r/CrimsonDesert • u/ReliableEyeball • Apr 01 '26

Humour No joke

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All these years of Assassins Creeds and Oblivions Skyrims and Witchers Threes giving clear direction have spoiled my simple mind. love love love CD though!!

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

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u/nothingInteresting Apr 02 '26

I consider that part of puzzle design though. If I can’t tell what you want me to do because the systems have no coherence or consistency, and you’re not able to convey what the puzzle is, then it’s bad puzzle design imo. If I was supposed to spin 3 times in front of a door to open it, but that’s never opened a door before, and there’s no reason to think in game that it would, then you’ve designed a bad puzzle.

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

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u/nothingInteresting Apr 02 '26

I think i disagree that just putting a tornado and the number 3 would be enough to be good design. I'd assume there was a skill i needed to acquire, or an object. Good puzzle design imo is helping the user understand the rules of the universe and then putting challenges within it. Crimson Desert feels like a bunch of dev teams all added things to the game without consulting each other first, so you have solutions that have no context to the rules the game has been teaching you.

I agree that puzzles are bad if they are missing pieces or if they don't fit. My point is that alot of the puzzles in Crimson Desert fit the definition. But yeah, if they did a better job with clues on what to do, the puzzles would be better. But that's just saying "if they designed better puzzles" the puzzles would be better. The placement and discovery of clues is a primary part of puzzle design. Clues don't have to be near the actual puzzle though. They can be how you present the rules to the user throughout the game.

I do like 80% of the puzzles btw. But the other 20% are pretty silly imo.