I'm waiting to rate this so you can point out what I'm missing, I'm probably just missing something simple...
I'm having difficulty getting past the second door and key. The second door just won't open for me, and I can't find anything to use the second key on. I'm not even sure what I did to make the second key appear - it wasn't there... and then it was, though when I move the big colored box that cyan key also moves so maybe you have it parented or jointed to it. The smaller colored box in that room won't move. I've tried messing with the lights, moving the larger colored box repeatedly, shoving the keys through the window to the next room. I can't fit through that window myself. I just don't know, could you please provide a hint about how to open the second door? I'll come back to this and rate it later if I can get further.
Viewing post in Bubble in the Void jam comments
Thank you for the feedback and patience, you’re helping me a lot!
What i think you missed
This game is physics based, so you can grab the cyan key, it is moving with the bookshelf (big box) because of physics and not because of a bug! It’s like if you place food on a plate and move the plate, the food moves with it! (it is possible for the key to slide which is normal physics, or to phase through the bookshelf if you yank it too hard, which is not normal) Note that you may actually grab onto the bookshelf by accident instead. (more technically, the shapecast used to detect dragging has a bit of a radius to it, making it inaccurate, i’ll fix that)
The other colored boxes with the doors are drawers. (i’ll give them handles like real drawers)
You probably noticed (if you play with sound) that every key use plays an “unlock” sound. Every key has only one place where it’s useful, so after you’re done with a key, it’s useless now. (i’ll discolor each key after it’s used to better show that it has been used)
Also there’s a subtle hint with the colors. Every key is a rainbow color and the order in which the keys are useful is the rainbow order.
You’re not supposed to phase objects through walls which is why i have the restart button. An object that was necessary to progress was falling through the floor and it made the game unable to progress.
I won’t spoil much else for now, i think this isn’t too much as the keys aren’t really the main appeal of the game, but you’ll have to progress to see what is! Remember that this game uses physics and what works physically also works here even if it’s sometimes difficult or inconvenient. (in fact for me, that aspect of it not being trivially easy makes it feel like a small, earned victory when you solve it)
Updates
I’ll make some updates, but since games are locked during jam voting periods, that’ll have to be uploaded later.
The updates are related to communication, but not limited to. The static orange box you see first is like a counter or a table or something that blocks your path. The next room’s floating orange box is a drawer, the big sliding one is a bookshelf and it should be made of wood-like material.
It would also be useful to optimize the game since i’m sure one doesn’t need all these physics objects being simulated and rendered all the time.
Questions
Since i want to make the game better, i want to ask several questions:
- Do you usually play/enjoy/make games where the interactions involve having to physically move objects, or the interactions are not that physical at all (like E to open door)? Which do you prefer? (i looked at your jam entry which didn’t really answer this question, so i wish to know! also i’ll give feedback on your game soon)
- What did your instinct first tell you when you saw the yellow key on the floor? What did you do with it?
- Did you have struggles opening the first glass door (if yes, what was it like) or did you immediately find the way to open it?
Last note
This really became a massive reply, sorry! At least it shows that i love writing about this!
I finally figured out what my problem was. The cyan (or is it green?) key that glitches its way out of its container sometime, I got confused because that happened to me early on, so I thought I had done something to trigger it appearing. So I kept trying to re-create the conditions that I thought caused it, when really I was supposed to get that key later.
I think I've basically completed it now though, as I've gotten to the part where you jump over the low orange cubes to get through a bunch of empty rooms, and in one spot I jumped over there was no room on the other side so I fell away from the world into blackness and assumed that was either the end or that the end was close.
As for my preferences, both are good. It depends on how you use them. You made some good use of physics interactions here, especially later on with the water pool and in the room after that with the sliding springy thing. When it comes to pressing a button to use something like clicking or pressing E, I think that works too but more for switchable interactions, like what you did for the light switches. In my game it's more of that type, where you just click on something to use it or pick-up/drop. Mine also had click on lights to turn them on/off and click on the TV to turn it on/off, and on the objects that create the sounds necessary to solve puzzles. A combination of the two might feel more complete and natural. Mine uses a little bit of physics, but not for solving the puzzles - in mine things like the ball rolling around don't actually help anything. I probably should have included a physics-based puzzle, but I ran out of time.
