itch.io

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.

Interesting game. Visually looks great. So for me two of the most frustrating things were: spots that give you nothing but the game keeps highlighting them, almost saying: "hey keep trying to look here, there might be something here", which was annoying, because I kept thinking if maybe I get something I can open it.

Another frustration was the fishing rod. I found the shell it is needed for quickly, but didn't understand what the game wants. Then I even found its location. BUT I never realized it wasn't a decoration. So I kept looking elsewhere for something. And I only found it after I started clicking everywhere on every screen I can out of frustration.

Personally not a big fan of this genre so for me personally the answer is mostly no

Wow, this game is so fun. Thoroughly enjoyed every level in both castles. And the music is amazing too, simple but really enjoyable. Good job making it yourself. Also love the double theme take.

Regarding difficulty, I think you got the difficulty curve right, at no point I felt frustrated. There were a couple levels were the solution was really simple, but I guess that's not an issue.

Castle 2 specifically was a cool twist on everything before, though I feel like canons kinda trivialize many puzzles, and that action counter stops mattering as much once they are in a level. (Btw thanks for allowing to press space to fast-forward a canon)

A nice addition to the game would be to allow to scroll through the level as you're playing. This would be especially useful if you're currently in a canon and want to look around before deciding on the next move. 

Lastly I did have technical issues, specifically the game seems to not work at all on Firefox. The game just shows a blue screen and I can't play. Had to switch to chrome to play

Okay, played a bit more. Yeah, the UI now works. Overall I think the game is kinda easy, because all I was doing is aimlessly jumping around as hopping bunnies were demolishing everything on screen to the point I wasn't sure where the enemies are. 

Additionally there's that timer, and I don't really understand if I'm just supposed to survive as many waves as possible or what before it runs out. The game doesn't really explain that.

Thanks for playing. Yeah level 19 is currently the hardest level after I redesigned it. Great job solving it. 

Regarding intro levels, they are intentionally easy. I don't want the player to feel stuck before they even understood what's going on. 

And the camera getting stuck sometimes is a known issue. Not sure how I'll solve it, but I intent to.

Today gave this game to a couple of my friends, who aren't very familiar with video games. Here's what I noticed after seeing them play (on mobile):

Both of them had trouble cutting the paper, paper cut icon didn't seem to work and when I suggested cutting they tried to do so from edge of the paper, but still on it, so the cut didn't work and they kept dragging their fingers in panic, without understanding why it doesn't work.

Additionally they sometimes tried to cut the paper in the middle (between the lines), which obviously didn't work. This was especially prominent when it was the last piece of paper on the roll.

Other than this, they had fun and liked the game, though didn't get very far in arcade. At least for now.

Thanks for playing. Varied time is an interesting idea, will try to explore in the future.

Regarding difficulty curve and puzzle 19 and 20 difficulty. 19 was simpler previously, however then I noticed an issue in it, reworked it, and it seems I've overcomplicated it now. Currently the most difficult puzzle in the whole game I think. Great job solving it. 

I'm definitely going to add even more levels to smooth out the difficulty.

Color coding or arrow sounds like a great idea, will check that out

Thank you for playing. That was exactly the solution. I guess more tweaking is needed.

I know about camera issues, still trying to wrestle that. Regarding pink barrier, I actually haven't done introduction levels for it yet, just added it so levels cannot be cheesed. That'll come in the next update. 

This game is really fun. I had great time, such a cool concept. I found arcade mode much more interesting than time challenge/jam version, so I think your improvement is amazing. For me it changed the game from something I quickly get bored with to something I want more of. So great job on the update.

On the feedback:

• Your UI is really clear, nothing is confusing. 
• I think your game already looks great, so not sure what you should improve.
• In the arcade mode I reached level 7 before losing. For me the most fun is trying to maximize my score. At one point I got something like 2.5k, it was really fun seeing the number go so high. At the same time I think the score target is being raised too quickly. I feel like my items were good, and on many previous levels I was scoring more than I needed, but then I got three unlucky paper rolls, and lost the game. So maybe the game should do a quick check to see if at least one paper roll has at least something going for it
• Controls were intuitive (mouse)

Bonus points: 

• Let me scratch the cat in the main menu/title screen
• A little suggestion is to maybe bring some arcade logic back to timed mode to make it a bit more interesting. Plain counting gets pretty boring rather quickly. After 11 counting without that numbers aid is really painful.

