely that you need to press Enter. But that's only half of it. On the map there is an oddity - a bright red letterbox, contrasting against all the white - it is the only thing not covered in snow and completely random.

Puzzle #7
Solution - Press Z and then X.
Clues - The large Z and X symbols carved into the ground tell you which buttons to press (and after three instances of buttons being carved into the landscape, it's fairly obvious that you have to press them). The minecart is travelling clockwise and so you see the symbols in the order you need to press them. Additionally, if you press either Z or X (right or wrong button/order) you will hear a chime telling you whether you have the first one right or wrong, and then the second one right or wrong. Whether you get it right the first time or the second time generally depends on how much attention you're paying to the landscape and order.

Puzzle #8
Solution - Climb down the vines.
Clues - A couple of slightly cryptic clues here. First off, all the chess pieces form an arrow pointing down and sort of funnel the player to the vines. Additionally, there is symmetry in the chess pieces all the way down until the very last two (you have a king on the left and a queen on the right), hinting at the player to look down there. I was very surprised that two of the three people I saw play it in testing all got this right away.

Puzzle #9
Solution - Follow the flames 5 times.
Clues - One of the six flames in the room is larger than the others. This large flame denotes the correct passageway to take. It will jump from place to place, but keep following it and you'll find the way out.

Puzzle #10
Solution - Do anything.
Clues - None - you've just got to take a leap of faith, so to speak, and try something =)

Some of them are definitely very cryptic, but given the response I've heard so far, I think it's fairly balanced overall. Hope that explains some of them a bit better, regi =D

 

[regi]

Ah, nice. The puzzles definitely make more sense now that you think about them :smile:

Spoiler

I thought I got #3 and #9 immediately from Obs & Intuition, not sure why it gave me Trial & Error. In addition, some of the others took me 1-2 wrong moves before I noticed the answer. That said, it's pretty hard to judge these things, so kudos on making it relatively accurate in the first place. This is the most unique thing I've played in awhile!

 

[valkyriegames]

I just played this and it was quite fun. for some reason though i only got one intuition (#7) and still got trial and error for number 10. Maybe i didnt move fast enough? XD I thought I got a few of the others fairly quickly, but i guess i tried some other things first... you know, just in case... xP

 

[CriticalGames]

@regi - Wow, thank you! :smile:

Spoiler

The reason that this might have happened is that you might have pressed Z or X. Because some people like to go through all their options, and because the mechanic was reused, I allowed players to press Z (and later X) on every map. That's all I can think.

@valkyriegames - I'm very glad you enjoyed! Yes, #10 is timed - but it's the only one :wink: Haha, well that explains why you got trial and error xP