Getting stuck in adventure games (and why that's okay)

Lantern Hollow got me stuck twice, and both times the solution was hiding in plain sight. That frustration-then-relief loop is the whole point of adventure games, and I think we've forgotten how to enjoy it.

Modern games are terrified of confusing you. Everything glows, every path is marked, every puzzle explains itself. Lantern Hollow trusts you to look, and that trust makes solving things feel earned.

The line between fair and unfair is thin, though. A good adventure puzzle uses only what it's shown you. A bad one hides the answer behind a pixel nobody would click.

If you're new to the genre, resist the urge to look up a walkthrough for five whole minutes. Walk the environment again. The answer is almost always something you've already seen.