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I really enjoyed this! Was this loosely inspired by the puzzle book Letter Coins?

rot 13:

Gurer jrer n srj guvatf gung V sbhaq nzovthbhf (znlor vagragvbany) V fnl guvf abg nf pevgvpvfz ohg jnagrq gb funer zl gubhtug cebprff bs ubj V nccebnpurq vg.

Gur fvyire qnfurq bhgyvarf ba zvffvat pbvaf pbhyq or vagrecergrq nf fhttrfgvat n fvyire pbva tbrf urer, vafgrnq bs nal pbyberq pbva.

Ba cntr 7, gur abgr npghnyyl znqr zr zber pbashfrq, nf “Nal pbva pbhyq tb urer” pbhyq or vagrecergrq nf “nal pbva pbhyq tb urer naq fgvyy fngvfsl gur ehyrf” zrnavat gur pbva lbh cynpr urer qbrfa’g znggre.

Great idea, that was fun!

Rot 13:

Bar glcb: N2 (pbyhza1ebj2) fubhyq or hafunqrq va yiy7 gb nyybj lbh gb tb sebz yiy8. Vg’f pheeragyl vzcbffvoyr naq gur fbyhgvba cqs vf nyfb jebat (vg fubjf lbh ragrevat yriry 7 ng N3)

Gur ‘yriryf ba gur fnzr cntr ner pbaarpgrq’ uvag va gur fbyhgvba thvqr vf gehr ohg abg arprffnel, fvapr yriryf ba frcnengr cntrf ner nyfb pbaarpgrq. (Sbe rknzcyr, tbvat onpx naq sbegu orgjrra 7 naq 6 ba qvssrerag cntrf.

Gur ahzorevat pnhfrq fbzr pbashfvba. Vg’f abg vaghvgvir gung tebhaq yriry naq yriry 0 ner sne ncneg engure guna orvat gur fnzr ‘urvtug’. Creuncf zber gurzngvp vs lbh pbhagrq onpxjneqf gb gur tebhaq yriry gb flzobyvmr tbvat qrrcre, fb vafgrnq bs gur cqs tbvat sebz yiy 1,2,3… vg jbhyq or erahzorerq gb tb sebz yiy-22,-21,-20… Gur gernfher ebbz jbhyq or yriry -23. Vg jbhyq gura or zber pyrne gung tebhaq yriry (juvpu lbh pbhyq nyfb ahzore 0) naq gur gernfher ebbz (-23) ner sne ncneg.

V guvax vg jbhyq’ir orra pbby vs gur gernfher cntr jnf gur irel svefg cntr va gur cqs, be uvqqra fbzrubj ba gur gvgyr cntr. Evtug abj, lbh qvt nyy gur jnl gb gur ‘gbc’ bs gur cqs naq fbzrubj tb gb gur ynfg cntr sebz gurer.

Is this working as intended? I can’t drag any of the loot to the inventory slots on the left or get to the points upgrade screen (clicking anything while dead just respawns).

I’m playing on Firefox which may be part of the problem. I’ve also had issues running Listworlds in FF (clicking New Game does nothing).

Awesome puzzle book, you fooled me at every chapter! It’s really impressive how you arranged the lists so that all of CH1 could be done (mistakenly) normally, most of CH2 can be done (mistakenly) in reverse, etc. Well done.

SPOILERS BELOW:

Answers that involve 2 common words (in my opinion).

• CH1(T) - tugs/tags

• CH2(M) - memo/moms

• CH3(V) - void/vied

• CH3(Y) - yoke/yolk

Answers that involve an uncommon alternative (that one could still reasonably think of)

• CH1(N) - nook/nock

• CH1(R) - rude/rued

• CH2(P) - pick/pica

• CH2(Q) - quad/quay/quag

• CH2(U) - unit/unto

• CH2(V) - volt/vole

• CH3(W)- waft/waif

I’m still trying to figure out the meta puzzle. I’m assuming I have to find 15 homonyms that make 4 letter words. It’s also curious that there are 8 bolded dashes, which would line up with the R and S answer for each chapter, all of which arguably have a homonym.

