| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #32 | 2.900 | 2.900 |
| Gameplay/Design | #45 | 2.300 | 2.300 |
| Overall | #45 | 2.150 | 2.150 |
| Fun | #47 | 2.100 | 2.100 |
| Graphics | #60 | 1.300 | 1.300 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What would you like feedback on?
I want to know how to make people understand how to play better, because that is what I believe to be the thing that lowered my ratings. Also please do give feedback.
What did you update?
LEVEL 1 WORKS!!!
Cool ideas. I managed to get all 12, but I needed some hint for the 12th one and for the last one of the Australia bit.
I do think that some puzzles feel a bit random and too hard. Some have this nice "Ah! I got it!" (Asutralia=down under) feel, but others are more like "Well, if you say so..." (replacing s. with south and that with down).
The graphics and the intro into the game are bare bones at best. There's lots to be done still.
Good luck with adding more to it!
Sorry, this game is really bad. I have no idea how you came up with these weird puzzles. They just make no sense whatsoever. How I'm supposed to solve these, I have no idea. I'm specifically talking about puzzles, not word hunting on the screen. None of the text ingame seems to do much to explain them, and the hints document feels as insane as the game itself.
My suggestion is to make your puzzles simpler. As the developer of the game you think these are easy, but the truth is, they are convoluted as hell. And the average player doesn't feel fun trying to solve them, they feel frustrated, because the puzzle is much harder than their understanding of the puzzle.
I like this kind of puzzle games. That's not easy to make new levels, because each time you have to think about a brand new idea. It reminds me EnigmOn, a nice puzzle mobile game.
The Level 2 was nice, mabye too easy (I think it could have been improved by having 4 sentences in the text, the first starts with "D", the second with "O", etc. It would be still solvable, but less obvious).
The Level 3 too. I was almost able to find out myself, but I still needed 1 hint. I think the difficulty was perfectly balanced.
I also found every down in the menu. So it's 10 legit downs.
Then I felt so dumb needing the solution for the Elusive 12th Down, I like that kind of easter egg.
The Level 1 seems broken however. I wasn't able to solve any word at all even with the solution, I don't think anyone can figure out it by himself. Also kind of messy in comparison with other levels.
Apart of that I really liked the music, both tracks.
The art is simplistic but of course they will come after the concept, so at the beginning I didn't expect such an interesting game. I think you should really continue working on this game. Good job !
Are you sure puzzle 1 is working? I typed the obvious replacement for Australia, but no matter how I capitalize it, even making sure it's identical to the solution document, a sound never plays, and the words never turn black. I tried entering the solutions for the other sides of the crossword from the doc, but again nothing plays.
Puzzle 2 is great and I solved part of puzzle 3, but not the rest bc I think I need information from the first puzzle for that. And I was able to find all the secrets on the menu I think, so that was fun.
It still doesn't seem like it's working. I now see that there's a difference between selecting the text to type new text, versus deleting the text before typing, and that's clearly a technical thing that caused issues. But even when I deleted the text and typed what I believe to be the correct text in, nothing happens.
Here is a video of my attempt. I legitimately think something isn't working because I see no feedback from anything I enter here.
Cool game! I found 7 downs.
I don't really play or enjoy this genre very much, so I'm probably not the right person to give feedback here. You asked how you could make people better understand how to play, but my impression was that you designed the game with the intention of players having to figure out themselves what needs to be done. So it might be challenging to help players understand things better when the rules and hints are obfuscated by design.
The puzzles are quite challenging, and I only managed to complete the second one. I think that can work out great for the right audience. For low skill players like me, maybe clearer hints or a few easier levels with explicit rules at the beginning might help.
Cheers!
Don't read this if you haven't played yet!
I liked the meta puzzles in this game! I feel like the game needs some . This might be a hot take, but the last elusive down as listed in the doc was actually my favorite one. You should put some kind of prompting hint for it after players get all the other ones, but I found the "outside-the-box" nature of that one pretty funny.
#2 is great because it sets the tone of the game, things not being what they seem, and then you'd look at all the other ones you missed. I think #3 could be replace #1 as the intro puzzle, because it feels more self explanatory. With Puzzle 1, I couldn't enter it even with the solution in the doc. Maybe there's a better way to position this puzzle? I feel like 3 free-entry text boxes might be too open ended to give to a player as a puzzle without connected hints (it's done way better in #3). Maybe you could do letters you can drag in, or point out things from pictures/a map.
I got 7 downs. I couldn't solve #1 because I have no idea what you meant by the cryptic crossword instructions, couldn't solve #3 because I have no idea what to type there as I was confused with the text.
This reminds me of games by FLEB like Strange Jigsaws or 20 Small Mazes as how this game was structured is similar to those games, and honestly, this game structure and design felt good with the music, even though there's no art.
I'd say it was fun until I couldn't solve it anymore. The puzzles were great and I like how I could see visible counter from my Downs, because when number go up, enjoyment go up.
Fun game.
For both of these, the hints doc should help (especially with #3). Down Counter Hints.docx
Spoilers for any fellow players because I'd rather they figure out the solutions on their own.
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...what am I supposed to do for the opening puzzle about Australia and feeling sick? I was able to figure out what I was supposed to do for what I assume is every other "down" in the game (I got 10 in total), but the first puzzle almost feels broken. I had to look up the solution in the doc, but even when I did and typed in "Down Under" in the first box, "Under" in the second, and "Down" in the third, nothing happens. Switch the text in the latter two boxes, nothing happens. Fiddle with punctuation, uppercase and lowercase, nothing happens. Click the words after the fact, nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?
I am in the process of making level 1 more self explanatory, but in the meantime, I can give you some pointers. Entering the correct statement will solve that box, no need to press enter or anything. After getting the correct answer for the part, a sound should play. If the words turn black, there is nothing to do with them just yet. If they turn white, you still need to edit them (The third box needs to be changed 3 times if I remember correctly). Also, uppercase/lower case doesn't matter.
Cool idea! I got 5 downs but got stuck on the word puzzles. I know you very clearly said the hints section was not a virus but still that link is not one that I'd like to click haha. Perhaps consider paste bin or some other text sharing solution that people recognize? I definitely found more than I would have without the description so I think this is for sure an improvement! Well done!
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