Duration: 31:15

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8

And this is why I don't do puzzle games more often!

I thought that using a square-ish font would help "see" the rotations and reflections better, but overall the concepts used in this game are very difficult to conceptualize. The challenge arises from multiple dimensions: your weapon's user and target positions, your OTHER weapon's user and target positions, and about five different enemies' user and target positions. And then you have to match those up constantly against the terrain, which may or may not change over the course of a single level, let alone across multiple levels. It's a lot to take in at once!

This game would benefit from a ChessRogue-like beginning, where the possibilities are narrowed greatly to introduce players with a very basic understanding. For instance, starting the player and enemies with weapons that have only user or target restrictions (leaving the other completely freeform) would remind how each piece is necessary in its own way, before requiring both simultaneously. It doesn't have to be tutorial-style, necessarily, but consider how most puzzle games usually spend time getting more and more complex.

I mean I dunno, I've considered myself at least okay at "figuring out stuff" (not that previous videos indicate it). The level of abstraction required to work in this game's medium is far beyond me unless I get some training wheels first.

Website: http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/Encircled