The Game is ON

[bigosaur]

I'm making a new game. It's features cool pixel graphics and wacky puzzles where you move stuff around until you discover a common phrase or idiom from English language.

Here's an example of a solved puzzle, so you can see how it works:



By solving the puzzles, you get jigsaw pieces. Collect enough pieces to unlock extra levels. You can also get jigsaw pieces by solving the puzzles in least possible moves and by finding pieces hidden in levels.



Some are hidden behind other objects or produced after you manipulate buttons or other things on the screen.



More details on the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1386280/

[dubsartur]

I love the graphics!  They remind me of gaming in the 1990s and early 2000s.

[Lizard]

This looks neat! The mechanics remind me a little bit of Baba Is You, another excellent puzzle game.

[Jubal]

I look forward to playtesting! I do wonder if Boris looks a little too much like Borat?

[bigosaur]

I look forward to playtesting!

A Steam key should be in your e-mail now. 

[Jubal]

OK, I'm one puzzle solution and one puzzle piece short:

Spoiler

I can't find the puzzle piece for "let's call it a day", and I'm totally lost on the anagram/game show one, I guess that has so many pieces that unless you hit upon definitely the right idea then it's really hard to work it out. I might need a hint on those.

EDIT: Got the puzzle piece. Still zero idea on the anagram thing. There's just too many things it could related to - I'm trying to think of idioms with one of the letters, or "spell", or "arrange" or "show" or "board"... but there's just so many options with that set of letters that it's hard to get pointers.

Overall I think the idea has a lot of potential, there are a few puzzles I'd consider tweaking for one reason or another but overall I'm enjoying it, I really like this sort of wordplay gaming.

Some notes:

Spoiler

About half the puzzles I got pretty quickly, some of them took more time, three or four were a bit tricky.

"She's a peach" is really hard for one that comes so early on in the game, because it doesn't appear in all idiolects of English to the extent that e.g. "she was blown away" or "throwing caution to the wind" does. (Also "she looks peachy" is more how I've come across the phrase before, but it's not something I'd ever say either way, I guess maybe it's just not something we say in my part of England).

I basically got "no pain no gain" by accident, but that's largely from my brain not associating "weight loss" with "no gain" - like obviously a reduction is no gain, but they don't fit together like that in my head.

It's usually phrased "plenty of fish in the sea", so I'd add more fish to that puzzle.

I don't know how valuable the move counter and move count achievement system is? Like it makes me want to go and replay a puzzle to get the counter down and get the achievement, but for most of the puzzles, working out how to do it in very few moves once you know the solution is either trivial or dull (some exceptions - getting "all in the same boat" in one move is quite a fun one). Most of the time I felt it was the game just saying "OK now go back and do the solution again", which... eh, when I already know the solution feels a waste of time.

I don't know what's going on with the anagram puzzle, but I will probably have some thoughts on that.

[bigosaur]

Lost on the anagram/game show one, I guess that has so many pieces that unless you hit upon definitely the right idea then it's really hard to work it out. I'm trying to think of idioms with one of the letters, or "spell", or "arrange" or "show" or "board"...

There are only 3 possible slots to put the letters in, so you should only search for a 3-letter word. Did you try to place them in the bottom row? Hm, maybe I should redesign that screen to make it clear that the solution should go to the top row.

there are a few puzzles I'd consider tweaking for one reason or another

Let me know which and how to change them, please.

but overall I'm enjoying it, I really like this sort of wordplay gaming.

Awesome!

Some notes:

Spoiler

"She's a peach"

is really hard for one that comes so early on in the game

I think I will re-arrange the levels so that it comes later.

It's usually phrased "plenty of fish in the sea", so I'd add more fish to that puzzle.

I'm not sure that would work. If there are already multiple fish in the sea, one could say that there were already plenty of fish in the sea before you started playing. Hm, maybe instead of a single fish, there would be a bucket full of them in the boat and you can dump them all in the sea.

I don't know how valuable the move counter and move count achievement system is? Like it makes me want to go and replay a puzzle to get the counter down and get the achievement, but for most of the puzzles, working out how to do it in very few moves once you know the solution is either trivial or dull (some exceptions - getting "all in the same boat" in one move is quite a fun one). Most of the time I felt it was the game just saying "OK now go back and do the solution again", which... eh, when I already know the solution feels a waste of time.

Yes. Initially I only wanted to have the extra "piece" on some levels where it's an extra challenge (like "all in the same boat") but it felt inconsistent. Maybe I should make every level a little bit more complicated (with more objects) and then replaying would make sense. Need to test that.

[Jubal]

OK, finally got it.

Spoiler

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"

[bigosaur]

maybe she could actually give a useful hint for the puzzle?

Good idea. How about "Just do it!" or "It's time for you to do it" or "You should focus" ?

Spoiler

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"

I will fix those. Thanks.

[bigosaur]

OK, I'm one puzzle solution and one puzzle piece short

I'm curious. How long did it take you?

If not sure, check Steam playing time. I'm trying to estimate how many puzzles I would need for a 4-5 hour game.

[Jubal]

Good idea. How about "Just do it!" or "It's time for you to do it" or "You should focus" ?

Yes, that's good! Maybe "Come on! Focus!" as "Get your act together!" is usually a pretty snappy/emphatic statement.

It took me about an hour to do the majority of the puzzles, and a while longer to re-do bits, find a couple of missing pieces, etc. So I think if you filled in the four panels on the main menu, that would be 4-5 hours fairly easily.

[bigosaur]

It took me about an hour to do the majority of the puzzles, and a while longer to re-do bits, find a couple of missing pieces, etc. So I think if you filled in the four panels on the main menu, that would be 4-5 hours fairly easily.

Great!

I'll post some progress here when I make new levels.

Thanks for testing.

[bigosaur]

I'm making some progress with game art this week:

https://imgur.com/gallery/Y94fRVO

Plan is the have the playable beta with all levels in by December 1st.

[bigosaur]

I look forward to playtesting! I do wonder if Boris looks a little too much like Borat?

Perhaps you are right. I have thought that people have mostly forgotten about Borat and similarity wasn't that important, but it looks like he released another movie now, so I don't want to risk anything here. I'm removing the Boris character and all the references from the game.

BTW, I'm nearing the final beta test version. 52 out of 60 puzzles are ready and I already have the graphics ready for puzzles 53-56, just need to cut out the pieces and program the game logic. My plan was to have to complete game ready before December 1st, but it might be sooner.

[Jubal]

Mm, I agree that the new movie does mess the semi-reference up. That said, I think it's maybe sort of good for the game to have a core viewable character as a mascot/puzzle intro, so I'd maybe replace him with something rather than just cut out from having any central puzzle-introducing character at all?