I think the problem is that there are just too many three letter words: once I'd failed a few I started looking for lateral solutions. Things I tried included putting the B on the lady's head (bee in your bonnet), TEA up there "High Tea", putting the T as low on the screen as possible "getting it down to a T", ACE up for "Ace High", trying to make a combination that contained
no multiple-letter words for "out of order"... so yes, I think maybe it needs to be clarified that the letters go in the top box. Maybe change the available letter so fewer other combos are available too? If the E and B were Q and Z then that narrows the options (whilst still leaving enough to make it a real puzzle).
Also, the "boyfriend only" comment from the lady character in that scene when you click her dress sat a bit badly, and I think it would for a lot of the target market for this game as well: like, I know a lot of people who do puzzles and quizzes in the UK and most of those people would a) likely love this kind of game and b) find that a bit off-putting. Just the implied touching-people-wrongly in a work context (even in situations like this where it's very fictionalised/cartoony) is something people in the Anglosphere are very twitchy about with all the sexual harassment scandals of recent years. Also, on a more practical note, maybe she could actually give a useful hint for the puzzle?
For plenty of fish, yes, a bucket of fish/several fish in the boat is what I was thinking.
I don't think making the levels more complex would necessarily help with the bonus piece thing - because the solution is always specific, so once you know it, it's just a case of doing that in exact order. You could make the secret piece on some levels hidden as at present, and on others like all in the same boat achievable with the few-moves thing, and have the end of level read-out say "search to find the secret" or "complete in fewer moves to get the secret" depending on which challenge it was?
A couple of other "how it's usually said":
- It's usually "it's always darkest before the dawn"
- It's usually "it's not rocket science" rather than "it's no"