The 5-Second Simulation

This is short one-room, one action puzzle game entered in the Single Choice Jam.

I interpreted it as a short coding exercise designed to be an brief but enjoyable game without further pretense.

At that, it's completely successful. It is nice and repeatable, each action uncovering more about the world but forcing you to think laterally to solve them.

I only had to use one hint, and that was for an item that's not in the room description but could be implied. Otherwise, this was short and satisfying. I didn't feel any strong emotional connection to the game, but I don't think that was a goal.

While one the short side, this parser is still much longer than its title promises. Set somewhat like an escape room, you must find three words to complete the simulation and escape a doorless room. Easy, right? Well… no. You can only do one action before the simulation ends and you need to reboot it.

Forced to replay the game until you find all elements to complete the puzzle, the game forces you to think about your previous action, as it does not track it on screen. You can look at different objects around the room, as well as manipulating them to discover the room’s secrets. But remember, the room resets when the simulation ends!

The Sysiphian gameplay is quite interesting and pretty smart. It really makes you think about the information you have on the screen before you have to reload the game. Examining every single element in the room will give you and idea of what you can interact with… and most importantly how. The hints parsed throughout the rooms are quite cleverly done (though it took me a while to find some of them - thank you Help for putting me out of my misery). The first word is probably the easiest to find, and as soon as you understand the logic in it, the other needed words will follow quite easily (or go check the help section, like I did :P )

It is a very neat small parser experience, and I would recommend to anyone with 30min to spare.