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Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,041
    Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - Final Thoughts (for now)

    TL;DR - it's all about the pacing

    I put in 8 hours (~60% completion). I noticed that the percent completion kept increasing at a lower and lower rate the longer I played. Every time I'd make progress, the unlocked item was something I could reach or use yet.

    To prove a point, I'll use very minor spoilers in this section. You're given a task - "Go to the show". I randomly found out what that means a long time later and use my ticket to go to the show; however, it immediately says I now also need a rose to go to the show. The rose is claimed in completely unrelated puzzle with zero breadcrumbing between the two tasks. So, you'll randomly get this item. This was a puzzle I skipped because it might have needed more stuff to finish. So, hours later, after revisiting just about every area an re-trying puzzles, I found the rose.

    After doing some online searching for clues to get passed yet another brick wall, I found the issue and it's related to Riven. Many of the areas and puzzles I've discovered are end-game. There's a puzzle you find early on in Riven that you can't finish until the end of the game. You'll likely waste a lot of time on it before moving on. In LatLE, I have at least a dozen of these puzzles right now. And I wasted a LOT of time trying to find clues for these puzzles.

    All the backtracking, brickwalls, information overload are all a symptom one thing: pacing. There's too much going. Too many interconnected areas with little to no clues for lead you down a path. So many of the paths you can take are dead ends. It's frustrating. Right now, in the game, I have 16 locked doors that I have discovered - not including any of the shortcut doors (which I've unlocked 17 of 20). My in-game TODO list is 16 pages long with no organizations or categories. It only puts a line through finished tasks.

    Since this is surreal story telling; I don't even really know what I'm supposed to be doing now or what my end goal is. The only motivation I have is to figure out what is happening. Sure, I know the lore of what happened in the past. That doesn't help me move forward in the game.

    So, until there's some good guides I can refer to for hints to continue, I'm done with this game. I may just watch a playthrough instead when those start to show up.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,042
    A Tower Full of Cats - final thoughs

    TL;DR - dumb hidden object fun with some minor puzzle solving

    If you played A Castle Full of Cats, this is the same game. It's a where's-waldo hidden object game - click on the cats. It's super casual. There was a demo for last year for a Next Fest, but it vanished after the event. You'll finish with the minimum requirements in 1.5-2 hours. This is the accessibility ending. If you want to 100% finish the game (70 achievements, 1400+ cats), it will take 3.5-4 hours. I did the 100% completion.

    The game mechanics are simple. Click on each item to "discover" it. There's a HUD count for cats to find, cats that are hidden behind object, and counts for nuts and bolts. Each era (themed for a point in history) has a side goal that you must meet before going to the next section of the tower. Talk with the main cat in each era to get your quest. You'll see a cloud with icons and counters for the number of items you must discover before continuing upward on the tower.

    Early on, you unlock the spy-glass upgrade. This will shift the view and show you were a cat or hidden cat is location (nuts/bolts are a separate end-game upgrade). The specifics aren't listed, but you there's a delay between uses and once you exhaust the number of uses (maybe 3?), it's gone for the current area. If you plan on 100% completing the game, wait until you've a total of grand total of 3 cats/hidden cats before you use it.

    Each main area has sub areas to explore. Sometimes you'll need to complete a secondary quest to access these areas. Some of the sub areas have locked secret that are unlocked via a quest or an item in another era. This is the minor puzzling you'll need to do.

    If you want a "demo" for how the game plays, try the free Arcade full of Cats game from the same dev. Tower is more involved with the light puzzle mechanics, but Arcade is close enough to get the gist of the main gameplay.
     