RUDE/SAIL > RUED/SALE REIN/SIKH > RAIN/SEEK RAPT/SYNC > ?/SINK

That’s all I got for now!

ICWPDLCHIJKLMNOPQ

ICWP DLC Haphazardly Introduced (just kidding) Leaving Mistakes Noted, Overlooking Puzzle Qat

Really fun! Random comments/suggestions/etc.

1. Accessing the notepad requires multiple clicks, when instead it could be an icon on the playing screen.

2. The folder tab is a little unwieldy. It would be nice to have an ‘icon view’ (rather than a list of text headers). When sorting by case, the evidence is one big list instead of being clearly separated in sections. Being able to colorcode headers for each evidence would be nice too.

3. When maximum zoomed in to an evidence, I have to either click the arrow at the left of the screen (or hit the Esc button). I wish there was a red X in the top right of any evidence to click.

4. I would have liked a board somewhere in the room where I can see the identities of those I already discovered (as well as assigning multiple headshots). Or a table where I can physically lay out all old evidence.

5. More red herring names/businesses/etc. would improve things. I figured out the first name of a suspect as she was the only girl’s name available that started with that letter. There’s so few names right now that when I see (e.g.) a business in the search tool, I assume it’s connected without any deduction which can potentially spoil things.

6. I don’t think the volume sliders work? There’s this snoring sound which I think is SFX which I can’t mute. Also would like the ability to increase text speed (the typewriter noises can go on for a long time)

I wouldn’t expect any of the above to be implemented, just wanted to share my experience.

This is a fantastic game! Really surprised at how much depth could come from such easy to understand rules. Great story too.

Highly recommend!

I’m just now discovering your detective games. The audio focused approach to this one is so unique and I’m blown away that these are not real artists!

1. What was the inspiration for each artist? My guess would be Dan Shae = Ed Sheeran, Lara Monetz = Lana Del Rey, Kimi Svenson = Ke$ha or La Roux, and James Pound = Vance Joy?

2. Apparently there’s a real band called Dan + Shay, coincidence?

3. Are these songs available anywhere?

This is great! I’ve never played Void Stranger but the meta aspects were really fun to discover.

Spoilers below (rot13):

1. V unq n eha jvgu 100+ yvirf naq pbhyqa’g cebterff (ab qnttre gb znxr n oybbq fnpevsvpr) fb V unq gb fybjyl qvr 100+ gvzrf gb erfrg. Vf gurer n snfgre jnl?

2. Bapr V svaq n pregnva sheel sevraq (3eq vgrz), vf gung gur gehr raq?

3. V hfrq gur qnttre ba sybbe #1 gb frr vs gurer jrer artngvir sybbef naq vg gbbx zr gb gur ghgbevny/zbirzrag fperra naq erfrg zl vgrzf. V nyernql orng gur tnzr (V guvax) ng gung cbvag fb V qvqa’g purpx vs vg nyfb erfrg nyy zrgn cebterff.

Fantastic puzzle book! As a newbie to the genre (and someone who really struggled with some of the other rule-discovery games you mentioned) I found this to be very accessible and enjoyable as a result. I’d highly recommend this to others.

Heavy spoilers below (rot13):

V fghzoyrq hcba “GUR” ehyr jura erivrjvat gur pbaprcgf cntr gb svther bhg jung V jnf zvffvat gb fbyir chmmyr #9. V gubhtug “uhu, gung’f n jrveq pbvapvqrapr” naq gura vg qnjarq ba zr. Fhqqrayl gur gvgyr znqr frafr gbb. Jung na rkpryyrag n-un zbzrag!

Urer’f zl vagrecergngvba bs gur ehyrf.

• Qenj n yvar sebz rirel fgneg (oynpx pvepyr) gb raq (juvgr pvepyr).

• Gur yvar zhfg ivfvg rirel fdhner jvgu n oynpx gevnatyr

• Gur yvar zhfg nibvq rirel fdhner jvgu n juvgr gevnatyr

• Gur yvar zhfg pebff bire rirel oynpx oevqtr

• Gur yvar zhfg nibvq pebffvat bire nal juvgr oevqtr

• Gur yratgu bs gur yvar zhfg rdhny a+1, jurer a vf gur chmmyr ahzore.

