Finished a Game – First time in a Decade

For the first time in maybe a decade I played a game all the way through to the finish. I don’t have much time to play games, but I’ve been chipping away at Portal 15 minutes at a time.

Not sure if it was intentional, but it seemed a little too easy. Like geared towards a teen. But they did a good job of making it seem like you have to be smart to figure out the puzzles. Having challenges that look hard but are actually not gave me a sense of confidence. which I think is part of the brilliance in the game design.

This was also a game that I was able to play with Ada (5 yo) which was cool. She doesn’t play much games other than baking/decorating cakes on the iPad. This was a completely different style of game-play that I don’t think she wrapped her head around yet. In particular the end of the game is a long sequence of puzzles as you try to escape, the computer voice is trying to convince you not to escape and that it has some cake for you.. but there are scribbles on the walls (presumably from other escapees) that says “the cake is a lie”. She was completely confused about whether or not there was cake. 5 year olds still have a hard time with sarcasm and deception. And it was interesting how uncomfortable it made her.. she wanted me to start over at level 1 and try again rather than finish.