Dolmen
Controls:
Move: WASD or arrow keys.
Undo: Z
Redo: X
Restart: R or C
Swap character: TAB
Fullscreen: F
Skip level: N
Previous level: P
Submission for Thinky Puzzle Game Jam 4.
Made with SDL2 and Emscripten.
Playtesting by: ChaiTheTea
Controls:
Move: WASD or arrow keys.
Undo: Z
Redo: X
Restart: R or C
Swap character: TAB
Fullscreen: F
Skip level: N
Previous level: P
Submission for Thinky Puzzle Game Jam 4.
Made with SDL2 and Emscripten.
Playtesting by: ChaiTheTea
Comments
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A dark and disquieting time manipulation puzzle game.
After coming back to poke at the game gain, there is one situation where I think the conveyance is strange:
1) Put a box in storage.
2) Try to put a box down but there's already a box there (so it's instead put down in the past).
This is now a situation where if you don't pay off your box debt, the world ends, like the more typically used version of 'put air in storage, put a box in storage, box is in the past', but UNLIKE that version, there's no flashing box in storage to tell you what your debt is.
I can't tell if this is on purpose or not, just bringing it up in case this was overlooked during development.
This is on purpose, explanation:
When you try to put the box down, it gets blocked, which rewinds to the initial input and changes it so the box doesnt enter the portal. Now the next time the portal activates it must block that past activation to maintain timeline consistency. So the "debt" is not an item to send back, but the obligation to block that box.
OH, I understand. I guess you didn't think of a puzzle where this is forced or beneficial to do, in that case.
It's supposed to be the solution to puzzle 8, though there existed cheese for a while.
This is such a mind-boggling game. Even the *new* level 5 was very tricky
Some mindbending ideas here, though the order of the levels feels mixed up. For example, level 5 feels way more difficult than the ones that come after it, and I think some later puzzles actually do a better job of conveying that mechanic.
Still a good jam submission though, I think this can be explored further if you really want to.
Level 5 is a bit much of a spike yeah, swapped it with 6 which should hopefully help. I do indeed have some more ideas for this so maybe I'll make something larger of it eventually.
Just to confirm, (ROT13) fjnccvat n obk sbe n punenpgre (ROT13 end) is a step for level 5 (now 6), right? I might be overcomplicating it.
If true, then I think it is still too much of a leap for the player to take. Maybe it is nicer to have that level near the end where you (ROT13) arrq gb fjnc n punenpgre sbe n obk (ROT13 end) at the front so that the player could have a clearer objective in mind and also has a smaller possibility space to experiment with.
I think you solved it in a more complex way, all you should need is to (ROT 13) fraq n cynlre gb gur cnfg, abg creznaragyl fjnccvat vg jvgu n obk (ROT 13 end).
Ah yes that would work, then I think your re-ordering would help
This game is several large buckets of "I have no idea what I'm doing" and I think I might have destroyed the universe at one point.
I only made it to level 5, but I find this very fascinating and bizarre. It captures the feeling of making a pact with unknowable forces.