What kind of balancing goes into the puzzles Kheops puts into their games? Have you guys ever completely cut out a puzzle from a title because it was deemed too difficult?

It is possible to tune the difficulty of a puzzle during the course of development; if we consider it too easy or too difficult then we find a way to modify it accordingly. We decide to cut out a puzzle if :

1) It is too difficult
2) You can solve it without strategy
3) It is not well enough integrated

And yes, there have been times when we have cut out a puzzle from a game.

Voyage was an open ended adventure game in the sense that players could manage their intelligence level to understand more about the game world, and buy and sell items using currency. Will future Kheops titles incorporate some of these open ended elements, or are they going to be exclusive to Voyage?

That's an open question! ;-) Every game is a new adventure in which we develop specific interfaces and also keep some other elements from previous games. For 'Treasure Island' for instance, you will have an inventory very close to Voyage's inventory system and also a new interface with an 'educational' value.

Originally Posted By Poyntenklik (16 AUG 2006 10:21pm)
demonryu, that's a very interesting interview, thanks for sharing. I'm a complete kheops fan. I hope you don't mind, I linked it at gameboomers as I think they'll find it an interesting read, since there are a few kheops fans there too.  

Originally Posted By demonryu (17 AUG 2006 1:09am)

Originally Posted By Poyntenklik (16 AUG 2006 10:21pm)
demonryu, that's a very interesting interview, thanks for sharing. I'm a complete kheops fan. I hope you don't mind, I linked it at gameboomers as I think they'll find it an interesting read, since there are a few kheops fans there too.  

Not a problem.  I was surprised at how quick Kheops' turnaround rate was, he answered my questions within two days.