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    Artichoke Sap

    Artichoke Sap

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  • #1,044
    Jackass JoeJoe said:
    While there is a quick save/load, this game autosaves a lot. You are stuck with your choices. I'm fine with this type of game, but I'm unsure if I can make the game "unwinnable" early and not know it. There's also a hidden damage system, and I've not discovered if death is permanent and the game is over. I don't want to waste hours into a run that's already doomed, so I've been reluctant to return to the game.
    Click to expand...
    1. Forgotten City also allows as many manual saves as you want.
    2. The game has doesn't have an "unwinnable" state. Everything can be remedied, if only in the next loop (I guess spoiler if you haven't completed Day 1).
    3. You can see your health in the lower corner, but only if you're hurt (gold skull with a partially-filled red ring around it, depending on your remaining health). You actually do regenerate health, but it's almost imperceptibly slow. Basically, if a thing didn't kill you, you're fine. But if you keep making the same silly jump of a "just right" cliff, you could die, yes.
    4. Death forces you back to the Load screen (or maybe last autosave, I forget). Lots of autosaves means this is basically back to "last checkpoint. Also, dying happens very little; small concentrations of danger with broad expanses of conversations and exploration.
    TL;DR: Game is very friendly to mistakes

    Really, that's one of reasons to play it: It goes through extra effort not waste your time, which took some real work on the mechanics, story, and plot, and it's a thing to behold, a counterpoint to "well, that's just the nature of these kinds of games." Dive back in!
     
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  • #1,045
    Artichoke Sap said:
    TL;DR: Game is very friendly to mistakes
    Click to expand...
    Great to know. Now that I'm done torturing myself with Lorelei, I can re-visit the game this game soon.



    -----

    Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - Final Final Thoughts

    TL;DR - tedious things ruin all the cool things the game does, however ...

    I figured out that I actually missed something in the tutorial area that prevented me from progressing hours and hours later. The only way I found out was by scouring any and all guides/tips/help discussions I could find.

    So, after 16.5 hours and 92% completion, I finished the game. The ending was cool and my favorite part of the game by far. I would have been happy with just watching a video of it, but those don't exist yet. All the bullshit I had to put up with to get there detracted from this. I hated a lot of the end-game content like 3rd person locked camera maze navigation and having to use a map that take 11 click to get to and 6 clicks to cancel back out. Having a dual-monitor setup, I just devolved into pasting screenshots on my 2nd monitor. The interface is so unfriendly that I highly recommend this for the maps.

    To give you an idea about pacing, I was slowing down severely around 60% completion. I'd spend hours to get maybe 2 to 5 percent done. Then at 70%, I spent 15 minutes completing the puzzle boxes and jumped to 90% complete. The game gives you tasks at the beginning of the game that can't be done until late or end-game. So, having so many unfinished tasks laying around is going to slow down your progression to a crawl. The game is terrible about giving you clues for the next major important task.

    Almost all the "hard" puzzles aren't hard. You've just spent so many hours doing other things that you've completely forgotten about the relevant clues. You'll have over 170 items (some with multiple pages) in you Photographic Memory by the end of the game, and yes the game will quiz you about these items later and it's game over if you answer wrong. Out of all the dozens and dozens of puzzles (likely over 100?) , there are many 2 or 3 that I'd not figure out on my own. They're still not too difficult, but my brain would think of 1000 other ways to decipher the clues first.

    So ... the big question is "do I recommend this game?". [PLOT TWIST] Yes or rather maybe, but with a few major caveats.

    First, you're OK with looking up hints/nudges to get you pointed in the right direction. I would have enjoyed the game much more if there were more well done guides when I played. There is puzzle randomization, so you can't just follow a walkthrough. There are, however, some good guides for specific sets of puzzles that are popping up right now. There's also a new massive hint guide on the Steam that will now only show your the prerequisites, but also have a few hints for solving the puzzle (all blocked out with spoiler text). This guide is roughly ordered by the optimal order for solving the game. It's a bit hard to find in the Steam UI, but it's there.

    Next, a second monitor is best, but the integrated note/screenshot system in Steam will do because screenshots are a must. I used a combo of pen/paper and screenshots - whichever was faster.

    Third, you've got to be OK with the old school Resident Evil gameplay (minus the combat). The game does a very good job of emulating that game to a fault. The QoL added to the game is great to have but is hard/tedious to use. Simple polish to these items would immensely improve the game, but I'd not expect it in a later patch. For example, the Mental Notes section could move completed tasks to the end of the list (which will grow to 19 pages long). Or, they could add at least add a freakin back button.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,046
    After 2 years and 2 demo released, Paper Trail was finally released.

