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Cinderbox (HTML5) — first puzzle clarity + mobile browser?

A topic by quarrykit created 1 day ago Views: 43 Replies: 4
Viewing posts 1 to 3

Hi! I’m looking for a quick first-pass check on Cinderbox, a small HTML5 puzzle game:

https://quarrykit.itch.io/cinder-box


Two things I’d especially like to know:

1. Is the goal of the first puzzle clear within about 10 seconds, without needing to experiment randomly?

2. On a phone browser, does the board scale correctly, and does the D-pad/swipe input feel usable?


If you notice where you hesitate or misread a cue, please mention the moment. Desktop builds exist if useful.

Two things from the page rather than the build, neither already mentioned here.

Your page looks like it has no cover image. I grepped cinder-box for og:image plus three other itch game pages as controls: the three controls emit one, yours emits none. That matters more than it sounds, because itch's Getting Indexed doc lists "You have a cover image uploaded on your page" as a baseline requirement for being indexed - and "cinderbox" does not come back from itch search at all, four days after publishing. Searching your project's full title is itch's own stated test for whether a page is indexed. If that reading is right, the mobile-scale fix is landing on a page browse cannot reach yet.

Second: no tags and no genre. Your info panel runs Updated / Published / Status / Platforms / Author and stops; the two other pages I pulled this morning both carry a Tags row between Author and the rest. Tag pages are a real browse surface - they are measurably one of mine.

Nice game. However, the puzzles are too easy, and remain easy. I finished the whole 23 levels in ~1 minute.

I played on a computer, but the dpad shows as 2562 and numbers/letters, instead of arrows. The puzzles just need more complexity. The gumroad link is also quarantined 

Thanks — this is useful. Agree the current set is too shallow (clearing 23 levels that fast means it isn’t really puzzling yet). Tracking: (1) harder levels with real planning pressure, (2) D-pad should show arrows not letter glyphs, (3) phone HTML5 scale is broken for some browsers — fixing, (4) pulled the off-site store link that got quarantined; paid desktop will move onto itch downloads. Appreciate you playing through.

The cooling mechanic sounds like a nice source of pressure! Are you planning levels where players have to choose which coal to save first?