Never played this game before, I will sample it out when I get home from work.

I wanted to discuss this so thank you for posting this.

A large percentage of this game is knowing the solutions, but there are timing elements in some of the levels where only knowledge won't help you.  (As an aside, the Gravnic mode would not work at all because 100% of the game is regurgitating solutions, at least from what I understand.)

The last couple times we played this I used my own personal walkthrough while playing to solve the levels.  On the one hand it's not cheating since I used my own solutions, and on the other hand it's unfair for me to take my prior knowledge in written form and turn that into a huge advantage.  It's not against the rules at all to use my walkthrough (or any walkthrough), but it's not necessarily in good spirit of the contest either.

With that said, I'm willing to do a "gentlemen's agreement" and not use any assistance ... just go off of what I can remember or memorize this week.
 

Do you guys think we should add an honor rule of the like 'no pausing during your run to check for solutions'?

It is one thing to know the solutions (even learning them by watching a youtube video) or having some notes to help, but if you are constrained by time of execution, it really defies the 'lookup for solutions aspect of it'. Having all solutions and best combos in memory is the key to crush this game anyway.

Not trying to open up a can of worms here but I feel that if you personally have taken the time in the past to create your own walkthrough of the game then you go for it.  There are several of us during the course of a years contests that are playing games for the first time and are at a significant disadvantage.  Those that had played Adventure Island before, for example, had a strategic advantage over those of us that did not.  If I had made a walkthrough of it from several years back, I would have no ethical qualms with looking at it as a reference as I did all the legwork to make it and had worked through the game myself previously.  Regardless if I'm in the minority on this or not, I feel that you should be able to use your own information/reconnaissance from your own experience to aid you in this.  

 

I like that.
 

That's the gist of how I went about it before.  At least publicly, no one complained about how I played the game using my own notes and probably even a few people like yourself agreed that it was fair game since I put in the work up to a certain point in the game.

By the way I am not trying to imply that barrelsAndRivets is complaining.  It is 100% a legitimate and fair point to make for this contest.

And to guillavoie's point, I am pretty sure in the past I used my notes in realtime without pausing.  I haven't played yet this week so it's not fresh in my mind, but I want to say pausing the game hides the blocks anyway, limiting how much you can really rely on a walkthrough.
 

I know pausing the game hides the block, but if you're looking at a youtube video you will still see the position of the blocks.

If your personal notes are workable in a 'real time' execution of the game, it means that you have a good note system and that you are using it in a smart way. The point is not to make notes useless, but to implement a rule that would level the time anyone have to execute the puzzle (based on thehonor system, naturally).

Otherwise, it is free for all and everyone do as they wish and there's no complaining about it. What you guys think?

I think you should be able to use your personal notes. You put in the hard work to create them so I believe they are more than fair to use. 

I didn't jot anything down,I just played the game over and over and over. And when I died I would write down the password and play that level until I got it and then play it several more times to remember it. I will still have brain freeze on occasion,heh. 


If if people want to use YouTube or whatever,go ahead. I won't use it,but like Arnpoly said,for some puzzles it won't help you a lot. And even so,one hasty move will kill your run no matter if you know what to do or not.

 

You got it, buddy!  That's actually an old poem I wrote the second time we played Puzznic and have reused it a couple times now.  I wanted to write a different one for this week, but most of my free time has been sunk into writing the Double Dragon 2 story, which I will have the conclusion posted in a few hours.  And thanks for the positive feedback on that one.  Appreciate it, man!

EDIT: Never mind.

I agree. Just practice a ton and if you aren't finding success on a level try doing one thing (or several) completely different. And some levels will try to trick you,which goes back to the not being hasty bit. You'll be like,cool that looks easy enough,pair these pieces up....oh crap,I think I needed that piece to help move this other piece over to match it...F.
 

mbd39, you shouldn't have edited your post, you actually point out what I'm trying to solve with a 'no pausing during your run' honor rule.

My concern is really just to have a common ground for everybody that is a good compromise between performing during your run VS strategy planning. Comments like, 'people can use Youtube but I won't cause x reasons' might looks casual, but it actually draws unnecessary moral lines on what is ideally ethical and what is not and can influence others behavior. Rules are there to put everyone on the same ground, outside of personal judgement.

I think I'm going to add that rule, so we know for sure that the only forbidden behavior is to pause during your run in order to memorize on spot the solutions. Everything else is fair.

Great discussion, everyone!

Just for the record, I used notes real-time during my complete game from years ago (TG doesn't allow pausing). Even with a complete solution in front of me, it took many attempts to execute it correctly. Lots of little things can go wrong and you have zero margin for error.

Oh yeah, sorry about that. I'm my own harshest critic. Sometimes I'm not quite confident about what I've posted and then I edit.

 

Absolutely! Tons of things can go wrong.   What seems to get me most is being overzealous with moving pieces on/off a platform. I'll end up dropping it and having to retry or a game over. Super irritating.

Its all new to me and I love it! These contest threads gives me something to look forward to everyday. 
 

Those moving platforms gave me trouble when we played last time. Even if you know the solution to the puzzle, it seems like your timing had to be almost flawless to hit them.

I have noticed this trend.  I just assumed you were withholding secrets that you let slip!

 

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck 60k partisipation.

this is going to suck.

You should be at 60k around 2-2 or 2-3 so not that bad.

610,100





 

Well well, isn't it Tom Le Magnifique. I had a feeling that a Puzznic contest might bring you to post something, hehe. I loved this game since forever, I use to play it on a 260 in 1 multicart when I was young, but I never worked my way to the end of it though. That's still on my to do list.


Nicely said, notes are definitely helping but will not do the thumbs work for you either. It is an action-puzzle game after all. Thanks for your input man, you should stop by more often  

Okay, I added a rule about not pausing during your runs to check for puzzle solutions. If there's some ambiguity, please let me know.

Sounds good to me, guillavoie.


And for those who are interested, I posted the conclusion to the Double Dragon 2 story in that contest thread. Hope you all enjoy!

No pause for piss breaks either. You gotta hold it!