Joe Ybarra, vice president of product development at CME talks about puzzles solving in the game
When asked about the puzzles in SGW, Joe was eager to explain why they were a fundamental part of the gameplay experience that had been considered from the very beginning of SGW's development. "When we were first coming up with features to implement into the game, we wanted a non-combat gameplay mechanism to really reinforce some of the things in the show that were non-combat related," he said.
According to Joe, CME currently has seven different mini-games that players encounter within SGW. These games are triggered by different activities that the players engage in when they are exploring the various worlds. "Imagine that there are alien ruins on the planet you're exploring," he began. "You're an Archaeologist archetype character. What are you going to do when you walk into these ruins? You'll walk in and there will be areas you can click on, such as a "rune totem" or another sort of aged script. The Ancients were notorious for leaving those things scattered about the universe."
"When the player clicks on these areas, there will be a little casual mini-game that will pop up that the player will engage in and try to decipher what it says," he said. "The game might have the player match icons or orient different sections of a puzzle to beat the game. These sort of mini-games are scattered throughout the world, and you might need to do them to unlock a new area or expand an ability." These puzzles, according to Joe, will also level up, getting even more complex as you progress farther into the game.
But what Joe described was oriented more towards a solo-play activity. There are also puzzles that will be sharable with other members of a player's party. So if you're in a situation that's particularly nasty and you have a really complex puzzle in front of you, your party members will be able to help you through it.
For players that are really interested in the "puzzle-solving" gameplay, you don't need to fret about the puzzles in SGW being an afterthought of the game's design. Joe was acutely aware that puzzles were a core part of the TV show, and therefore are being incorporated as a core part of the gameplay in SGW. "We have puzzles for everything from reverse engineering to mini-games that are inherent to the crafting system," he added. "These puzzles are intertwined within the storylines, the playing fields, and the resource management portions of our game. We're trying to make a really robust environment for that type of gameplay."
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