Edit: tried on mobile, plays great there too, no issues. This time reached level 8 and unfortunately it again felt like I was handed terrible rolls, almost every single one was one off from setting of a powerful combo... (For example I had cherry and a banana, plus some other things. The roll was 11 long, I can't maximize my score here. Also can't effectively apply lucky cat)

Cool and fun game. A bit simple, but still fun. But that main menu is something, it feels alive... 

On the gameplay, I honestly feel like its simpler to count yourself than try to wrestle that crazy broken microwave.

Interesting game. A bit weird for my tastes though. 

Regarding the timer, I barely looked at it. I did notice it, but it never meaningfully affected me. Mini games have okay difficulty, although some are significantly harder than others. Specifically laundry and "flappy bird clone".

Last issue I noticed: initially controls aren't too obvious, because some games have platformer controls, and other have mouse control, and that is never mention in the description. Little text in game is visible only for a few seconds, so no time to read it.

Really interesting game. It was fun, however top UI doesn't seem to work at all in both web and win builds, which means I have no idea what's going on, and how close am I to defeat.

Other than that, the game already looks really great visually, so not sure how you can improve that.

This an interesting game concept. However there are a lot of issues:

• Date formatting here is really weird. Some dates are formatted  0-0-year, others have minus signs it seems (instead of BC, BCE, etc...)
• The game doesn't communicate from WHICH year they have how many years to live. This is particularly important, as this is the main game mechanic. Clues additionally complicate this, as they seem to be sometimes in the past from first event shown.
• When I do make my choice, it seems I'm scored on how many days between my guess and the correct date, but even if I guess the year count is correct, I'm still punished because they died in the middle of the year instead of 1 January
• Scoring is very non transparent. Are clues deducting from my score? Or ignored? How many clues I have before I make my guess? And last but not least, I've got a score of 1808618, what does this even mean??? I did well? Or poorly. I have no reference or understanding.
• Last nitpick: the game doesn't look correct in fullscreen, the text stops being centered (IDK if this is intentional or not)

Cool game, so far I've played for like 30 minutes, the game is easy to understand, and it is really fun clicking all the buttons. So far reached village/forest locations. Will probably update this comment as I keep playing the game.

Also I was initially a bit afraid of that external "download" button, but it is actually really convenient that the game is playable on mobile, can play while commuting in the metro.

Btw, what's with that "share with a friend" and get 200 gold thing? Is gold some micro-transaction thing or what?

Okay, played a bit more. I did find the rest place, although I'm not sure what was the indicator, as I just accidentally found it. From there initially it is really cool, although I find it pretty weird that such specific items come from sky or something. Played a bit, got a few items, crafted a bag. However from here I'm honestly bored because after searching for a few days for items, I've got none to craft anything else, and as far as I can tell I have  explored all available map. So I quit there on 4th day.

Control issue still stands by the way. I understand you're trying to mimic retro controls, but honestly in my opinion the times have changed, and I don't understand why you'd make such painful control scheme.

Btw, dash particles texture seems to be broken or missing.

Interesting game, visually looks really great. As for fun, for me personally, exotic controls of arrows to move and WASD to rotate the camera in fixed steps was REALLY painful. Like every second I was playing this game I was wishing I could use my mouse...
Other than that it sure is an interesting experience, though outside of trying to survive I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Also, why I can't walk through grass? That feels artificial and immersion breaking

Really cool game, I played for something like 30 minutes (Sorry, no video), it was mostly fun, although I do think this game needs a tutorial of some sort. Initially it is really confusing what is what and why.

Regarding what's fun, for me personally the most fun aspect was mining and exploring the mines. The command/task system feels shallow.

And the combat sections were the least fun. Especially because of that damn inverted aiming, please make an option to aim by pulling the stick TOWARDS the target. Also the camera first zooms out as I'm aiming, then snaps back making me feel disoriented.

BTW, how do I heal my health? Couldn't find anything in the game to heal myself

Well that's just the order in which these features were added to the game. However I do agree with you that currently dragging does feel better, especially if current puzzle has a tight timing. TBH I do try to avoid that, and ensure player has plenty of time to execute their move, but alas not everywhere 

Thanks for playing. I'm glad you had so much fun.