    Unfortunately, the demo is no longer available.

    This is the type of game I'd say to just try the demo. If the paper-folding puzzle grabs you, then you should get it. One thing I can add from my previous thoughts about the first demo: they did find new ways to do the same trick. In the time I put in, there was a domino feature, sliding tiles, rotating titles, hidden objects, and so on.

    The folding mechanic is kinda like The Pedestrian. You re-arrange the level to get your character from point A to point B. The big difference is you have to imagine several pieces in your mind. People are just not that good with spatial reasoning that includes inverting, rotating, and folding.

    I'm pretty sure they added a "peek" mechanic that wasn't in the first demo. This shows you the underside of the current screen, so there's less random fiddling about. This is a great feature that makes the puzzle solving feel less random. However, it still feels a bit trial-and error, but there's less initial guessing due to this feature.

    Is the game well done? Yes. Even the cut-scenes have paper-folding instead of just clicking next. The puzzle type still doesn't grab my interest. I don't get that "AHA!" feeling when I complete a screen.


    ---

    (
    FYI,
    The Pedestrian is 70% off for the current Steam Sale and I highly recommend that game.
    More highly recommended and deeply discounted:
    Hexcells Inifinite is less than 2 bucks ( 70% off)
    Agent A is 2 bucks (90% off)
    Gorogoa is less than 5 bucks (70% off)

    https://store.steampowered.com/sale/cerebralpuzzleshowcase
    )
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,047
    Isles of Sea & Sky - initial (final?) thoughts

    TL;DR; it's Zelda with Sokoban instead of Combat

    This is another game that mimics a genre to a fault. Like cryptic puzzles pieces with no descriptions what so ever? It's got it. Like pixel hunting for secrets that are required to progress? It's got that too. Like have no clue where to go next in an "open world" where every part is locked off by upgrades, keys, or stars? It's got lots of that.

    Is this a well made game? Yes. It's dense with lots of puzzles. Even thought the majority of the puzzles are Sokoban, they keep adding new features and mechanics to do the same trick a dozen ways. One great feature is on the map screen. When hovering over a square on the map, the game will show you what keep features are on this screen - like dungeon doors, non-localized puzzle items, and so on. There's even a way to flag squares as important items with colored flags.

    There's a Mario-like overworld hub that used to travel between islands. Once again, a lot of it is hidden behind star locks. These don't consume your collected stars, but you'll need an ever-growing total to open these locks. Inside the islands, there are blocks that require a number of colored keys to open. For these locks, keys are consumed. Later on, you'll unlock fast travel on this hub so the game does have a lot of QoL features.

    A few of the islands have "boss" statues. You'll need to collect X colored spheres to unlock an upgrade. What to these upgrades do? They don't tell you. You have to try to figure out what mechanic they add. Sometimes it's easy to figure out, other times it's a mystery for a long time.

    The game likes to show you a bunch of stuff you just can't do. Here's a new island, you can go to the next screen but then it's locked off with some special tile or a star lock. You'll get used to skipping a lot of things because they look like something you can't do yet. I wasted at least an hour because of a cluttered screen that had puzzles you can't do yet, mixed with exactly one you could do.

    There's no Steam demo, but you can find a 2 year old demo on Itch io. If you're jonesing for an old school Zelda that's nothing but puzzles, this is your game. It nails that 2D adventure/puzzle feel from the old consoles.
     
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  • #1,048
    Golf Peaks is a puzzler, not a classic (mini) golf game. You get a set of cards with varying shot distances/putts and arcs - then you need to find the correct order/combination to hit the hole - it adds new mechanics every few levels. A nice little indie gem more puzzle fans should give a try. Chill game, easy to play for a few minutes a time, and the difficulty ramps up nicely, keeping it doable, even for puzzle beginners. Currently replaying it, after finishing it years ago. It still holds up.

    The same developer also sells inbento - another puzzler where you have to arrange bento boxes, a clever game (plus it has cute cats) I never finished as the later levels get really tricky and tedious to solve. But it was also very fun - up to where I gave up!