As for the yellow key, my instinct told me it was for the door. When that wasn't it, I thought maybe I need to save it for later. I didn't even think for a long time to use it on the thing it was meant for because I didn't realize they might be more than just furniture since I don't see any seams in the cubes, but that's probably just my lack of ideas. After I got that first container open the rest went mostly smoothly from there and took a few minutes of exploration and probing to figure out each room... except for the water room, that one took maybe 10 or 20 minutes but eventually got it.
As for the very first glass door, actually because it's so clear I didn't even realize it was a glass door the first few times I went through. I didn't notice it, and it just pushes open as you walk through, so I didn't even realize it was a glass door until after I had passed through it a couple times.
Good job. After I got over my confusion and stopped trying to lead myself to do things in the wrong order, then it was much more fun. I think that if you have enough creative puzzle ideas to make a very long string of puzzle rooms that you could make a nice long-form game of this.
I also did a 3D, first-person view, multiple small puzzle rooms to progress through type of game (though I only got 2 puzzle rooms done), so I feel like there's some overlap here. Mine was supposed to have a narrative of a guy that leaves his house but on this day his front door magically leads to a mystical series of escape rooms (I was going to have him chase after his cat that runs out into the escape room, but I wasn't going to try to add and animate a cat when I was already time-starved). I tried for a dark mysterious feel, but I feel like my lighting got more of a horror vibe than a dark fantasy mystery vibe, and I didn't get in all the fantasy props I wanted to help sell the setting. I also had intended for a clever use of the glass door mechanic where you can see through doors exiting the escape rooms and have to try to decide which door to continue through based on what you see, but again, time.
I'm on the fence about whether to continue working on mine, and the artist that made the few models I had doesn't want to continue working on it. If you can either do the graphics or find them online or get a 3D artist on board, and if you'd be interested in my setting and narrative I described, then if you're interested and have lots of puzzle ideas maybe we could combine our ideas. I had not thought to use physics puzzles in mine, and I think that would help round out the puzzle diversity, but I don't want to just steal the idea. Though I probably won't continue mine if I don't find a decent artist interested in the setting.
Very interesting, thank you a lot for the additional feedback and answered questions, you’re being quite comprehensive and i like it!
There is indeed some overlap between our games, but i think that’s because of time constraints and the fact that we chose what the game engines do well. However, our ideas are vastly different. My reason for a space-themed main menu is because the game is set in space and you’re someone who is being tested on a remote spaceship. I didn’t get to the point of modelling the spaceship, hence the abrupt ending with the empty rooms that are just layout for more undone puzzle ideas. If you have a keen eye, the lights are slightly cold in color which indicates the cold idea of you being a test subject. Though that really doesn’t fit with the orange i put everywhere, does it!
I even planned HUD glasses to make the game more interesting. You would use them to see what everything is, there would be text and tooltips, and dragged objects would glow. However just like you, i also ran into time constraints. And i also planned gravity generators you can toggle like the lamps to better indicate you being on a spaceship with artificial gravity.
You’ve answered my questions quite comprehensively and i am very thankful for that! Will be looking deeper into the feedback as i work on this update. Adding some seams to the models will definitely make them more intuitive.
As for the invite, thanks, but i don’t think this is going to happen! My main skill is programming and i use Godot currently by writing GDScript. You used Unity and need artistic skills which i don’t yet have, at least i don’t think i’m good enough. And even if i was good enough at those, they’d still be support skills to programming, rather than main skills.
Your feedback has been very valuable and i am so thankful to have talked to you! Due to this, i have managed to release a post-jam update which attempts to solve the most glaring issues that were pointed out by you and other people.
I’m honestly surprised how different it feels given that the changes are so tiny.