itch.io

Please post any demo feedback here! We look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.

Thank you!!

Thank you for playing! We wanted to see if anyone was interested before continuing with development of the game

I hope you enjoy it! I discovered so many awesome books while curating the game (plus, had lots of fun dipping back into old classics). Thanks for your support!

Thanks so much for your feedback! Totally agree that the public domain is mostly untapped (that's why we made our first game Prose & Codes!) Love the idea of different music for each theme, that would be so lovely. You've echoed some criticisms of other playtesters, so we'll be refining the Select a Theme state. 

As far as being taken to the next puzzle rather than Select a Theme, that will be the way the full game works, but since there is just one poem per theme in the demo, it takes you to Select a Theme. Maybe we should include a few poems in a handful of themes rather than one per theme to better illustrate the way the full game will work.

Thanks again!

Hello! We're looking for any & all feedback on our new demo Poems & Codes (Windows & Mac versions, Linux coming soon).

Link here: https://herogameco.itch.io/poemsandcodes

In Poems & Codes, classic poetry has been turned into deceptively simple substitution ciphers. Use your knowledge of the English language to decode beloved poems across 11 themes, unlocking poet biographies and links to download/read their anthologies for *free*, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

Though all feedback is welcome, we're particularly interested in the following:

• Did you prefer dark mode (default) or light mode?
• Did you turn off any visual fx? If so, was it due to performance issues or something else?
• Do you feel like the "Select a Theme" screen is easy to understand?

Thank you so much for your time!

Hello! We'd love to hear any feedback you have about Poems & Codes! All comments, suggestions, or complaints are welcome. A few things in particular we'd love to know are:

• Did you prefer dark (default) or light mode?
• Did you turn off any of the visual fx? If so, was it due to performance issues?
• Did the "Select a Theme" screen make sense/feel intuitive to you?

You can also fill out our anonymous feedback survey if you prefer! 

Thanks so much!

Prose & Codes invites you to explore the wonderful world of books through deceptively simple ciphers.

Hand-selected excerpts from literary classics--both well known and obscure--have been turned into substitution ciphers. From nostalgic children's stories to bone-chilling horror, discover the wit, wisdom, and wonder of literature's finest works.

If you find something you like, the game provides a spoiler-free synopsis for every book featured, plus direct links to download the entire book for free, courtesy of Project Gutenberg! A portion of every sale goes to Project Gutenberg in support of their mission to digitize, archive, and distribute works of literature.

Itch link: https://herogameco.itch.io/proseandcodes

(I also want to give a shout-out to everyone who play-tested the demo here on itch.io. Your support and feedback gave us the inspiration to take this project to the finish line. <3)

This was marvelous, gave me a much needed laugh!

Prose & Codes

Hello! Thanks for sharing your feedback! I'm glad you liked the aesthetic and the music. We love the "Solved" stamp too :) As far as translating into other languages, I haven't considered it at this stage in development, but it would definitely be cool to do so!

The fix for this bug (plus some new cool stuff) has just been added to the game!

I got past 500 on my first try. Right as I was getting bored, the big asteroids started coming and I noticed the orange speed upgrades are permanent. I had fun! It's pretty cool that this was done with such a low resolution.

My understanding is that the meter on the left shows how much space is between your ship and the enemy fighter trying to destroy you. I was a little confused about why sometimes I seemed to be going so fast and it was still gaining on me, and other times I was going slower and it seemed to be backing off. Increasing my ship's speed also seemed to affect asteroid velocity in a non-intuitive way. None of these things are really issues considering that this is a low-rez arcade game -- I didn't expect any hand-holding and I think you've done a good job of providing cues for players to figure things out (eventually).

Kudos on finishing, and thank you for sharing Space Disgrace with us!

Hello! Thanks for reporting this. Investigating now!

Thank you so much for playing and sharing your experience! It means to so much to hear that you enjoyed it and are looking forward to more! 

You're right, there should definitely be a tab for Credits. Adding that to my to do list now!

Thanks again! <3

Hello again! Thanks so much for checking out the update--so glad to hear that you're liking it so far! :)

Hello! I just added a difficulty setting to Prose & Codes (a game of literary ciphers in support of Project Gutenberg). The demo features 49 encoded excerpts from literary classics across 7 genres.

Game link: https://herogameco.itch.io/proseandcodes

Though I welcome any and all feedback, I'm specifically wondering how the Easy setting feels to new players. Are the ciphers still too hard for someone just starting out or does Easy mode make it too easy?

Thanks in advance!

Hello, thanks for playing! So glad to hear your interest in some of the books was sparked! I have some Hemmingway, Tolstoy, and Dosteyevsky planned for the full game, but I'll check out those other authors you mentioned. 

I definitely see your point about the hints making things too easy. I like the idea of them just being random, so I think I'll test that and also add the pop up about deleting saves! Can't believe I didn't already think of doing a pop up there haha.

Thanks for your feedback!

Excellent story, I got sucked right in! Your use of music to set different moods was awesome too. 

That makes perfect sense. I can definitely see it being difficult, especially with some of the more arcane language in the Drama category. I'm glad your interest has been piqued by some of the quotes too, that I was definitely my intention!

Thanks again for all your input!

Oops, thank you so much!

Hello! Thank you so much for playing,  giving feedback and your kind words! So happy to hear that you're a fan of Project Gutenberg too. It's such a treasure trove, and I hope more people will take advantage of such an awesome resource.

I really like your difficulty setting idea. Do you think it would be enough to make the first few ciphers partially solved for each genre, or would it be better to let players choose their preferred difficulty via the settings menu or something like that?

Thanks again for playing!

Page link: https://herogameco.itch.io/proseandcodes?password=ciphers

Hello! I'm working on a substitution cipher game in support of Project Gutenberg (a huge online library of free ebooks). The goal of Prose & Codes is to expose players to a vast array of intriguing excerpts from classic literature and hopefully inspire them to read the whole book!

There's a little list of improvements on the itch page that I'm already planning on making, but I'd love to hear what others think. Though all feedback is totally welcome, I'm particularly interested in:

• was the game easy to learn/explained well enough?
• were the fonts easy to read (particularly the cursive font)?
• is there a feature you'd want to see implemented?

Major thank you to anyone who gives Prose & Codes a shot! :)

Thank you so much for trying Prose & Codes! If you found a bug, let me know what happened in as much detail as possible. Screenshots or copy/paste error codes are great too!