P.S. The spilled paint reminded me of a similar pdf puzzle called ‘Letter Coins’ if you haven’t tried that yet.

Great game and keeps with the spirit of Bee Magic despite the change in objective (min-maxing vs. win with restrictions).

It would be nice to have some clear indications of the “best” score for each level as something to aim for, i.e. the optimal score with n# boxes, or without using knowledge learned from the “messages in the bottles”, etc.

Even like an indication on the “leaderboards” people are posting would help. (How many boxes did they use for that score? Did they use “vanilla” powers only?)

Those optimal scores might not even be known, however, (as there’s so many tools available once the player gets into the end game) and I can see how pushing the barriers without a clear answer is preferable to others.

Any tips on how to get to a certain floating skull hanging out in the void? It seems like there’s a hole to access it in the ceiling of the second or third screen of the game.

Any hints for the first stage? I’m assuming I need to get 5 of the blocks on the white tiles.

Zber uvagf:

1. Svefg yrnea ubj gb znxr n fvatyr K gb trg vagb gur hccre punzore. Gur +oybpx nyernql cebivqrq va gur hccre punzore jvyy or n cneg bs gung K.

2. Abgr gur cbfvgvba bs gung +oybpx va gur K. Jura lbh znxr 2 K’f yngre, lbh’yy jnag n +oybpx gb or va rnpu (flzzrgevpny) cbfvgvba bs gur hccre punzore.

3. Gur tbny vf gura: svther bhg ubj gb trg gur serr +oybpx vagb gur hccre punzore, naq svther bhg ubj gb trg gung serr +oybpx bss gur “sybbe” bs gur hccre punzore fb vg pna npg nf gur gbc bs gur evtug K.

4. Uvag sbe frghc: ortvaf jvgu gur serr +oybpx ragrevat gur hccre nern guebhtu gur gbc evtug (jurer gubfr gjb abezny oybpxf jrer iregvpnyyl fgnpxrq rneyvre).

5. Uvag sbe vagrezrqvngr fgrc: Lbh’yy jnag gb fgber gur serr +oybpx va n “K-perngrq-jnyy-ubyr” fbzrjurer va gur hccre punzore fb lbh pna chyy vg bhg sebz nabgure qverpgvba.

6. Jura lbh ersre gb gur rzorqqrq obkrf, qb lbh zrna gur gjb ubevmbagny obkrf va gur zvq-pragre? Bar bs gubfr pna or rkgenpgrq jvgu na K. Lbh’yy boivbhfyl arrq rabhtu obkrf svefg gb znxr na K, ohg guvf pna or qbar orsber be nsgre gur “ybat unyyjnl obk rkgenpgvba”.

7. Ng ab cbvag qvq V arrq gb erivfvg gur ortvaavat punzoref, gubhtu znlor gurer’f n frpbaq zber-qvssvphyg fbyhgvba bhg gurer?

Rot13:

Vs vg’f nal pbafbyngvba, lbh’ir vqragvsvrq gur pbeerpg obk gung lbh arrq naq gur fgengrtl gung lbh arrq gb bognva vg.

1. Gurer ner 2 jnyyf orgjrra gur obk naq vg’f qrfgvangvba ba gur evtug fvqr bs gur znc.

2. Lbh’yy arrq gb znxr gjb K’f gb or noyr gb chfu gur obk guebhtu. Gur gjb K’f pna funer n pragre.

3. Juvpu glcr bs oybpx pna or envfrq bss gur tebhaq gb znxr gur hccre cnegf bs gubfr K’f?

4. Svany uvag: “+” obkrf pna or chg vagb gur jnyy-ubyrf perngrq ol K’f naq chyyrq bhg yngre, rira jura gur K vf ab ybatre gurer. Hfr guvf vasbezngvba gb riraghnyyl trg gur frpbaq “+” obk va vg’f cebcre cbfvgvba ng gur gbc bs na K.

Awesome puzzle! Here are my lowest moves for each level. I think these are optimized but feel free to prove me wrong.