    View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/923260/Golf_Peaks/
     
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    macosandlinux

    macosandlinux

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  • #1,049
    Jackass JoeJoe said:
    Isles of Sea & Sky - initial (final?) thoughts

    TL;DR; it's Zelda with Sokoban instead of Combat

    This is another game that mimics a genre to a fault. Like cryptic puzzles pieces with no descriptions what so ever? It's got it. Like pixel hunting for secrets that are required to progress? It's got that too. Like have no clue where to go next in an "open world" where every part is locked off by upgrades, keys, or stars? It's got lots of that.

    Is this a well made game? Yes. It's dense with lots of puzzles. Even thought the majority of the puzzles are Sokoban, they keep adding new features and mechanics to do the same trick a dozen ways. One great feature is on the map screen. When hovering over a square on the map, the game will show you what keep features are on this screen - like dungeon doors, non-localized puzzle items, and so on. There's even a way to flag squares as important items with colored flags.

    There's a Mario-like overworld hub that used to travel between islands. Once again, a lot of it is hidden behind star locks. These don't consume your collected stars, but you'll need an ever-growing total to open these locks. Inside the islands, there are blocks that require a number of colored keys to open. For these locks, keys are consumed. Later on, you'll unlock fast travel on this hub so the game does have a lot of QoL features.

    A few of the islands have "boss" statues. You'll need to collect X colored spheres to unlock an upgrade. What to these upgrades do? They don't tell you. You have to try to figure out what mechanic they add. Sometimes it's easy to figure out, other times it's a mystery for a long time.

    The game likes to show you a bunch of stuff you just can't do. Here's a new island, you can go to the next screen but then it's locked off with some special tile or a star lock. You'll get used to skipping a lot of things because they look like something you can't do yet. I wasted at least an hour because of a cluttered screen that had puzzles you can't do yet, mixed with exactly one you could do.

    There's no Steam demo, but you can find a 2 year old demo on Itch io. If you're jonesing for an old school Zelda that's nothing but puzzles, this is your game. It nails that 2D adventure/puzzle feel from the old consoles.
    Click to expand...
    Some other recent (and classic) puzzlers get a mention, too. Worth a watch!


    View: https://youtu.be/VD9TX9qGQOo
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,050
    macosandlinux said:
    Some other recent (and classic) puzzlers get a mention, too. Worth a watch!
    ...
    Click to expand...

    View: https://youtu.be/VD9TX9qGQOo?t=305


    At the 5 minute mark, GMT mentions one of my biggest gripe for the game. I've, once again, got stuck wondering around looking for an area where I can actually progress. I've about lost interest in the game because of it. I'll probably just watch a video for hints or stop playing.
     
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    Diabolical

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  • #1,051
    A couple of games that might fall into the overall 'adventure' spectrum have dropped demos recently. This one in particular I'm copy pasting in case some someone traverses here and not there.

    I'll normally not cross post for demos, but this is so VERY adventure game direct that I thought I should post it over here as well.

    I thought of @Jackass JoeJoe specifically for this one.

    The Star Named Eos - (link) - Hidden object and puzzle game. Perspective is fixed first person, and you can swivel around in a 360 degree arc. Looks to be all hand drawn assets (emphasis on looks, because I don't know for sure). Seems wholesome as hell. Keeping it down here in the 'eh' because I certainly wouldn't say no if it was super cheap or free, but I'm not going out of my way for it.


    I also enjoyed a pair of narrative RPG / choose your own adventure visual novel demos, one of which is part of the World Of Darkness properties. And a new side scrolling adventure platformer demo with environmental puzzles from Korea that looked interesting. Links are to Steam.

    Visual novel types:
    Alcyone: The Last City - (link)
    Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory - (link)

    Puzzle adventure platformer type:
    Chasing the End - (link)

    Further thoughts on those over in the demo thread.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,052
    Diabolical said:
    I thought of @Jackass JoeJoe specifically for this one.
    Click to expand...
    Downloaded it - will play soon.

    The Star Named Eos

    EDIT: I agree, it's "meh". They don't really give you what the hook of the story is, nor do they set up any mystery. The puzzles were fine, but the interface was really lacking. I kept clicking on drawers trying to open them and they only sometimes responded. A lot of clues where stars, yet they used stars on just about everything in that room - a really poor design decision.

