Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

Yes, BASS is a much better game than LURE. I've yet to play the Broken Sword series (will soon), so it'll be interesting to see how far Revolution was able to progress. They made a leap between LURE and BASS, so I'm really looking forward to the next game.

I've got this theory cooking up about how GAGs are all about design--intentionally poor design. The more difficult GAGs are generally hard because the design of the puzzles is so counter-intuitive and punish the player severely for making mistakes. The better GAGs are more tolerant of mistakes and provide more clues for players to help them understand the design of the puzzles and interface.

If I were to talk about a "perfect" GAG, it would be one that not only done these things well, but would also build upon earlier puzzles. In other words, what you learned solving one puzzle would be a necessary "clue" to help you with the next, and so on. I don't mean that the puzzle yields a piece, but rather just understanding the process or logic behind a puzzle would clue you in to the next.

We see this in latent form in some of Cyan's games, though I can't think of any GAG yet that has done this perfectly.