Hey there! I'm late (again) for a cakeday puzzle, so it will be another Xmas puzzle! I hope you've been all safe during this stupidly rough year.
Edit: everything useful (puzzle text/hints/clarifications) is in this post now -> there's no need to read any of the replies.

Puzzle:

  1. Match each drawn character with the corresponding ITH question; (brute-forcing is an option, but not the clever one)
  2. Write the name of each drawn character.

The two pictures below are part of the puzzle and related to the matching part.
The characters are from games listed in the 1st picture.
The games you can win are listed in the 2nd picture.
End date: "25th Dec, 2020".
Link to the ITH here.
That's it.

Additional hints/clarifications:

  • The matching part of the puzzle doesn't involve any trial and error, unless you either decide to ignore the hints or you can't see/find them.
  • There's something hidden (in plain sight) that tells you (= it's literally written there) the game/games-Question matching order (keep in mind there're 20 ITH questions, that some characters can be from more than one game and that, in just one case, two different characters can be from the same game). This order alone + google could be enough to solve the ITH.
  • There's something hidden (in plain sight) that leads you (= it tells you where to look) to the drawing-Question matching order. This order is most useful if you already know the characters.

>>>>> SOLUTIONS <<<<<

View attached image.
View attached image.
4 years ago*

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Would you like to see this sort of puzzle every year?

View Results
Yes
No
Potato

Reserved

I think it's nothing too far-fetched like last year. This time I've just made fan art of some characters of games I've played during 2020. Some characters are well known, others much less, google can surely help you.
They're all pencil drawings, without basically any shading or coloring. I hope the quality isn't too bad. For digitalizing I had to make due with an old smartphone camera, plus it's been really cloudy and rainy these days, so the photos kinda suck, sorry for that.
By completing the ITH you'll get access to a 35 wagons train.

As always I accept any sort of criticism.
That said... Enjoy!

4 years ago*
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I see almost half of the poeple who voted basically didn't like the puzzle. But I've realized that just "No" doesn't give me much information. So I'd like some more elaborate feedback, if you don't mind.
Is it the puzzle as a whole that you don't like? The matching part that's too hard, maybe? Or the character identification part? Or something else?
Let me know please. I like drawing and I like puzzles, but I want to understand if I should drop the whole drawing-puzzle idea completely or if you'd simply like something easier.

4 years ago*
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I like your drawings, but I hate the shuffled drawings/questions thing. It's confusing and not fun. I'm assuming that's where the negative votes are coming from.

4 years ago
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I guess you're right.
What it feels to me though is that most people skip the 1st step of the puzzle and go directly to the 2nd one (=writing names). I don't get if it's because I didn't make clear enough that you can find the order without any trial and error (and that you should find it before writing names, even if you recognize some character right away) or because the hints are too vague or because they don't simply read or something else.

4 years ago
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I found what game goes with each ITH answer, but is there something that tells us which picture goes with which game or ITH answer? I only recognize a couple pictures, so I'm having trouble identifying the rest even though I have a list of the games.

4 years ago
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Yes, somewhere you can find something that tells you exactly the order of the drawings.

4 years ago
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Solving the questions was fairly easy after finding both of those pieces of info.
Thanks for the great train :)

4 years ago
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4 years ago*
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I've just realized I selected the wrong "Rogue" game when creating the GA, I deleted it and replaced it with the right one for whoever is interested. It was meant to be the '85 classic. Sorry for that.

4 years ago*
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Ok, after hearing some complain, I reformatted the whole original post with just the puzzle text and the additional hints. Now everything you need is there. You don't need to read anything else. All the other useless stuff has been moved to the 1st reply now.

There's 1 week left. This will most likely be the last update.

I remember again to the 1st two/three days solvers that, since then, the Rogue GA has been replaced with the right one (the '85 classic). The other one has been deleted.

4 years ago*
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>>>>> SOLUTIONS <<<<<

  • In the 1st picture: the ordinal numbers in the release date column represent the game/games to question order.
    I hinted at the date format in my original post (and in the ITH page too later): "25th Dec, 2020".
    The imgur caption of the image says "Some elements in one specific column have been edited. Somewhere else I hint at it.
    In the additional hints I repeat the image tag (game/games-Q) and I say that said order it's literally written there, hidden (in plain sight), as it is.
  • In the 2nd picture: in the 2nd column a game is titled "Caption of Image". There's no game with that title. It's me telling you to look at the caption of the image on imgur. There you can find this link https://i.imgur.com/ZQrEhdt.jpg.
    In the additional hints I repeat the image tag (drawing-Q) and I say there's something hidden (in plain sight) that tells you where to look.
  • The rest of the puzzle was a matter of personal knowledge and google searching.
    Here you can see all the possible answers.

