I feel like this game is a bit hard, for the wrong reasons though. The hints for some of the puzzles feel to vague. Like the crystal maze, I had no idea where the crystals were pointing to.

There is also the bottle at the beginning of the game, I had no clue that is was a meta puzzle. Mainly because I played in full screen and it didn't changed to windowed mode. Even then, there was no other clue that it was such a puzzle.

I could just be dumb though.

The bottle puzzle has no indiciation that it's a meta puzzle. No one solved that unless they:
1. were lucky
2. way too playful when it comes to figuring stuff out
3. looked it up (what most people did)

That one doesn't count because it's meant to introduce you to the "type" of puzzles this game is willing to throw at you, without even a single hint that it exists in the first place.

Everything else after that though is practical and has a solution that requires some thinking and interpretation from the player. The crystal maze's initial hint is clear, but it's entirely up to the player to deduce that the general angle of the crystal's tip is where it's directing the player. The difficulty is the fact that the only the player's mind is responsible for figuring that part out, and if they can't... the game isn't going to hold their hand.

In fact several puzzles give you a bit of information and then leave you alone to figure out the rest or at least try to map out on your own what you haven't interacted with yet to reach the solution.

I didn't find it hard, but most people say that kind of required thinking and effort is apparently too difficult or cruel for this game. Certain types of people fit that description, but I wonder if there are so many that the game actually needs to be toned down.

Originally posted by Averis:

The bottle puzzle has no indiciation that it's a meta puzzle. No one solved that unless they:
1. were lucky
2. way too playful when it comes to figuring stuff out
3. looked it up (what most people did)

That one doesn't count because it's meant to introduce you to the "type" of puzzles this game is willing to throw at you, without even a single hint that it exists in the first place.

Everything else after that though is practical and has a solution that requires some thinking and interpretation from the player. The crystal maze's initial hint is clear, but it's entirely up to the player to deduce that the general angle of the crystal's tip is where it's directing the player. The difficulty is the fact that the only the player's mind is responsible for figuring that part out, and if they can't... the game isn't going to hold their hand.

In fact several puzzles give you a bit of information and then leave you alone to figure out the rest or at least try to map out on your own what you haven't interacted with yet to reach the solution.

I didn't find it hard, but most people say that kind of required thinking and effort is apparently too difficult or cruel for this game. Certain types of people fit that description, but I wonder if there are so many that the game actually needs to be toned down.

A lot of this is our actual intention however there are enough people struggling that we will probably be adding hints to better guide the player

Originally posted by Pancakes:

A lot of this is our actual intention however there are enough people struggling that we will probably be adding hints to better guide the player

Do you think you could implement that in the form of allowing the player to visit the world machine (computer monitor) whenever they're stuck, and the world machine (in a begrudgingly or scolding manner) hints toward what the player is supposed to do?

Originally posted by Averis:

Originally posted by Pancakes:

A lot of this is our actual intention however there are enough people struggling that we will probably be adding hints to better guide the player

Do you think you could implement that in the form of allowing the player to visit the world machine (computer monitor) whenever they're stuck, and the world machine (in a begrudgingly or scolding manner) hints toward what the player is supposed to do?

That's most likely what we'll be doing