Regarding issues you mentioned:

• I've heard another person mention that the game state is hard to keep and predict in mind,  I'm aware, but not sure how to fix that
• On dragging, I've heard similar feedback, so that's already on my todo list
• Pushing is technically the main way to move things, and dragging is actually a secondary one, that is there to ensure you can't soft-lock yourself
• And I'm still working on the camera, it is a bit finicky and buggy, so a fix to that will also come in a later update 

Thanks for playing. This is an interesting perspective, because according to other player's feedback here and elsewhere those exact levels are a difficulty spike. As such I doubt I should make them any harder, as they are meant to introduce a new mechanic and ensure the player gets it.

However I do already have a feature planned to improve this: timer fast forward button 

Thanks for playing. Interesting suggestion to make 12 before 11, but I do think 12 is more advanced. So I think maybe a better way is to lock up all objects in 11, though I'm afraid that will trivialize the puzzle.
Regarding 10, it's not related to 11 and further. Interesting insight about slow doors, especially given these doors were a clutch solution to make the player forced to make a permanent change.
Also grabbing is indeed a secondary mechanic, that was introduced to ensure you can't get soft-locked by pushing a box to a corner, that players liked so much, I improved and polished it so much it almost became the main way to move things

Thanks for playing. Regarding getting stuck, in pause menu you can reset the level 

Interesting game. However I do think the system here is a bit problematic.

I wasn't sure how to approach this, so I thought I'll buy some obstacles, and I spent most of my money on that, being left with 1000, so I decided to bet 500, only to realize that after already PAYING 5k for obstacles, I have to pay AGAIN... 

Also am I paying for obstacles out of my bet money? Why? I thought to bet only 100, only to realize AGAIN that I can't place anything. 
Then my money ran out, and now I can't play at all. This isn't satisfying.

I think first thing that's needed here is some way to earn money, unrelated to races.

Really interesting game. Overall it was fun for me. 

Regarding tutorial, I think its fine, though I have read your page before playing. I haven't had any confusion issues

Only issues I found were, sometimes its hard to tell if some arcade is interactable or not. It seems like half of machines in a room are there without being interactable, so I keep running to a machine only to not see interact prompt, and wonder is it me doing something wrong or what. Also I guess an outline around the machines once I'm in position to interact would be nice (I know there's text, but that would reinforce that even further)

Other than that, I think the game kinda gets repetitive once you got the gist.

Maybe it didn't work correctly for me, IDK. Because it seemed like the game was glitiching or broken when those tutorial screens appeared. A bit later I will try to read all tutorials again and see if any of it makes more sense.

Regarding experience with turn based games, I did play some games like that. For example games like XCOM, or baldur's gate 3, or even simple turn based card games. But I have never seen a game like yours.

This is a really interesting concept. However in my opinion the tutorial here is really bad. After loading the game, explanations are thrown at you left and right, the game seems to try to teach all mechanics it has all at once. Which for me personally leads to lots of confusion. 

Like I don't understand what's going on here, what are all of these screens for. And after "explaining" everything, I'm expected to get it, which unfortunately doesn't work like this.
I think you need to introduce mechanics one by one, only showing what's relevant right now. From most basic to more advanced.

Another issue I found is that the UI here doesn't really communicate well what parts of the interface are information to me, and what parts are buttons to be clicked/interacted with. When I hover on something that's interactive, it should light up or change to indicate to me, yes you can click/interact. Right now I was clicking everywhere like those old hidden object games in hopes of finding something I can interact with. 

Also I'm not sure why, but these tutorial screens sometimes just skip pages and fast forward to the last section, without letting me actually read it. (Maybe because I'm using Firefox, IDK)

I understand what you mean. And I know there's a difficulty spike there. I'm currently thinking of ways to solve that.

However like I said, I don't want to add a dialogue line or other direct hint that directly leads to this discovery, that will just ruin the aha moment.

My intention is to use puzzle design in such a way to lead the players to discover this on their own.

Portal games do the same thing, very rarely you are directly told what to do, instead the game nudges you into the solution. I want to replicate that

Level 7 was just before Level 8 and featured two pairs of objects you had to apply a swap at the same time to solve the puzzle.