#1 - 4 moves

#2 - 4 moves

#3 - 8 moves

#4 - 5 moves

#5 - 9 moves

#6 - 9 moves

#7 - 8 moves

#8 - 16 moves

#9 - 9 moves

#10 - 23 moves

#11 - 14 moves

#12 - 15 moves

#13 - 9 moves

#14 - 15 moves

#15 - 17 moves

#16 - 19 moves

I just happened to stumble upon this when browsing new games but it sounds like they would appreciate it over there!

So happy to see a Within the Deep Forest reference! I thought the opening dialogue couldn’t be a coincidence with the protagonist being a ball (oh and the lanterns too!), but the credits confirm it was intentional. Well done.

Loving this so far! Some driving sections are definitely hard, but there’s a charm to it where I don’t mind the (intentional) jankiness at times.

Spoilers below, don’t read unless you’ve seen pirates*

I’m sitting at $500 right now, with one photo task to go. After revisiting the entire map a few times, I’m all ears for a hint that will get me past this (literal crimson) wall. I have a few leads:

• On the lookout for the mermaid. I suspect she’s somewhere around thirdington but no luck so far

• There’s a mysterious ladder directly south-ish of the claw machine at the beginning.

• I’ve turned on the sinks according to the graffiti but nothing happened. I’ve tried both (O = off, / = on) and (O = on, / = off)

• It seems like the $570 price for the crimson key leaves no wiggle room for skipping a coin bag. I’ve hopefully gotten them all, but we’ll see…

spoilers

https://i.imgur.com/zquhuPH.png

Am I on the right track? I’m trying to get the bomb without using the dash.

The mountain has been conquered - thank you for making such an enjoyable game.

I don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with the difficulty as it was a conscious choice even if it doesn’t cater to everyone, in the same way that I wouldn’t expect puzzle levels to be made easier just so everyone can solve them. (Still, thank you for the slow-mo version for noobs like me)

spoilers

I ended up starting from the beginning since it sounds like I softlocked it in that state. I’m still worried there are other ways to softlock that section but I managed to avoid it on my second go-around.

I ended up progressing through the middle of the decay block ceiling on my new attempt, though I kinda cheesed that too as I passed through one of those purple “rollers” that normally knocks me down, but that effect sometimes doesn’t register if an input is given at a certain time. (i.e. if a roller is on the edge of a block, you can sometimes pass through it and go one unit up and to the right/left to make it to safety).

Thanks! Tapping the input once as the player moves into the square is definitely consistent. I’m sure it would have been clear with more trial and error even without being communicated in the game.

I am back to playing on the intended difficulty.

spoilers progress

https://i.imgur.com/m0yijom.png

Thank you so much. After testing the same section in slow-mo, it turns out that this may not be an issue of reaction times.

spoilers

https://i.imgur.com/AG9sypj.png

Here’s a screenshot of the section I’m talking about - the two circled parts have <10% of triggering. In both cases I’m holding ‘up’ while passing through them. Every other square has a 100% success rate so there’s something I’m misunderstanding. I’ll keep trying and switch back to the normal speed when I figure out why.

more spoilers

Here’s the path I’m taking if you want to double-check

https://i.imgur.com/GrxvEXm.png

Loving this so far but wow is it hard! I’m currently at part 5 (?) with the orange squares and it’s really tough to get those split-second inputs in a consistent way.

It would be cool to have an easy mode that is purely stepwise that doesn’t rely on reaction times (or even just a slow-mo version) but without that it’s time for me to keep practicing.

This is great! There’s a puzzle aspect to figuring out where and when to spend your eyes/crystals to reach as far as possible (plus revisiting the levels).

So great. If you develop this into a larger game, one suggestion would be to have 3 optional “challenge stars” you can earn for each level.

Star 1: use the lowest number of runes possible for that level Star 2: “travel” the minimum distance possible for that level Star 3: bonus challenge (e.g. “don’t use the N rune in this level”)

(Perhaps these are only unlocked after earning all the runes in the game, or greyed out until you have the necessary runes to get the optimal number for a given star)

These would require different solutions, adding replayability for each level.

Comments on each level:

That makes so much sense! I was looking at it backwards. 

