The incredibly abstract art had me a little puzzled at first as to what I had to do (pushing squares on other squares?). I feel like a *tad* more detail on the objects would help a bit in that regard, giving more meaning to your actions. Though with that said, the little tutorial levels at the start are also great at explaining the mechanics.

This reminded me a bit of some puzzles in Baba Is You. That had me automatically pressing Backspace to try to reverse a wrong move, a very useful option in that game; I think that would be great here too (albeit perhaps quite some work) to implement, as restarting an entire level over a single misstep sometimes felt quite harsh. Another thing that I appreciate in Baba Is You is the ability to skip a difficult level and just come back to it later; from the map, you always have access to multiple levels, you don't need to solve them all or do them in a precisely linear fashion. Not that you have to copy that game, but I found those mechanics work very well to balance out the difficulty.

The concept is cool and the puzzles are clever, but I also have to agree on difficulty ramping up too fast.

Oh man the puzzles were hard. It felt good to get them done, but the balance could be tweaked. Perhaps add a few easier puzzles? Some of them I had to skip but was able to do later ones. Balance is really tough, so I’d say it’s a good job overall. 🧩✅

I had to skip a few levels but fun game!

I'm very impressed with this game! Both at the creativity of the core mechanic and at how many good levels there are.

If I had to pick something to critique, I sometimes ended up in a situation where I was trapped in a corner. This is not a huge problem though because of the undo and reset buttons.

Great Game!

Wow, this was way too clever for my own good! Honestly very impressed by the puzzle mechanic of pulling vs. pushing, and having to plan how I'd position myself on one side of the orb and the box on the other really added a new layer to things (instead of just being able to swap whenever I wanted). I did have to skip a few levels, but the core mechanics and design were all really solid. I'd love to play it again maybe with a few more "easier" levels to ease me into the mechanics, but overall awesome work! 

Hi, this is very nice and interesting game. I really like the mechanics. Also the amount and quality of puzzles is great. 

I found some puzzles really hard and I was not able to solve some of them. I would consider this as positive aspect in later levels, but this should not happen, when the new mechanic is introduced. These first levels should be as simple and as straight forward as possible.

Also adding some "picture tutorial" for individual mechanics would help to get going faster. I was sometimes confused at the beginnig, how the mechanics work or what am I able or not able to do.

This is an interesting concept but figuring out the moveset/how everything works in relation to the goals of each level is a bit hard. Some kind of tutorial might help. Some dynamic identification of what you can do at a given location may help too - like highlighting. The relationship between the mechanics and the sprites is not super obvious too, which hinders the initial stage of figuring out the mechanics. 

Fun game! I tried a few levels but some required too much thinking for me haha

Positives:

• It's unique, the switching mechanic and the effects different obstacles have on moving the orb adds a lot of variety creating complex challenges.
• The undo and reset is really great and I'm glad you implemented it in a way that you can perform them quickly
• The levels that I played felt different so it didn't feel repetitive

I read some comment below and agree with most of the points and I wanted to look at the stage '1.4 - Narrow Passages' in detail and find the difficulties there which may overlap with other levels.

First it's not a difficult stage once you know the solution however it's extremely difficult before that but why? Well there are a few reason for this:

• The push of the human and pull mechanic of the square is not very obvious. And even though the levels prior required the use of them; it's hard to believe but honestly I was just randomly moving until i solved the 1.3 and only slowed down to find out that the rectangle pulled when examining 1.4.
  So why could I do this in 1.3 and not 1.4 it's because 1.3 is a lot more open with empty space so if you make a mistake you can just keep moving and fix yourself while in 1.4 a few wrong moves and you are forced to reset or undo which may frustrate some people.
  Of course adding more empty areas may comprise the level design so you would have to be careful or be willing to make the stage easier by doing this.
• Secondly, the square goes in the square but the orb also goes in the square this is confusing even though its an essential part of the game. I think players will always initially try to get the square to go in first since they are the same shape and then think about the orb after and *spoilers ahead* since you need to place the orb first in 1.4 unlike the prior stage it feels unnatural. Maybe visuals will fix this? But adding a few simple levels to ease them into 'you need to place the orb first' will get them to think about it before 1.4 where there is a puzzle and you need to do this. Think of it like every tutorial/easy stage adds a way to solve future puzzles and since there wasn't an introduction to place the orb first before the square the player won't have this option in their tool kit and won't be able to solve the puzzle.

That's my long take on 1.4 and more generally easing players into puzzles hope it helps :)

Tried my best to solve some levels - but my brain just can't comprehend it. Usually I am looking at puzzles for a long time before taking my actions, but it doesn't work with this one, not sure why. I found myself helplessly in a try-and-error mode, pushing stuff back-and-forth, which didn't work well.

With all my lack of solving the puzzles, let me try give you some general feedback nontheless:

• I like that you picked a kind of unknown/unusual puzzle game engine (this is just about diversity, seeing something else than Unity and Godot here)
• The game scales nicely, when I switch into full screen mode, that's more than often not the case with other games
• The controls are fast and responsive. The X key is working (also here: in many games - depending on the country and keybord layout of the creators, X and Y are mismatched)
• You offer a browser-playable version. Top!
• The ESC key is a general problem for such ^^ browser versions, as it ends the fullscreen mode by default

Feedback for what you are asking for:

Level design

Can't say much about this. But for players like me a "playthrough" video of maybe the first X levels would be nice - just to "see" how these puzzles get solved (with the hope to create more understanding by that). Another approach for better tutorial: Create visuals. It's hard to translate written words in understanding a mechanic. Have a look at this example https://flavedogame.itch.io/cozy-tetris I am sure a mix of words and visuals would also help explaining your games mechanics.

Mechanics

As others were already mentioning, more visual feedback would be a great improvement - if your puzzle engine allows (if not, a feature request might be a good first step ;-)).

• Highlight all three pieces (or maybe only the orb, or maybe only the player+box - playtesting all versions would be needed) when X / SPACE can be used (when a switch is possible)
• Highlight what can be moved in a certain situation (finding an intuitive way to differentiate "can be pushed" / "can be pulled" - have no good suggestion for this, some testing would be needed here as well, maybe some endless scrolling arrows pointing in the direction of movement?)
• These feedbacks are needed, I think, because you provide three different mechanics, instead of just one like the original

That's it :-) Thanks for your entry!

Good game!

Wow I’m really valuing the level select because I absolutely cannot figure out Narrow Passages lol. I personally would err more on the side of easier levels because man that ramps up quickly in difficulty. I’m no good at sokoban though. Is this jonathan blow’s burner account?

The SFX are really nice and fit well

I would’ve appreciated something more than color coding (e.g. like an arrow telling me i’m pushing or pulling)

In section 2 as well, the very first level both introduces a concept and expects an advanced maneuver by switching the two blocks

Section 4 started giving me baba is you vibes :) 4.2 had some weird interactions where it felt like i should be able to swap but i guess there was a main orb that was being checked and the second one didnt work

I think based on the feedback from the jam I would’ve focused more on tutorial and ramping up than adding new levels (although maybe the levels you added were easier haha)

Found the puzzles quite hard but an enjoyable game! Nice work!

Very cool idea! I love that the progress is saved! I found the puzzles very challenging! 

Really cool idea with some puzzles that actually make you think well done! :)

Original idea. Reverse Ideology of "Push the Boxes" puzzle.

Now can't imagine how to solve the "Narrow Passages" level.