    The background artwork is so processed that it looks generated. That dithering is really overdone. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a filter over AI generated items. The animation shown looked roto-scoped and extremely limited in frames.

    I actually played a demo from this same dev in VR (Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery VR). This was so poorly done and broken that I couldn't even finish the "tutorial". The flatscreen version of this game, however, is very well rated. It had a very similar style except you're a painter instead of a photographer. The animation for BtF looked way better than what was in this demo. BtF is also in a bundle with 4 other games that I've already played and really liked most of them (Toem, Moncage, Gorogoa, The Last Campfire).

    What I got from this demo is, I really need to play the flatscreen version of BtF.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,053
    Star Trek: Resurgence

    TL;DR - it's like a season of a show

    This is not a Telltale game, but it is made former staff. It has the same feel. You watch a lot of cut scenes, make a few dialog choices, and do some minor action QTEs.

    This is an older game (2023) that's finally been released on Steam. I completely missed the release last year. After that year on consoles and EGS, it's still rough in spots. There's a lot of animation issues, almost no options - that includes no key binds. I would have expected some polish in that time period, but's it's a lazy console port.

    The game is logically dividing into chapters, each with a TNG style title screen. These chapters are only about 10 minutes long each, but there's a bunch of them. It takes place after TNG in the timeline, though it's considered non-canon. The game revolves around The Resolute - a science vessel - and you play as 2 of the crew members. As far as story goes, that's all you need to know. Sure, there's a lot of references and Easter eggs, but nothing really important. If you don't know the TKon species from that one episode of TNG, it doesn't matter. There, however, is quit a bit of lore you'll probably need to know (more below).

    As said above, it feels like a serial show of Star Trek. It's about 10 hours long and almost all of it is dialog and cutscenes. Will you like it if you don't like Star Trek? Probably not. The Expanse game was good on it's own, but knowing at least the 1st season of the show really helps understand this prequel story. For Resurgence, I think this is only going to appeal to fans. You need to know who Spock is and Riker are. You'll probably need to know Bajoran and Trill species as well as a few others. A lot of the ST lore is present, so you need to understand the timeline a bit.

    This is a "choices matter" game, but not really. In the Expanse, choices made in the first episode of the game had effects on later story and gameplay. In Resurgence, the story remains the same. Only a few choices have any effect and most only effect if a person is present or not.

    The dialog and story is a mixed bag. They really don't go for any subtlety at times. It's like everyone is insubordinate and giving you ultimatums to try to amp up the drama. So, you get less science fiction and more inter-personal conflicts. Like any of these ST games, there has to be a villain. The big-bad in this game is disappointing and a way lesser version of the Borg. The tone is more like TNG movies and not like the TNG show - it's more about action and big set pieces. It's far from Nu-Trek, but it does get a bit silly at times.

    With all that said, I think Trek fans will like it despite a lot of flaws. I'm not so sure those that like interactive story "games" will enjoy it on it's own. There's not a whole lot of interaction to keep you entertained if you don't gel with the story telling. It's Star Trek. It's nerdy, it's cheesy, and it's timeline is just after a movie/show from 20 years ago. It's not going to appeal to a general audience.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,054
    So, about that Riven demo ...

    Three games later, and they still have the same bug. It won't launch on my system without using the "-dx11" launch parameter.

    There's ZERO keybindings. There's lots of options, but not this. I vaguely remember this being an issue in the full release of their games.

    It's the same engine configuration and it runs like dogshit - even worse than Myst and Firmament. Motion blur is stuck on - despite it being off by default. This is a VR/Flatscreen game, but the demo does not support VR. I was barely able to run Myst in VR and it's a smaller/simpler game. I was able to play Firmament in VR and it performed just OK. I have everything on "LOW" and it still chugs in flatscreen.

