An idea just struck me (Ouch). I was remembering an old game and it wasn’t through graphics. They were the words ‘shy gypsy slyly shyly tryst by my crypt’ and ‘two sticks and two stones, the rest is just icing’, they are still in my brain after 33 years. The game the 7th guest had an impact. And the puzzle with that many ‘Y’ included was impossible for me (as an original Dutchman) to solve. I wasn’t angry, I was delighted and there were a several more puzzles, but the idea formed into my mind.
What happens when you upgrade these video streams to 1080p? The graphics can be transferred to 4K almost too easily. The idea of a sequel where after a few puzzles you get the option to recap the original game completely and now there is the option to give a sepia view (for the recap) or go into the game completely in 1080p. The original preserved as it was a game changer in 1993 and now we get a new story with attachments to the original and the world has almost thousands of puzzles, so what stops the owner of that IP (originally Virgin Interactive Entertainment/Broderbund) to do this? I have no idea where the IP lies, with them or with Electronic Arts. And if the IP is no longer protected, buying the original 7th Guest might be a cheap option to get a totally new IP rolling. It could be a new gaming consortium, it could be an indie developer or another path could be open.
The original puzzles could spark part of the new sequel. I had a partial idea in the past as a game like 7th Guest could be a streaming game, as such now the Tencent handheld might be the next option. What matters is that all these ‘wannabe’ innovators and they set aside original ideas and this took me less then an hour to consider. It could be set to the summer cottage (or beach dwelling) to Henry Stauf (the original protagonist) and this mansion is also full of puzzles and solving them gives us the next stage in whatever setting we see and these puzzles form a totally new storyline (which is for the designer to figure out). That sequel would lead to even more puzzles through the stories of Brian Dutton, Hamilton Temple, Julia Heine and Martine Burden. All DLC’s that can be added and they will add a whole new range of puzzles, first through the storyline and as you complete puzzles and get past the storyline, they unlock these puzzles and alterations of that in the main screen as the separate option is revealed. There is no denying that people are partially obsessed wit puzzles and they might not like all puzzles, but there is enough to entice the biggest puzzle fan. All unlicked through game and that sets up a whole new IP for the designer. Consider the Sudoku or Nonogram. Once the puzzle is completed that part of the designer comes online and you can have thousands of puzzles in that style. All out in the open, but never combined in one game, In one challenge that boggles the puzzler in all of us.
So why didn’t the other ‘gaming greats’ consider this? It is not innovative enough? The best ideas are not in front of you, they are behind you and that setting gave me the idea I am typing now. I leave it up to the makers of actual games to make something new and enticing and the 7th Guest gave us that in the style of a game (by those times ‘hi res gaming’) we know better now and even as the graphics are surpassed the idea never was and it is out for anyone now to capture the minds of all. I still advice to own the 7th Guest to design past that but there you have it, a novel idea. Not new but novel enough to capture the minds of thousands of gamers, because when you are on a bus or a train, you can look out the window the entire 40 minutes, or solve a puzzle and get those grey cells exercised. I think the second option has a lot more appeal and consider that this could also be added to your desires of a Sony playstation portable, Tencent Handheld or a Nintendo Switch 2. It is up to you to decide but as I see it, this game could entertain all three systems.
So where are the others? Where are their innovative ideas for a new gaming world? I am merely asking. Have a great day and entertain the idea of gaming the evening away on the couch, or on the bus/tram/metro/train to work and home.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 