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Review
I quite enjoyed this game. The writing is cute, and the puzzles are fun.
I have some spoilerific feedback for the author.
(Spoiler - click to show)I got stuck pretty hard on the oojamaflip puzzle. The game repeatedly pointed out with a parenthetical that the oojamaflip was relevant, but the encouraging words from Trala made it seem like a victorious status effect, rather than a puzzle to actively solve. And the solution, to use the gizmo, felt unclued. For most of the other inventory items, there's at least one other way to use it that gives you some clue about what it's for, but not the gizmo. The gizmo only works on the oojamaflip; only the gizmo does anything with the oojamaflip. Even after replaying, I have no clear idea how I was supposed to guess that. The gizmo and the oojamaflip seem to have nothing in particular in common; neither of them have any defined shape. I had to pray to get the hint to use the gizmo, which I then lawnmowered to solve the oojamaflip puzzle. I think the gizmo should do something somewhere else, to give me some kind of hint on what it could be good for, and/or one of the other items should do something with the oojamaflip, pointing me in the direction of the gizmo.
I also got stuck on the very last puzzle in the treasure room. I didn't realize that the "gold and jewels" were "gold" and "jewels," separably examinable. I'm not at all sure that this was a puzzle worth having. Making "treasure," "gold," and "jewels" synonymous would have let me just pick a treasure and move on.
More broadly, I think this game would benefit from bolding stuff that you can fly towards, and it would benefit from an HTML version that you could click on or tap on on mobile phones. (Dialog is great for that sort of thing!) For example, if the treasure description had said, "The platform is heaped with gold and jewels," I would have understood what to do.
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Thank you for the specific feedback!
(Spoiler - click to show)When it comes to the oojamaflip, I'm guessing this is the situation where you don't fly to it until after it explodes? I "fixed" the fairy magically knowing something she shouldn't in this situation (that the oojamaflip used to make the gadget say "khong"), but you're right that then the player is left completely in the dark... I've thought of a way the gadget can behave a bit differently in this case, so that the required info is still conveyed.
In terms of the gold and jewels: It's not really supposed to be a puzzle, but I would like there to be a little exploration in the final scene. I've decided to make "treasure" a synonym for both the gold and the jewels, and remove the intermediate object.
Oh. Oh no. I guess I understand the problem now. This problem is way deeper than I realized. (Spoiler - click to show)
The problem is that you intended the gadget to be useful, but it isn't, not as of Release 5 251206.
During play, I never figured anything out about what the gadget means, except perhaps that "three curt clicks" means "there's nothing here of interest". I just went back and took notes on all of the objects and the gadget's sounds, but they mean almost nothing at all to me; they don't seem to provide any information that would be useful for solving puzzles.
What chirps melodiously? The metal something (toolbox), the contraption's door, the grey block, the square. What do these have in common? You can open them, I guess. But you can open the brass box, too, and it says krikrikri. The whatsit and the thingy both make a "chu" noise; the stranger will attempt to insert the whatsit and the thingy in the metal something, in the grey block, and in the square, but not the brass box or the door (or its bits).
As far as I know, the game provides no way to know that the thingy opens the metal something but not the grey block, the door, or the square, that the whatsit opens the grey block but not the metal something or the door. Instead, you just have to use trial and error.
It's not a total guess-and-check though, because you can observe the stranger's behavior and the shapes of the objects (ignoring the gadget, of course). The stranger tries to use the whatsit and the thingy by inserting them, so use them for stuff that seems unlockable. Snake-like objects (rigamajig and doojigger) are cables, so they should go in a socket (a hole).
In fact, the gadget is more likely to mislead you in the early game than to provide any information. The gadget says that both the dealie and the widget both make hungry noises, like the brass box, but neither of them appear to work. And when the brass box does light up, you're going to be mislead if you put the widget in the brass box, because it looks like you "solved the puzzle" but it merely provided a bit of colorful background material.
The doohickey and the dingus make different noises, but never mind that, the doohickey is a large metal tool, and the dingus is a knob (because the stranger tries to twist it). In Release 5, you mostly win by using your eyes, not your ears.
So, to be constructive, let me suggest some fixes for this.
- If you're holding a "chu" object (whatsit, thingy, whosit), the stranger should always at least try use it on any "chirps melodiously" object. When using the whatsit on the contraption door, instead of "He feels around the edges of the little door, but is unable to prise it open," he should try to prise it open with the whatsit. In Release 5, he'll try to do that with the doodad (lulula), but not the thingy or the whatsit, breaking the parallels between "chu" and "chirps melodiously."
- I think the contraption door should have a variation on "chirps melodiously," e.g. "it chirps melodiously, but with a delicate countermelody warbling around the first," directing attention to the bits, which warble, making it clearer that it's different from other locked doors/containers.
- The Goddess's hints currently give you a vision of an item, normally an inventory item, which the player can then lawnmower. Why not provide a gadget sound as well, or instead? When I prayed and got "gizmo", I could have gotten "khong." When the hints want you to open the grey block, you could see the block and hear a cheerful chu, or the thingy and a melodious chirp.
I guess the real problem is that I know what everything is *really* and I'm reluctant to spoil it too much...
(Spoiler - click to show)But the "chu" objects are keys. The contraption panel that opens doesn't have a keyhole, it's screwed on. But perhaps the stranger could at least do something with the key and the panel, as you suggest.
The brass box doesn't open, it just has like a disk drive or port to plug things into (but perhaps this would benefit from the fairy mentioning something like that...)