    I've no idea if I completed the demo. I got to a point where is said "This area is not available in the demo". So, I guess I finished this in about 10 minutes.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,055
    Blue Prince Demo (Steam)

    (It's a play on words for "Blue Prints")

    This is part adventure game and part rouge-(like/lite); not quite sure if you retain anything between runs. It's a procedurally mansion that you choose what rooms are generated. Some rooms give you items, some rooms cost items. So, there's some resource management to perform. You only get X steps to start and you lose steps each time you enter a room. You'll need to collect cash, gems, keys and other key items to be able to continue to create and explore the mansion.

    The visuals are really good. It has a cell-shaded art style that's familiar to anyone that played games in the early 2000's - think Viewtiful Joe.

    The gameplay is easy to mess up. You're given a choice of 3 room types. Each has a number of entrances (1 to 4). You can easily paint yourself into a corner. You can create a loop or a dead end and halt all progression in an area or direction. You can create a room that costs money to enter and have to double-back and loose all your money and creating a virtual dead room. The puzzles are quite basic but hard to complete based on the randomness of the game.

    So, the game looks really well done and really not my usual type of game. You're given 4 days to complete a task (find a hidden room), but the mansion resets every day and you keep no items. You might keep your "level" and this would make it a rouge-lite. There are certain things locked behind level requirements, so this would only make sense. I've played and enjoyed only a few rouge style games (Loop Hero being one that comes to mind). I'm not fond of this rouge + puzzle/adventure combination.
     
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  • #1,056
    Jackass JoeJoe said:
    You can easily paint yourself into a corner.
    Click to expand...

    Literally! :biggreen:

    Just played two days of this demo, and my impressions are hugely positive so far. I'm normally not a fan of cel-shaded games, but this one looks really neat. Performance is great too. As long as they don't go too gimmicky, this can be a win.
     
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  • #1,057
    Frosty Grin said:
    Literally! :biggreen:

    Just played two days of this demo, and my impressions are hugely positive so far. I'm normally not a fan of cel-shaded games, but this one looks really neat. Performance is great too. As long as they don't go too gimmicky, this can be a win.
    Click to expand...
    I just know my limited taste for rogue[lite/like]s. As soon as there's [little/no] progression left or if I "win", I lose interest. For Slay the Spire, I stopped playing after I unlocked all the characters and the cards. For Balatro, I stopped after unlocking all but 2 decks and a handful of jokers. For Yuki (VR Bullet Hell game), I made it to either at least the halfway point of the 5th level (5 of 6 total) and just wasn't interested in playing anymore. I had most of the unlocks at this point. I'm still playing Halls of Torment (survivor bullet hell game), but that's just because they keep adding new characters and new achievements.

    Blue Prince seems like a game I'll lose interest in too quickly, yet I can see why people will like/love it. Despite how weird the concept, it's pretty easy to understand and learn.

    [Stealth Spelling Edit]
     
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    Diabolical

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  • #1,058
    Just out of curiosity, are you doing the rouge instead of rogue thing on purpose, JoeJoe? Or is it accidental?
    I keep lookin at that and first interpreting your statement as “red-like”, get confused, then go back and reread it to get, “ah… Rogue-like!”

    As to your progression and losing interest in them while playing them? That’s why I enjoy demos so much. And it’s especially helpful with rogue-likes/-lites/-legacy-likes/-etc. If the game REALLY grabs me? I‘ll buy it. But the vast majority of the time I’ll enjoy my time with the demo and… that’s enough. I’ll have had my fun with the mechanics and the stuff for it, and call it done. SO many games I play for 10 to 30 minutes and think, yeah, that was fun, but I‘m pretty certain I have experienced most of what the game has to offer, and it’ll all be variations on that same theme.

    Blue Prince is one of the demos I intend to tackle this evening, so hopefully I’ll have something meaningful to contribute!
     
    Frosty Grin

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  • #1,059
    Jackass JoeJoe said:
    Blue Prince seems like a game I'll lose interest in too quickly, yet I can see why people will like/love it. Despite how weird the concept, it's pretty easy to understand and learn.
    Click to expand...

    I played two more days yesterday - all that's in the demo, and the RNG thing is getting annoying. But you also get more interesting layers too.

