Game|Life recently sat down with Hironobu Takeshita, producer of the innovative Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure, to ask a few questions about the game. Of everything said in the interview, the best is when Takeshita basically says that if you can’t solve the puzzles then you aren’t paying attention.
"There are puzzles where, if you don’t look properly at the hints in the start, you’re going to be in trouble. But one of the main ways to play this game is to look at the screen. You have to look at the screen — all the answers that you need to solve the puzzles are there on the screen. There are some people who say they don’t understand the puzzles, but really, they’re not paying enough attention. All the answers to the puzzles are right there if you’re able to solve them."
He also notes that in some cases it’s possible to utterly screw up a puzzle to the point that you have to start over from the beginning of the level:
"There are many different puzzles that we want users to enjoy in this game, and one large part of that are "chain puzzles," where you need to solve things in a certain order, and if you mess up the order, you are no longer able to solve it."
"Don’t cry. Deal with it." (Ok, he really didn’t say that part, but that’s what it feels like he’s telling us)
The only problem now is getting people to actually BUY the game, which is not selling well at all.