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I feel weird saying that this instantly became one of my favorite games of all time, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for <5min games, and this one's just so gorgeous and simple. It really does feel like you included everything needed to tell a quaint little story and absolutely nothing more, which I love.

It does feel a little weird that you put it under Interactive Fiction, when Adventure fits the bill much better. Granted, it's a very simple one. Can I ask what engine it's made in?

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About the puzzle: your hint shows A2-C3 to be a solution, and I guess A3-C2 would be another one, but I solved it by doing A2-A3-C2, in that order, which took me by surprise! In retrospect, it feels like the solution should require an absolute maximum of 2 buttons.

On the other hand, it didn't really bother me, I just went "well I guess it worked somehow" and kept going. I guess I wanted to tinker with it a little more, and it ended up being a lot easier than I expected, like it solved itself almost, but other people complained that it was too hard so I can't really say a harder version would be better haha making games is tricky.

vidarn144 days ago

Wow, thank you! That is so kind, I'm flattered. I very happy you enjoyed the game. Thank you for the nice comment!

I honestly wasn't quite sure which category to pick, thanks for bringing it up. I'm not too familiar with the interactive fiction genre, but I thought that if I picked adventure, people might expect something like Zelda and be disappointed. 😅

Would you recommend me to switch the category to adventure?

The game is made in a little engine I've written myself. It's quite limited in capabilities but it works well for me and the kind of games I like to make. I like working with a simple system where I know how everything works. And I have tools for drawing graphics and creating audio directly in the engine, which means I don't have to switch to other programs and mess around with importing and exporting assets. Even if the tools are limited, I find that it helps me focus and not get lost in technical details.

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Ah, I see what you mean. In my mind, the rule was "activate columns A & C and rows 2 & 3, but no other cells". So all the four cells A2, A3, C2 and C3 are valid, and the puzzle is complete once you've selected cells in both columns and both rows.

It might have been better to have a separate button for submitting the code when you think you've entered the correct one, instead of it validating automatically. That might avoid the confusion you had?

But I'm not quite happy with the puzzle overall, the rules are too vague. And I guess the fact that you found it easy while others found it hard is proof of that.

I want you to know how much I appreciate the feedback though. It's very helpful that you describe your thoughts while playing with such detail. I found it very enlightening. It's so different designing a puzzle from solving it, and it's invaluable to have someone describe how they experienced it.

Thank you for playing the game, and for the effort you put into your comment.

David T. Marchand144 days ago

It's true that "adventure" is a finicky term. Adventure games are things like Monkey Island, which have very little action-centered gameplay but are just called that historically because of Colossal Cave Adventure (1976). I'm just used to "adventure" in games meaning puzzles, inventory, a story, slow-paced contemplative gameplay, and sometimes no literal adventure at all. That's why Zeldas are generally specifically called action-adventures. But yeah, interactive fiction almost exclusively means text games, so "adventure" is a much better fit here.

Congratulations on the engine! I hear your about the asset creation. I work in Construct, which has its own graphic creation interface, and I struggle so much when I try to prototype in any engine that requires me to open a separate tool. Incidentally, I'm currently creating my own "engine" (really more like a template haha) for making very simple adventure games in Construct.

A separate button for the puzzle would've definitely ironed out the kinks in my experience specifically: I know I would've pressed the 4 relevant cells, hit the button, get the validation, and just assume the solution was pressing all the possible combinations of the symbols from the bottle. Then again, it would add a little more friction to the interaction, which not everyone prefers, so it's hard to tell. I do love it when apps on my phone validate a verification code just as I enter the last digit without asking me to hit enter (and extra points if they just recognize the code from the system clipboard).

vidarn144 days ago(+1)

Thanks for the clarification, that makes sense! I've changed the genre to adventure now. You're right that it fits better.

Your adventure system looks really cool! It seems like a system that is both expressive and easy to use. It's quite inspiring, having something where it's that easy to make interactions seems great. My current approach is a bit more involved. I will try to keep an eye on your progress with the engine, I'm interested to read more.

itch.io

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