A really fun puzzle game! I really enjoyed thinking through them, building a mental model of how different systems are connected together, and finally figuring out a solution.
Though I do have some complaints:
GAMEPLAY
- A reset button for the different sections would've been really helpful as undoing gets kind of tedious if the player spends most of their time moving around the puzzle, trying to get a sense/overview of how the puzzle works.
- In the section "but he journeyed to find", I was somehow able to push boxes into each other even though I wasn't able to do that in the previous sections. Since I had learned that the boxes can be blocked from being pushed by the inactive tiles, this resulted in me getting stuck. However, it might be a bug as I was able to push the metal boxes into the laser source tiles? It was a bit discombobulating, to say the least.
VISUALS
NOTE: It all boils down to personal preference but you can implement some of these suggestions if you like them and if they don't conflict with YOUR vision for the game.
- The art was a bit too noisy for me. I personally found the details a bit distracting but I guess it has its own charm to it.
- The inactive elements were a bit hard for me to look at (a bit too much desaturation), but I guess it could be up to personal preference.
- The blue (icebergs?) were brightly outlined, and because they are used quite often, fight for your attention even though they are not a prominent part of the gameplay.
- A great example of prominent gameplay elements can be seen in the game "Baba Is You", where:
- The background and the details like the floor and the wall are similar in darkness (or how I like to call it: visual priority).
- The main gameplay elements (like Baba, the flag, the rules, etc.) are quite prominent and immediately catch your attention.
- "Celeste" is another great example of this.
- The area outside the borders transitions to a dark solid color without much detail.
- The background is only visible in the main gameplay area inside the walls but is still relatively dark.
- However, the main gameplay elements (Madeline, the walls, the platforms, etc.) are really prominent, and immediately draw your attention to themselves.
- You can also take a look at other games you think are visually appealing, and implement what you like about the visuals in your own game if you decide to learn about visual design in games in the future!
However, it still boils down to personal preference and your vision of the game, along with a little bit of visual design to make it accessible and more pleasant to look at.
Though those are the only suggestions I have! Otherwise, I really like the concept and this has a lot of potential!
Sorry if this was way too long to read! 😅
Edit: Grammatical corrections.