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Poems & Codes - a game of poetic ciphers in support of Project Gutenberg!

A topic by Hero Game Co created Jun 30, 2023 Views: 199 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 2
(+19)

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!

(+1)

I’m a big cryptogram fan (Puzzle Baron’s got me addicted way back when), and I also feel like the public domain is an almost untapped resource, so I needed to try this and I’m glad I did.

I think I like light mode better (though it took me a while to find – settings and profile might make more sense to me combined into a single menu?) and I was a little confused by the Select a Theme page at first (I somehow expected solving one puzzle to take me to the next in that particular theme instead of back to the Select a Theme screen, and I also thought at first that it might be where you set light mode/dark mode, not poem theme, though that may have been me being more than usually inattentive ;) ), and I love the overlays. No performance issues for me! I also sort of wanted hitting backspace to take me back to the previous letter if I’d already erased the current letter, but otherwise the interface for solving the puzzles was intuitive.

Wild thought – it would be fun to have electronic adaptations of classical music for a soundtrack (I could even see different pieces appropriate to different themes, or a selection of pieces the user could choose from)!

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!