The blend of Papers Please inspection gameplay with Caesar cipher decoding, radio intel, and map board tracking creates such an addictive, high-intellect military surveillance loop! Incrementally layering tools like the codebook across 3-minute days gives a fantastic sense of progression as a solo dev project.
A few tutorial, UI overlay, and onboarding polish ideas for post-jam updates:
- Visual Onboarding & Hints: Add interactive highlighted steps or diagram-based tooltips during Day 1 so decoding and verification steps click immediately for new players.
- UI Layering & Codebook View: Fix the UI overlap where incoming messages hide behind open codebooks, allowing messages to preview on-screen without requiring window toggles.
- Progression Pacing: Spread new tool unlocks across more days in an expanded post-jam release so players have more room to master each decoding mechanic.
Brilliant cryptography concept, awesome atmosphere, and impressive solo execution! If you get a free minute, I'd really appreciate your feedback and rating on my solo jam entry as well: /jam/brackeys-16/rate/4953523