a solomon's key style puzzle game is a lovely nod to old tech, and ten hand made levels is a lot of work for a jam. the block pushing and falling rules feel properly retro, and the short story gives it a bit of personality beyond the puzzles. level 3 seems to be a proper little difficulty spike, which is a good sign. did you design the levels on paper first, or build them straight in the engine? nice work.
@perrarancino Thanks for the feedback and playing perra! I made them in the Engine straightly. There are some levels I made first try to explore how these mechanics can make, and there are some just filler content to make sure there are some levels, and then there are some tutorial levels to make sure players may know some rules by them own! And ofc I arrange them in a proper order after design!
@jambread Thanks for the playing, JamBread, and sorry about the sound! I wanted to go for an old-school style, so the music might sound a bit harsh, I'll be more careful next time!
Oh man, I love the throwback to Solomon's Key! In general, I absolutely love when old games are reimagined in a new context :)
The difficulty was brutal though! I spent forever before I figured out how blocks fell, and then I unfortunately got hard-stuck on level 9, right before the end :( Things started getting very visually glitchy in terms of which blocks were connected to which as they fell and I pushed them around, which made me think that I was on the absolute wrong path, but I couldn't figure out any other path to take. I spent around 30 minutes or so trying to brute force a solution, but I just couldn't get there :(
It might be a good idea to add some spoiler-tagged hints/solutions to your description page to help anyone else who might run into the same skill issue as I did 😅 I wanted to see the end of the game so badly!
Overall though, this was very cute (I loved the lil fox!), cozy, and fun!
I really like the elegant way the game lets you learn without heavy-handed tutorials, and the “aha!” moments when you figure out the mechanics for yourself. I did get stuck on level 9, though, and then accidentally closed my browser 😭
Here are two thoughts: an “aha!” moment I really enjoyed, and a point of frustration that probably has a lot to do with my own puzzle-solving habits.
1. An “aha!” moment
!> After figuring out the box-pushing mechanic, I realized that the earlier levels might have more than one solution.
That felt great, and it made me excited to see what other mechanics I might discover in later levels!
2. A frustration related to my own playstyle
My first instinct with puzzles is to try lots of different possibilities, and I happened to get through several of the early levels by trial and error. With undo available, I could just back out of the traps and try again. As a result, I got past those tricks without fully understanding them or feeling the need to slow down and think things through.
Levels 7 and 8 also felt extremely easy to me, which made the sudden jump in difficulty at level 9 feel especially jarring. Going from those levels to a much more complex puzzle left me feeling really frustrated and discouraged, and that’s where I got stuck.
@koolruz Thanks for the feedback Koolruz, and thank you for playing! The level 9 was one of the levels I made to test the mechanics, and it requires players to use many skills to build stairs so this is a hard challenge. I moved it on the end-game section but it seems many players can't beat it.
Probably I shall put some tutorial levels before G-9, to make the difficulty curve smoother!
@yibirabbit007 Thanks, Yibi! The push mechanics don't have a tutorial exactly. And they can have one inspect in the previous level, it won't change the difficulty too much, but they will help players understand the mechanics truly!
@tinglight Thanks for playing, TingLight! I'm glad you leave such detailed feedback!
I think the core gameplay in thinky puzzle games is "Aha Moments", and that’s exactly what I wanted to show. Also sorry I didn’t add a save system!! It won't be really helpful when players close the window perchance or they have something interesting to come back to play again!
G-9 is a level designed to test players on building stairs within a 3‑block-wide space. It seems like a good idea to add a practice level before G-9, since many players get stuck here. ToT
very interesting. it remembers my some gameboy games. the gap between the difficulty of level 1 and 2 is a bit too high, I didn't understand the diagonal and bridge mechanics at this point, a level 1.5 would help.
Comments25
Hint: Blocks can fall if they aren't supported.
8bit music and low pixelart are on point with the theme !
Hope there is no AI involved ! :D
The difficulty was brutal though! I spent forever before I figured out how blocks fell, and then I unfortunately got hard-stuck on level 9, right before the end :( Things started getting very visually glitchy in terms of which blocks were connected to which as they fell and I pushed them around, which made me think that I was on the absolute wrong path, but I couldn't figure out any other path to take. I spent around 30 minutes or so trying to brute force a solution, but I just couldn't get there :(
It might be a good idea to add some spoiler-tagged hints/solutions to your description page to help anyone else who might run into the same skill issue as I did 😅 I wanted to see the end of the game so badly!
Overall though, this was very cute (I loved the lil fox!), cozy, and fun!
And that the frist time I didn't know the right key can push the piece, always try use X key fill all the road 🕶
Here are two thoughts: an “aha!” moment I really enjoyed, and a point of frustration that probably has a lot to do with my own puzzle-solving habits.
1. An “aha!” moment
!> After figuring out the box-pushing mechanic, I realized that the earlier levels might have more than one solution.
That felt great, and it made me excited to see what other mechanics I might discover in later levels!
2. A frustration related to my own playstyle
My first instinct with puzzles is to try lots of different possibilities, and I happened to get through several of the early levels by trial and error. With undo available, I could just back out of the traps and try again. As a result, I got past those tricks without fully understanding them or feeling the need to slow down and think things through.
Levels 7 and 8 also felt extremely easy to me, which made the sudden jump in difficulty at level 9 feel especially jarring. Going from those levels to a much more complex puzzle left me feeling really frustrated and discouraged, and that’s where I got stuck.
Probably I shall put some tutorial levels before G-9, to make the difficulty curve smoother!
I think the core gameplay in thinky puzzle games is "Aha Moments", and that’s exactly what I wanted to show. Also sorry I didn’t add a save system!! It won't be really helpful when players close the window perchance or they have something interesting to come back to play again!
G-9 is a level designed to test players on building stairs within a 3‑block-wide space. It seems like a good idea to add a practice level before G-9, since many players get stuck here. ToT
@ao-85 Thanks for feedback AO!