(For future reference, how did you hide your response behind the clickable?) Thanks for such a  great puzzle.

I'm really enjoying this so far!  [Removed spoilers]

ENDING SPOILERS BELOW

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-

-

Thanks for the suggestions! 

To give you more feedback: The branching paths and the "meta" layer of going back to find 'the space between' were fantastic ideas. These puzzles remind me of playing the game 'The Witness'

I completed it the recommended (?) way, and I'm glad I didn't find the second path (15 > 28) to the ending which would skip a puzzle or two. I wonder if a 3rd path could be created from using the unused letters from all of the puzzles combined. 

I wish I was more careful when checking my answers in the dictionary, as I spoiled at least one answer by seeing a future word in my peripheral. The word descriptions were great BTW. 

I felt one word was unintuitive (finis) - every other answer created a commonly known word (except gae but there was an alternative). Overall, would highly recommend. 

That was great! 

I'd love to play another puzzle adventure like this, are there any that inspired you or that you'd recommend?

Great game! Gives me a sort of 'Stacklands' vibes. I really liked the different biomes, and the progression path was easy to follow.

I also had the negative health bug, but your suggestion to drag food over the worker fixed it. Also, my cursor didn't line up with the UI (if that makes sense). Dragging an item would show the item hovering a few blocks away from where my cursor truly was - but it wasn't too distracting.

A draggable inventory and a way to minimize the 'You won!' screen would have been nice too!

****End game / challenge spoilers below***

Awesome, thanks for the information! I've just one challenge left to do (and no hearts to do it with).

- It looks like you're right that rooms weren't spawning in 'low chance' areas. Undiscovered secret rooms sometimes cause others to spawn in 'worse' tiles otherwise they would conflict with the one neighbor rule, but this isn't always consistent: https://imgur.com/a/0MfkkFw

^It seems like starter rooms are generated first on the map, and it goes down the line? Also it seems like market rooms don't affect the spawns of any other. 

- It's ambiguous whether blocked-off tiles should count when finding 'Red Secret Rooms' - it appears they do.

- The final room for the purist challenge was a repeat of the very first level, which I'm not sure is intended. I was relieved expecting a boss rush! 

- It looks like no secret rooms can spawn on any of the glitch rotation tiles, which is nice because I've had rooms with 8+ Angel spot candidates and that helps narrow it down. 

All said, these are all very minor things in what is otherwise a game that I would highly recommend.

Potential bugs after update:

Room (5?) in a normal run started with all rooms discovered (no cheats) and no way to advance to the next room, had to restart. 

If a glitch room spawns on a square that you have an x (right click) and you can remove the x but it won't let you pickaxe that square.  

Red rooms weird spawning: https://imgur.com/a/eOe5CQ0

***End Spoilers***

I'm so impressed how well this game keeps the spirit of Issac while being a completely different genre. So much replayability! 

A few suggestions / questions:

1. For the challenges, it would be nice to know what the equipped items do. A hover tool-tip on the right hand side or an 'item compendium' would be nice. 

2. I think the 'high/low/very low" chance that some rooms have should be removed and replaced with the binary 'most correct' or 'can't spawn'. A spot that better fits the criteria should always beat one that doesn't. (Ex. starter room 3 tiles away should always beat one 4 tiles away). It's challenging enough to have multiple spots that tie for 'most correct', try them all, and find out the actual spot is worse according to the criteria. 

3. The 'special room tiebreaker' for normal secret rooms would be nice to add to other secret room types as well.  Example: A devil room with 2 normal  room connections + one special room connection always beats a devil room with 3 normal connections. 

4. In the 'panic buying' challenge, my items do not get reset when entering a new shop, making the challenge extremely easy. 

Questions:

1. Do larger multi-tile rooms (like an L shape room) count as a single 'step' when calculating the longest path for hermit?

2. Do glitch rooms factor in to the 'largest min. distance' for outsider rooms?

3. Do previously found secret rooms count when adding up the adjacent rooms for 'Red Secret Room'?

---

Overall, I think the appeal of this game is as a logic-game first and foremost, with the only chance being choosing between multiple spots that tie in the criteria, not having the actual spawns be in a 'low/very low' probability spot. 