Regarding giving direct hints: I want to avoid this as much as I can, I'm trying to stick to teaching the player indirectly through my puzzles

Thanks for such detailed feedback! Regarding your suggestions:

• Will take a look at sliding 
• Will adjust typewriter effect 
• Not sure how to improve this yet, but will try to improve this aspect. Unfortunately I do think being close and looking at least somewhat in the direction of the target will remain, as I need to ensure you can select between objects if they happen to be very close to each other.
• For carrying will consider this, although i need to ensure that the object remains physical during entire drag state
• Room 11: adding a countdown to the door is genius, and I have no idea why I haven't thought of that before. Also so fitting with the theme :)
• Room 14: will check, although some of these puzzles have multiple solutions. EDIT: nah, you're right, that's a cheese right there...
• Regarding difficulty, I'm still trying to work out teaching these mechanics, and the bulk of it comes to levels 10-12. 
• Room 18: yeah this is known issue. I made the player teleport mechanic, but still hasn't figured out a counter mechanic to control it... So that puzzle has an unfortunate circumstance of being possible to solve it only for 5 seconds

Thanks for the feedback. Can you go through your thoughts while solving puzzle #8? This is indeed a bit of a difficulty spike, and I'm still trying to figure out how to smooth that bump out.

Thanks for playing and your feedback. Regarding a hint for level 8, the idea was that level 7 would be that hint, that you can shoot multiple simultaneous timers. Maybe you have an idea how I can give such a hint, without directly telling player "shoot twice and move", as that would defeat the point of doing invisible tutorial

I didn't notice any significant blurring. The font is painful to read because its characters keep changing height and thickness midword, moving up and down, as if the speaker is heavily drunk or something

The same insanity game as I remember from GMTK... I don't really see much different here, but to be fair the game was already great before. Nice to see level select in the "cheater zone" :)

Regarding the feel of the gun, I didn't notice any difference unfortunately. Though I played previous iteration a few weeks ago, might have forgotten something

Great game overall. Regarding music, I think it fits, but at the same time its kinda basic and very repetitive. You could improve it further in my opinion.

Art looks good in my opinion. But my biggest gripe with this game is this font... Its painful to read. I kinda get the idea behind it, but I wish you used a simpler font.

Also a suggestion regarding dialogue in the intro, it would be better if visible portion of the text isn't moving, as the typewriter effect is revealing letters. Right now reading the text as it's being revealed is almost impossible.

Lastly I encountered a game breaking bug when I tried to craft my cure. At first the crafting system seems to work fine. I even made solution C successfully. But then when I tried to make solution X, the crafting system just stops working for some reason. I put my ingredients, and nothing happens, and I can't craft anything at all

Interesting game. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of horror games, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I didn't have much fun. The game is rather simple, and not much to explore here. There is a few screamers here and there, and no story.

Also that mirror looks horrific

This is an interesting game. The concept is really neat. However I do feel like there isn't any strategy here. Once I had a few plates moving, the counter was ticking, and amount of TP I was earning, was more than I needed. There's not incentive to optimize anything, so at some point I just started moving plates in random directions.

On the plus side, visuals are neat, and audio and music feel great.

This was a fun game. My first suggestion is to add a tutorial, there are a lot of buttons to learn and what is where and what it means. It would be much easier to start playing, it it was present.
Regarding difficulty balance and enemy design. Overall I feel that you difficulty isn't too hard, but there were some frustration moments. I especially found the bat to be the most annoying enemy, it moves quite unpredictably, and also it is much harder to gauge if I will hit a bat or not, so I had many situations where I either accidentally hit the bat with my body, or didn't reach enough height to hit it.
Final boss feels too easy. I almost never took damage from it, and main danger is adds it spawns during the encounter.

Last thing I didn't like is how my "heal bar" is reduced on hit. I feel like its too punishing. Like if its full, and my health is full, that means I've been pretty careful recently, so when I make a mistake, instead of being able to use that saved up healing to get my health back up, the game almost punishes me for saving that heal bar, instead of rewarding

Thanks for playing and your feedback. I'm aware of the first issue, still thinking how to solve it.

Regarding dragging not giving feedback, will see how I can improve that.

Thanks for the feedback. Didn't think of dialogue sound effects... Will add in the next version

Great game and concept, it was fun once I got the hang of it. One issue I had were weird random freezes on webgl build (My PC isn't weak or anything like that). Otherwise this is a great idea, I think you should develop this further