I considered writing things in italic/bold, adding tags to pictures and using imgur captions part of the "basic SG puzzle" knowledge I pointed out to someone the very 1st day.

Well...
Of the voters 39.5% liked the puzzle (I excluded the potatoes from the count) and it's been solved by 37.6% of the players. Most likely there's a relation there, but I can't really consider it statistically significant.
I noticed people tend not to read, most of all if they take the content for granted. It's been kinda disheartening seeing the growth of the number of guesses on the ITH page during the 1st week, almost everyone blindly brute-forcing, assuming it was just a guessing game. On my part I tried to make things clearer afterwards, but it felt useless, if not counterproductive, like stopping an avalanche by peeing on the snow.
Despite the votes, I think I'll still do a drawing related puzzle next year, with "SG puzzle" mechanics, if they can be called like that, but I'll try to build it differently, so that people won't be able to brute-force 1st and think later, we will see. I still think a little brain teasing should be involved.
Anyway, thanks again to everyone who praised my drawings and to all the partecipants in general!
Congratz to the winners!
Happy Christmas to everyone and I wish you all a better 2021 already!
Oh! And keep your cats safe! 🐕
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8N3L_aERg

3 years ago*
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Excellent drawings, DogOnSg, good skills there! Identification will be limited only to each one's familiarity of the games themselves, as the characters and their specific details are very well portrayed.

4 years ago
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Thank you. That was my biggest fear.

4 years ago
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I'm not sure how to answer questions (how the format of the answers is), but have a bump!

4 years ago
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You have to write the name of the character.

4 years ago
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I'm pretty sure I know the name of half of them, but I get wrong message, except if the questions are shuffled, not related with image position.

4 years ago
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If you're asking whether the questions follow the order of the drawings from left to right, top to bottom, the answer is definitely not.
The 1st part of this puzzle is supposed to be matching the questions with the corresponding game/games and/or drawn character.

4 years ago
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Got it, thanks, I'll try later.

4 years ago
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Nice drawings, DogOnSg.

4 years ago
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Thank you!

4 years ago
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What is the client in the first screenshot? It looks really good.

4 years ago
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It's GOG Galaxy client.

4 years ago
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Thanks!

4 years ago
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Hi, there is a scheme with the number of the field? for example, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - are ok, but the dog is the number 5?

Thanks!

4 years ago
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They're not in order, if that's what you're asking.

4 years ago
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Bump for solved. Thanks for the extremely fun puzzle! :)

4 years ago
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You asked for feedback, so:

The 1st part of this puzzle is supposed to be matching the questions with the corresponding game/games and/or drawn character.

I hate this. I rarely ever attempt to complete itstoohard puzzles because the 30 second timer for each try drives me insane. IN. SANE. So, no thanks, I'm not gonna go for a trial and error puzzle, even though this is one of the few puzzles from here I could actually, probably, complete.

4 years ago
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So I assume you'd prefer to see the drawings already matched to the questions and to simply write the characters names? Or do you think it's too much trial and error anyway?
Thanks for the feedback ;) I get your point.

Anyway, maybe I should clarify a thing for everyone: when I say that you have to match the questions to games and/or drawings rather than brute-force the answers, I mean that you can find out the games order and the drawings order even before getting to the ITH. Basic (I assumed) SG puzzle knowledge should help you with that.

4 years ago
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I didn't realize there was a way to match the questions with the drawings without trial and error. Forgive my puzzle solving ignorance.

4 years ago
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No, no. Seems like the majority didn't realize it, so the responsibilty is clearly on my end assuming my allusions were enough.

4 years ago
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Uhm, am I missing something or are there no questions?

4 years ago
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There are no questions because you don't need any question ;P

4 years ago
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Really nice and clean drawings! bump for im-working-on-it

4 years ago
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Thanks.

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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4 years ago
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Thank you.
I clarified something [edit] in the original post [/edit] about the trial and error aspect of the puzzle. I don't know if it helps.
Anyway, I guess it's the 1st part the real problem here, a good chunk of people wants something more linear.

4 years ago*
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4 years ago
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I assume you didn't find the "hidden" hints?

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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bump for solved! thanks!!!

4 years ago
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Bump for solved, was fun :D

4 years ago
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Another solve for bumped ;)

4 years ago
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Bump! Loved it, or at least when I figured out how to do it, lol

4 years ago
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After a lot of struggle, I've found the order. But have no idea about the games

4 years ago
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Bump for solved!!

4 years ago
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Wow, the drawings are incredibly beautiful, will complete it later when I have the time, I can't seem to find the pattern yet ;(´ヮ`)

4 years ago
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Bump for solved.

4 years ago
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Bump for solved!

4 years ago
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i only know 2 of them XD

4 years ago
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Bump for 18th solve

4 years ago
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Bump for solved! Cool puzzle, thank you!

4 years ago
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Closed 3 years ago by DogOnSG.