    The game also reminded me of Pathologic. :) Starts with a death and you accepting the inheritance, then you're getting RNG scavenging, for food and gear, and the clocks are ticking every day - except more directly in Pathologic and in the form of steps in Blue Prince. But the point is, you can't just walk around. It works for Pathologic because there's a bigger point to all this.
     
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    Jackass JoeJoe

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  • #1,060
    More Next Fest demos

    Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery. It's just like the original. There's really good context clues for items to find, but no mechanism for an area hint.


    The Rise of the Golden Idol (found this in the demo thread by @Diabolical )
    I can see why this isn't just a DLC. They've revamped the interface to make room for the changes they wanted to make. The Golden Idol DLC showed what they wanted to do, but the gameplay really suffered from everything being crammed into one window. This new game fixes a lot of those issues.

    Now, there are multiple windows that show as popups instead of a "thinking" window. These windows can be dragged around, so you can keep them on the screen as you navigate. The "Phrases" word list is also massively changed and it's own window. You don't click individual words anymore to populate the word list. An entire list of words is added at one when looking at clues. The "Phrases" window is now a grid that you can arrange via drag-and-drop. The "Characters" are also just a separate window.

    There's also a final Chapter and Conclusion window to fill out using phrases found playing in sections of the chapter. Even the sections screen has clues in it. It's still a hard demo and rather dense. So, I'd expect the rest of the game to get even more involved. I'm still looking forward to it.
     
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  • #1,062
    Lok : Digital Demo

    This appears to be a word game, but the words are non-sense. The goal is to blacken every tile of the puzzle and that's it. Each "word" has a rule. The word must be made horizontally or vertically. The word must be logically consecutive and blackened tiles are not counted. The word has a secondary restrictions. For example, spelling "Tok" means you must also blacken a single tile of your choice on the board. The blacken rule for each word changes, so "Tlak" requires you to blacken two logically adjacent tiles. Again, blackened tiles are not counted, so the two adjacent tiles could be separated by a blackened tile. You unlock words as you play and you don't have to finish all puzzles in an area to continue - so it has some nice accessibility. The game will tell you when you can skip to the next set of puzzles.

    This sounds more difficult than it is. Watching the game in action it's very intuitive and easy to learn. You just need to discover the correct sequence of words.

    There is a hint system, but how much the hint gives away is dependent of the puzzle. The hint system simply shows you the sequence of words you need to generate - but only shows you one word at a time. So, you can show as many of the words in the list as you wish. This hint, however, doesn't tell you what specific tiles you need to blacken to generate those words. Sometimes the word sequence is the key point and sometimes the blackening portion is the most involved. It all depends on how the puzzle is designed.

    Also, there is a "Daily Puzzle" you can play once you finish the demo's campaign. This is a nice bonus to give it that "infinite" value. It looks like you get 1 easy, 1 medium, and 1 hard puzzle for today. Dunno if that's how it is each day. The hard puzzle took me 11 minutes. The only thing missing is a way to mark tiles. For example, if there's a letter that's not in any word - I would like to mark it with a color. Also, if there's a letter that's in a word but impossible to include, I'd also like to be able to mark that with a color.

    So, yeah, if you just like brain teasers - definitely try the demo and definitely try the daily puzzles.
     
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  • #1,063
    Hey @Jackass JoeJoe, did you see that Game Maker's Toolkit put out a demo for their own game?

    Mind Over Magnet - it's a puzzle platformer that involves, well, magnets. Single room puzzle challenges that slowly ramp up. Might want to give it a look. I enjoyed my time with it enough to stop playing it, wishlist it, and wait for full release.

    Link to the Steam page.
     
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  • #1,064
    Huge FYI - Island of Insight is FREE on Steam for just today(?).

    Even though I really didn't like the "online only" game that can just disappear at any time, at the price of FREE I highly recommend it.

    EDIT: They just announced an Offline Mode for July 9th ... so disregard that caveat.
     
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  • #1,065
    Diabolical said:
    did you see that Game Maker's Toolkit put out a demo for their own game?
    Click to expand...
    The "Demo" shows as a separate item in the Steam search and then just goes to the main page when selected. I tried in a browser as well as in Steam itself - it's not working anymore. Maybe is was a Next Fest only demo.

