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Funny idea, and the hats are really charming. Getting one and losing it right away made me laugh.
I ran into something similar to what dporto described. I did see the control hints at the bottom, but I still often didn’t know what I was supposed to do next. Reading what the inputs are isn’t quite the same as understanding how the mechanics work together on the board.
Since you asked what could help: a short interactive tutorial in the first levels might do a lot. For example, the game could highlight one tile and ask you to rotate it, then highlight two neighbours and ask you to swap them, and only continue once you’ve done it. The same could happen whenever a new mechanic appears later, like the magnets. Once you’ve done each action yourself, the hint text at the bottom would probably make a lot more sense.
The puzzles themselves feel fresh, and once things clicked I enjoyed them. With a gentler start I think more players would stick around long enough to get to that point.
I really appreciate the comments. Thank you so much! I am thinking about ways to make the introduction gentler, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of making sure people have a little more investment in the game before they start needing to think to solve harder puzzles. I expect the tutorial piece of it is the easier bit, but I'll try to do both over the next couple months. :)
A fun little puzzle game! The whole hat situation is weird in a charming way, especially when you finally get a hat and immediately lose it, haha.
The puzzles are clever and make you think. Once you understand how to rearrange the tiles, everything starts to click, and solving each level feels satisfying.
The mechanics are simple, the presentation works well, and the difficulty feels fair. It's a nice puzzle game that knows exactly what it wants to be!
I tried the game for about 15 minutes. I found it interesting, and the puzzles have a fresh, novel feel to them; however, I also found it quite confusing. It wasn’t immediately clear to me that I needed to swipe and click to rotate the pieces (the interface didn’t provide enough of a hint). Furthermore, moving and rotating the pieces doesn’t always work very well. That said, the concept itself is solid—kudos to you! (Though, to be fair, this type of puzzle just isn’t really my cup of tea.)
Thank you very much for the feedback! I'm wondering what could have helped clarify the interface to you? Of all the reasons to lose players, I would hate confusing controls to be a reason. Totally okay that it's not your style game. Thinky deterministic puzzle games aren't for everyone any more than shooters or visual novels or horror games are.
For reference, this is what I currently show on the bottom of the interface, to help players understand the controls. It changes based on if you click/touch or if you type. Did you notice it? Did you feel it was confusing in its wording?
Yes, I had noticed that; it wasn't the game itself that confused me, but rather the way the on-screen elements are designed. For instance, the background color of the pieces that can be swapped is very similar to that of the pieces that remain fixed. Also, it wasn't immediately intuitive how to move the character—you have to swipe from one square to another—so I ended up just clicking on empty squares until I figured it out. Then again, perhaps I approached it the wrong way, as this isn't really my genre.
Thank you again for all the feedback.