Should Games Have Hints?

I recently played Dimhaven - The Lost Source and it got me thinking about hints in games. Some of the best moments in puzzle games come from when you feel stuck and unsure of what to do next and then you finally have a eureka moment and solve it. A big part of this sense of accomplishment is that the player was first stuck, if the game didn’t challenge you then would beating it still feel like an achievement? As a game designer you are faced with the problem of wanting to challenge the player and give them a special experience, but also not wanting to challenge players so much that no one can beat the game. In this video I dive into my feelings on this and try to explain what design decisions we can see that popular games have taken in order to solve this problem. This is the first time I’ve had a recording corrupt which was not fun, the file completely destroyed both premiere and after effects which was very annoying. I had to re-record my Dimhaven footage and I didn’t want to go back through the whole game so that’s why when Dimhaven is on screen it might feel like you should be seeing visuals related to what’s being said instead of generic gameplay from the first area, apologies about that. Wishlist Swope here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/40... Here's the Tom Francis video I talk about:    • The 3 questions an Information Game needs ...   Chapters: 0:00 - 1:39 Intro 1:40 - 3:07 Quern 3:08 - 4:50 Dimhaven 4:51 - 6:03 Hints 6:04 - 7:13 Abstracting Ideas 7:15 - 9:48 The Cycle of Information 9:49 - 12:02 The Best Hints are No Hints 12:03 - 13:49 A Summary 13:50 - 14:15 Outro Games Shown In Video: Quern - Undying Thoughts Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin A sudoku I found by googling "sudoku" Myst 2021 Dimhaven - The Lost Source Red Dead Redemption 2 The Artisan of Glimmith Can of Wormholes Riven 2024 Outer Wilds Music Used In Video: Quern OST - Land of Undying Thoughts Myst OST - Early Selentic Mystgate Quern OST - Blue Light Dimhaven OST - A Strange Place Dimhaven OST - The Meaning of the Waves Quern OST - Knowledge is Power Peritune - Kitten's Caprice Peritune - Nocturnal Bloom