Thanks!
Out of curiosity, which level 6 are you referring to? There are actually three completely different levels you can encounter there, due to a route split just beforehand.
Oh wow I didn't even realize there were multiple branches! The one I was talking about was the branch where you accuse Dora of lying. I liked it a lot; it was complicated but in a way that felt very fair, which is always great in a puzzle. I also felt like it synthesized the all of the mechanics in a satisfying way.
I went back and played through again and found the level after the other dialogue option, but I'm curious how to unlock the third. It seems like there's something to do on the 5th level I'm not catching?
Cool, I was able to check it out. I liked the third level 6, and the story definitely got a more complete ending altogether.
It would have definitely benefited from signposted better though. I chose "accept" the first time I played and didn't realize there were multiple paths. Then I thought I might get the third path by going reject => accept on the second loop through. I think I did do reject => reject before but I didn't realize when I was taken back to level 5 that I was in a new branch, I thought it was just taking me back to the same level 5 as before so I quit out.
Anyway replaying the levels can be pretty tedious so I'd recommend making that looping structure more clear. It's very cool though, and it's not too far away from working pretty well. I think it just needs a bit more clarity.
Some thoughts from my additional playthroughs:
- The movement can be pretty slow, which makes messing up feel more punishing then it needs to be.
- I really like the way you put the puzzle elements on both sides in a way that looks almost symmetrical but in a way that makes them behave differently. It's clever.
- It can be hard to see which tiles the diagonal lights hit. Maybe the grid could be a little more accentuated or the diagonal lights could illuminate less of the adjacent tiles? It's not a huge problem or anything but it was a frustrating way to have to restart.
- I did have the game crash once while answering the lying/misunderstanding question the second time. Wasn't able to replicate it but just thought you should know.
Thanks for all your feedback!
I did initially plan to have a level select feature, as well as some additional dialogue that appears at the end of the second route you play in order to indicate that a third choice was available. Unfortunately, both of those things got cut at the end because I needed to sleep, but I think they would've helped with a few of your issues.
I'll have to look into that crash bug.