This game is a ton of fun for those who enjoy puzzles and exploration. I think you’ve done an amazing job, and the concepts, variety of blocks, mechanics and puzzles are well thought out. I struggled a bit with the visuals. The text all looks nice and matches the atmosphere, but it is quite hard to read (and there is a lot). This starts with the opening screen, where I thought the ‘Z’ was a mouse symbol or something (I think it was smaller text the first time I looked)
I also tried to test the controls (arrows and WASD) while reading the tutorials, but I had to z/skip my way to the end of the text before I could test movement. Since this happens every time we start the game, it would also be good to have the tut accessed optionally with a keystroke. My preference would be to have the controls (z, x, arrows/wasd) explained quickly and prominently and then to discover the mechanics by myself because that is part of the fun. Normally I would just experiment around recklessly, but I will say the lack of a save feature made me more cautious about exploring the mechanics. ‘X’ing my way back was time consuming, as was restarting. But I mean, those are just details. They probably would keep some people from playing far, though, since gamers are an unforgiving bunch.
*visually I would make the text more readable and optional for the longer bits (good job putting the recipes down on the game page, they could eventually be part of the inventory)
*visually some sprites are hard to recognize (tissue, shard)
*for a game this long and complex, you need either a save or some sort of level save so you don’t have to go to the beginning
*music was cool but repetitive, so I turned it off after a bit
After clearing 7 rooms, something weird happened with my inventory (some things doubled and others disappeared, and one item shifted to behind some text). I was in the process of investigating whether it still worked when Lemmy froze and I couldn’t proceed. I probably need to be more careful with inventory next time. I tried giving random stuff to characters to see what happened.
I think you did a creative job with the story, and you did a great job of embodying the jam theme! That said, I cared much less about Lenny’s paramours than I did the puzzles, so you might want to condense the story text. It is a good framework story, but in the end, it is important that the items, uses and potions are very clear, not what kind of characters Sam and Bart are. The bottom line is: Lenny is rejected, will he have a healthy or unhealthy reaction? We can understand that without much explanation, and because it’s a game, it can be fun to explore both reactions. I would say this game story is largely symbolic at this point and the puzzles are the core fun, so you should keep the text minimal. Later on, you could probably envision a version where the puzzles involve elements of psychological healing etc, and for that you could use longer texts, but I think I’d fix any save and bug issues before embarking on something like that.
Anyway, I took the time to put all this down because I think it is really worth tweaking some of the elements to enhance what is already a quality game experience!!