    Luckily, the demo is on Itch.io
    gmtk.itch.io

    Mind Over Magnet by Game Maker's Toolkit

    An attractive puzzle platformer!
    gmtk.itch.io gmtk.itch.io


    EDIT: Good demo. Added to my wishlist.
     
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  • #1,066
    Island of Insight - first impressions (5 hours of play)

    TL;DR - I hope you got it when it was free, but the current sale price is still good

    I've watched several streams/videos of the gameplay. The main puzzles in this game are exactly my type of puzzle. The "online-only" requirement, however, just made me forget about this game. Also note, next month, they're adding a Offline mode - which I'd prefer.

    The first impression of the program itself wasn't good. It took forever to launch and then stuttered really hard in "tutorial island" (which is literally an island in this case). There's plenty of configuration options, but performance got much better once I progressed further. I'd hazard to guess the influx of new players is an issue. I've also had some very laggy experiences where my character kept moving a second or two after I released movement keys. There are a few puzzle types that require some input precision, so it can be an issue.

    The first impression of the game is also a bit rough. There's plenty of quest hand-holding to make it a better experience, but there's just a lot of information overload. This plays like an MMO. There are upgrade trees, experience, optional quests, a main quest, lore, movement abilities to learn in a short amount of time. After 5 hours of play, I still don't quite have a good grasp on it.

    After playing the puzzles for myself, I can say they are as fantastic as they look. The main puzzle type opens up in a separate view that's a basic 2D display - a traditional looking puzzle. There's a ton of variety and a wide range of difficulty. The accessibility is also very good. There are small islands you leap to that have a minimum requirement to beat, optional bonuses, and way more puzzles than needed to "finish" the quest.

    There are also environmental puzzles. These can be found almost anywhere - not just on the separate puzzle island areas. Your taste in these puzzles will range wildly. A lot of these puzzles aren't logic puzzles. Some are perspective, some are movement based, so are just fiddley stuff. These usually aren't part of a quest, but they give you exp for leveling and upgrading.
     
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  • #1,067
    macosandlinux said:
    Golf Peaks is a puzzler, not a classic (mini) golf game. You get a set of cards with varying shot distances/putts and arcs - then you need to find the correct order/combination to hit the hole - it adds new mechanics every few levels. A nice little indie gem more puzzle fans should give a try. Chill game, easy to play for a few minutes a time, and the difficulty ramps up nicely, keeping it doable, even for puzzle beginners. Currently replaying it, after finishing it years ago. It still holds up.

    The same developer also sells inbento - another puzzler where you have to arrange bento boxes, a clever game (plus it has cute cats) I never finished as the later levels get really tricky and tedious to solve. But it was also very fun - up to where I gave up!


    View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/923260/Golf_Peaks/
    Click to expand...

    This was on my list, and it's extremely on sale right now in the Summer Sale.
     
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  • #1,068
    From an upcoming post in the Demo thread that is still a day or two away, but would definitely fit in over here in this thread too:

    Times and Galaxy - (link) - It's a detective style game. You are a brand new ReporterBot, and you investigate goings-on for the news for the paper equivalent that you are interning for. You can run around, talk to people, and look at various things to get context and clues for the story you are building. Once you think you've gotten everything (or people won't talk to you anymore - asking some questions will mean you can't ask others!), you can stitch together a story using a headline, lede, a key quote, some color, etc. These options are either neutral or lean towards a 'informational', 'sensational', or 'alien interest' axis. Each story you make will also reflect on the reputation of the paper, and the readership. I thought it was a pretty neat way to do a reporter/investigative game, and I like the angle it's taking. Wishlisted.

    CONS: There is no general button tutorial, make sure you look at the controls. And it doesn't play nice with 3440x1440 - bottom and top of the screen are chopped. Set it down to the next resolution (1920x1080) and you get a fully visible play area with black bars.


    To further expand:
    I liked this a lot. No puzzles to solve. Some minor 'scan and follow the sound meter' things, but that was about it. But the putting together the story bit after finding everything that I could? That was pretty cool.
     
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