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(1 edit)

It took a while, but I finally managed to beat all of the levels. I think my favorite level -- which was also the one I probably took the longest on -- was the level that introduced the dash. It legitimately took me quite a while to figure out the solution, and it was a very nice a-ha moment.

For some of the levels, like the Patrick level, I feel like I might have skipped the intended solution (on that level, I basically just used Patrick to get through the ice, then the other two rocks to pass the two later water lanes, meaning I didn't need any of the dashes or time powers). Or, for example, level 9 in the jungle, I went on the bottom path and around both keydoors, leaving me with 28 moves left.

The move countdown itself is interesting in that I felt it was sometimes too lenient and sometimes too strict. For example, the level with all the clouds, it felt like it kind of just got in the way of learning to move through the clouds smoothly (as there is, at least AFAIK, no real logical way to deduce which path will happen to fit in the number of moves). But on other levels, it felt like it could have been more restrictive in order to narrow down the solution space. The only level where I really felt the move counter viscerally was probably the last level. My thought about this is: maybe the move counter would operate better as a mechanic that only appears in some levels? I.e. design levels that specifically use it as a restriction, but for levels where it doesn't feel meaningful, just leave it out entirely. I think managing the countdown of the dashes and clouds ended up feeling actually quite meaningful & appropriate to the theme. But, that's just my take.

I did have some trouble using the controls... mainly, exiting the menu after using an item often felt a bit clunky to me. I also had to double-check what keys were used to navigate the menu. I think a way to really polish it up would be to support some mouse controls too -- e.g. let me click-place or drag-and-drop the torch item onto the field, so that it requires no menu navigation at all.

There were a number of puzzles I quite enjoyed. I think, in the thunderlands, the stand-outs for me are levels 1, 5, 7, 8, and 10. I don't remember the jungle as well as it has been a while since I played them. I think that the clouds are a pretty nice mechanic and very on-point with the theme. The natural parity and LCM mechanics that come out of them are interesting to think about and play around. And although I found the dash pretty awkward to use at first, I do think it ended up being pretty fun too... level 7 was one of my favorites.

I found myself humming the music after quitting the game so I think it was quite the bop. :)

Good job!

(+1)

Hi! I'm the person behind the second location and it's gimmicks, thanks for getting throught the whole game! I know not a lot of people finished it so it's quite an achievement I guess. Now onto your concerns with some parts of the game:
- Yep the Patrick level (tysm for reading that dialouge) was a an oversight on my part, the initial idea was to push him all the way to the last "river" and then sacriface him, but You could just skip it like You said, but thanks to You I can now fix it 
- The countdown being sometimes to strict and sometimes to lenient was mainly because, the jungle was created when we didn't have the level editor, so it could not be easly tested
- About removing the main countdown for some levels - I don't think it could work really well, the levels were created with a solution in mind, removing the move countdown removes any hardship, as you said, the levels that had a lots of storms could use that, but I think in this case just letting the player having some spare moves would be a better solution, that level was designed to be a labirynth of some sort and often you can be lost in labirynths. After uploading the game, one of the ideas we had for the difficulty was to just introduce stars as a gauge for how well the player got through the level. 
- Fun fact, initially I didn't plan to add the storms (which I think are my favourite mechanic in the game), instead I had in my plans to add catapult, (which after some thought was discarded, because of the time limit and because it would be harder to create than the potion which was in itself a lot of pain), so because we needed more than potion and clock for the area, I've decided to add this simple tile which happened to introduce a lot of interesting things to the game - my favourite was the interaction between the ice and red storms. So i think it is funny that sometimes the simplest mechanic are the best ones are the most complex
- The controls we gotta admit - we weren't happy with them but we did not had much time to rewire them in a way that feels natural.
Again, thanks for this loaded feedback, really appreciate it, it was my first time designing levels, and your words made me more confident in my designing skills XD