@kaliuresis I finally got around to trying version 2.0. Here's a recording of my playthrough:
The key points are:
- Put the levels in a logical order so the mechanics are introduced slowly to the player.
- Make sure when you're testing the player on a new mechanic that the level actually requires the player to understand the mechanic in order to beat the level.
- Introduce new mechanics and concepts as slow as absolutely possible. This game uses very complex spatial reasoning that will overwhelm most people if too many things are introduced at once.
- Add a zoom feature. This way the player can see the entire room at once and zoom out even further to better understand what sorts of patterns the links are creating.
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback and playthrough!
Below I'm mainly just organizing my thoughts on your feedback so feel free to not read if it's too long.
- My hope was that when a player sees a level they don't know how to solve they would go somewhere else until they've learned more, but it seems that's not the most natural way to progress and feels bad when you encounter something completely overwhelming. Restricting the level choices and locking the harder ones at the start should help.
A lot of the bad level placement was forced by the way I chose to do the level transitions from/to the hub. Since you walk into levels from the hub, it limited where I could position the level selectors without breaking puzzles. I was originally planning to have multiple hub room that you unlock, which would have helped with the ordering a lot, but I felt like I didn't have enough levels to justify that.
- Accidentally solving things is definitely a problem. I struggled to figure out a way to make the concept of that one looping level clear, and I think I missed the mark. There's a logic to how things are spaced there, but its not obvious and the player has no way to interact with the positioning so its not something they would think about. I think I would need new mechanics like a platform you can move with a lever or something, so the player has to intentionally shape the level to make things collide midair rather than it just happening automatically.
Most of the other levels you accidentally solved were intended to introduce new concepts and therefore be easy enough that the new thing just happens where you can observe it. You have a good point that getting the player to intentionally do something and testing them on it is a better way to teach than just having them passively see it. Another possibility is that once I expand the hub I could put some of these bits outside of the real levels, so I can show off new mechanics without the player expecting them to be full puzzles, then dive into the levels that make use of them.
More than two linkers of the same color is a really good idea! I never thought of it since the core idea was always about creating two way links, but it seems obvious in hindsight. Definitely seems like a great way to expand the solution space and avoid accidental solves.
- One thing I was worried about was having multiple levels that are basically the same idea, so I tried to limit myself from repeating concepts. After seeing people play I think the mechanics are complicated enough that having minor variations/combinations of previous levels is actually helpful and interesting rather than tedious. Need to strike the right balance, but I've definitely been erring on the side of introducing new things too fast.
- Big agree on the zoom/smaller rooms. It's mainly due to technical limitations why I didn't add those, but I should just do the work to solve those. Allowing variable room size also introduces the complexity of what happens when you connect rooms of different sizes. I either give up on having continuous level transitions from the hub and make sure levels only have rooms of a single size, or I need to make up new rules for linking different sized walls. Having objects changes size when they go through such a transition initially seemed like the most logical answer to me, but I don't think I want size changing mechanics in this game. Another possibility would be to have the portal slide along the wall of the larger wall based on the position of the linker. I need to play around with it but I think that second option would work.
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@kaliuresis I finally got around to trying version 2.0. Here's a recording of my playthrough:
The key points are:
- Put the levels in a logical order so the mechanics are introduced slowly to the player.
- Make sure when you're testing the player on a new mechanic that the level actually requires the player to understand the mechanic in order to beat the level.
- Introduce new mechanics and concepts as slow as absolutely possible. This game uses very complex spatial reasoning that will overwhelm most people if too many things are introduced at once.
- Add a zoom feature. This way the player can see the entire room at once and zoom out even further to better understand what sorts of patterns the links are creating.
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback and playthrough!
Below I'm mainly just organizing my thoughts on your feedback so feel free to not read if it's too long.
- My hope was that when a player sees a level they don't know how to solve they would go somewhere else until they've learned more, but it seems that's not the most natural way to progress and feels bad when you encounter something completely overwhelming. Restricting the level choices and locking the harder ones at the start should help.
A lot of the bad level placement was forced by the way I chose to do the level transitions from/to the hub. Since you walk into levels from the hub, it limited where I could position the level selectors without breaking puzzles. I was originally planning to have multiple hub room that you unlock, which would have helped with the ordering a lot, but I felt like I didn't have enough levels to justify that.
- Accidentally solving things is definitely a problem. I struggled to figure out a way to make the concept of that one looping level clear, and I think I missed the mark. There's a logic to how things are spaced there, but its not obvious and the player has no way to interact with the positioning so its not something they would think about. I think I would need new mechanics like a platform you can move with a lever or something, so the player has to intentionally shape the level to make things collide midair rather than it just happening automatically.
Most of the other levels you accidentally solved were intended to introduce new concepts and therefore be easy enough that the new thing just happens where you can observe it. You have a good point that getting the player to intentionally do something and testing them on it is a better way to teach than just having them passively see it. Another possibility is that once I expand the hub I could put some of these bits outside of the real levels, so I can show off new mechanics without the player expecting them to be full puzzles, then dive into the levels that make use of them.
More than two linkers of the same color is a really good idea! I never thought of it since the core idea was always about creating two way links, but it seems obvious in hindsight. Definitely seems like a great way to expand the solution space and avoid accidental solves.
- One thing I was worried about was having multiple levels that are basically the same idea, so I tried to limit myself from repeating concepts. After seeing people play I think the mechanics are complicated enough that having minor variations/combinations of previous levels is actually helpful and interesting rather than tedious. Need to strike the right balance, but I've definitely been erring on the side of introducing new things too fast.
- Big agree on the zoom/smaller rooms. It's mainly due to technical limitations why I didn't add those, but I should just do the work to solve those. Allowing variable room size also introduces the complexity of what happens when you connect rooms of different sizes. I either give up on having continuous level transitions from the hub and make sure levels only have rooms of a single size, or I need to make up new rules for linking different sized walls. Having objects changes size when they go through such a transition initially seemed like the most logical answer to me, but I don't think I want size changing mechanics in this game. Another possibility would be to have the portal slide along the wall of the larger wall based on the position of the linker. I need to play around with it but I think that second option would work.