Looking forward to the full release! Ditto all the great things that others are saying about the atmosphere and quality of the puzzles. 

-Two quality-of-life updates that would be nice to have are a move counter in the corner and an undo-move button (!) 

-The 'high' (optimal) move number has occasionally changed on me, but I'm not sure this is a bug. On a fresh game, the 'high' for level 1-1 is 23 moves. I've somehow achieved a 22 and cannot recreate it and the current 'high' is now set at 22. Maybe holding down the arrow keys to move instead of individual inputs can mess up the counting?

-A move counter would help illustrate the move cost of some things that aren't intuitive. Burrowing down + back up (1 or 2 moves?) Moving into a fuel tank and getting pushed back out (1 or 2?) Getting out of your robot and jumping back in (1 or 2?) etc. 

-The countdown to self-destruct is not the best for impatient people like me. Getting out of your mech and self-destructing does this immediately. 

-Tip for others. If you collect the gem, you don't need to complete the level for it to show up in the level select, but sometimes it doesn't register immediately after leaving the level. 

*****SPOILERS BELOW****

Awesome game! It took a lot of trial and error but I finally made it to the end. 

A little hint system would have been nice to have at points, but then again, experimenting is part of the fun. One way this could work is by having symbols that give a clue to the recipe (for example, "o" means surround a building with another, ">" meaning put a building next to another building, "x" means put a building on/next to a certain tile).

-------------------------------------------

For those that are stuck  here are some clues:

- To reach your destination, you need resources, and lots of them! There are different raw resources to gather, and your workers will specialize based on their environment.

- Watch towers help your people explore the land, but don't forget that sailors need light too. If one watch tower lets you see far, imagine what many could do.

-When it comes to villages, the more the merrier. It's said that a small number of people are magically inclined. Maybe with a big enough town, you may find some. Your villagers also need to be educated, but your town will need to be even bigger to fill those classrooms. 

-Your villagers can tend to their farms by hand, but if the farm is too big, they may think of something to help.

-Once you discover a building to transform your raw resources, don't make them walk far. Try refining your raw materials right next to where you extracted them. 

***SPOILERS BELOW***

So fun! Especially once it clicked that not everyone should be taken for their word, and that there may be more normal explanations for what some experienced. 

Very challenging at times, but everything was fair in retrospect. It took me way too long to see the "next" button on the hammocks (not the game's fault) which stumped me for a while. 

A few suggestions:

-An in-game notepad would have been nice but wasn't necessary.

-It wasn't obvious (to me) that brimstone is synonymous with sulfur

-The solution has 3,5 as L, but L is not in the clue sets. The correct answer according to cluesetI.1 is A ( _ _ _ _ A). I was given a checkmark for clue set 1 even before I "fixed" 3,5 and put in L.

- A checkmark did not appear over cluesetI.3, even though I had SWTXU in the correct positions, until I put "L" in 3,5.

-I didn't know how to undo a box after I placed a letter, which made things messy while figuring things out. (I used X's as placeholders where I screwed up)

-The cypher was otherwise great, and II.1/II.2 cleverly explained shape order, the behavior of the square/circle, and what a shape does if their path is blocked. 

Overall, would recommend to fans of the Obra Dinn.

***END SPOILERS***

**SPOILERS BELOW**

Decided to replay this game as I consider it one of the best idlers ever made. Soo much strategy and variation. 

Somehow I never realized that you don't have to beat each dungeon in one go (if you die halfway through the monsters you can re-enter with 50% already completed). Finding this out made things a lot quicker.

I've been working around the no saves issue by opening a copy of the game in a second tab before making any big decisions. If something doesn't work out (i.e. barely fail a dungeon and lose all my accumulated equipment), I can just go back to the original tab.

The "multiple tabs" approach does make things funky with equipment, however. I'll have ~20 shield/weapon, open a copy in a second tab, and the equipment immediately jumps to ~90 shield/weapon. Saves time, so I'm not complaining.  

I was really hoping that beating this game would show the password to Idling Through Loops, since that page is password protected, but sadly not. I loved that game as well. Bummer :(