Hey Rose, I played your game, and gave it a good shot. I went through a couple of the portals and tried to do a few of the puzzles, but for whatever reason, it just didn't click for me. I understand that other people might immediately get it, but I wish the puzzles were presented in a way by difficulty where it teaches the player, step-by-step, how the game works. This feels like it was made specifically for people who enjoy games of the genre, but I'm not sure how applicable it is for people like me who aren't necessarily familiar with the genre. I think of a game like Portal, where each level slowly builds on top of the previous one, so by the end, even people who have never played a puzzle game before can solve pretty mind-bending test chambers. Otherwise, as a puzzle designer myself, I can see that you have the building blocks of a potentially awesome puzzle game. You can tell your wife that a random guy on the internet says that the 96 hours was not wasted at all. You did a great job. I hope you take my feedback in the way I intended it.
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Hi Amit!
Thank you very much for the kind words. I really appreciate the time you've spent not only playing our game, but also to provide some very insightful and actionable feedback. I totally understand what you're saying about the introduction of the mechanics and level selection - especially the comparison to Portal's structure and difficulty evolution. Beyond the control adjustments some other folks have mentioned (in comments, but also internally!) this definitely is another thing I'd love to tackle in the future.
Awesome, teaching layered mechanics is one of my favorite things to do as a designer. To go back to the Portal example, you will notice that the game doesn't really have a tutorial. The game itself just slowly teaches you the mechanics through clever level design without ever explicitly telling you that it's teaching you. I'd replay the first couple levels and really study the way it is structured. Best of luck on the jam, and I look forward to seeing your future games!