Untitled

I'm sorry to be harsh, but I don't think this was designed well at all.

I see you say things like "Puzzle games aren't for everyone, but it's not rocket science" in the comments, and I think that means you are missing the point.

The problem isn't people being bad at puzzles. It's that the puzzles are too obscure. Of course the puzzles seem easy to you, because you made it. But think of it it from the perspective of a new player. The questions are worded badly and do not help to narrow down the answer, and are mostly outright misleading.

For example, "What does thy neighbour say" implies that it the answer is a word the player's neighbour would say. The answer is actually the concept that the door's neighbour discusses. "What does my neighbour discuss?" would be much more fitting.

Also, not only do you have to work out the answer, but you have to work out exactly how to phrase it. Even when you do have the right answer, the game will not accept it if you use punctuation. I understand you only had 48 hours so a text parser is unrealistic, but you are the ones who designed the game, and you should have known that making a player type the answer without guidance would make incorrect answers far more likely.

You're on a strict time limit that isn't necessary for a game of this type, and if the game closes you have to go through the introduction text again. The player has no control over how long the text behind the doors is displayed.

And then after finally solving everything you are given the ability to "title" the story, only to be told "No, you chose badly"

The themes are interesting, but I was too frustrated with the design to have any hope of enjoying them.

Again, I apologise for being harsh, but your answers to comments tell me that you do not understand how your design is at fault. I hope that by giving a negative comment I will help you to grow as developers.

Hey great game! I made a playthrough, and actually finished the game. Here's the link in case you were interested: http://youtu.be/Q3EVHk01VLE

So I have a lot to say about this. First of all, the game shutting down when you go into the darkness was kind of annoying. Granted, I realized it was intentional. That made it better, but when you are trying to record, the game randomly closing makes it pretty frustrating to keep going.

Now for the puzzles. I thought it was pretty brilliant at first. I guess some people might be confused about HOW to answer, so I guess it could have used a "Type Answer" type thing. Still, I didn't have too much trouble figuring that part out. The first question wasn't necessarily as easy as you thought it was supposed to be. I know some people struggled with it, and I can understand why. I mean, I didn't really, so whatever.

Now the 2nd door. I don't mean to be rude, but I did not think it was a great puzzle. I literally wasted 30 minutes trying to figure out the answer. I tried everything from rearranging the words in quotes, to LITERALLY typing out word-for-word everything that was said in Chapter 1. I know I'm not the only one who had problems with it.

SPOILER ALERT!!!
Part of the problem came down to how the question was phrased. It asked what the neighbor said. I did make the connection that the neighbor was talking about the previous door, but I couldn't figure out exactly what answer it wanted. The problem was, the answer was not really anything the previous chapter SAID. The answer was more what the previous chapter was TALKING ABOUT. The two are kind of separate and consequently made the search for the answer very frustrating, rather than challenging.
SPOILER ALERT END!!!

Ultimately, I found the answer by searching through the code until I found it. I know that's really cheap, but I couldn't figure out any other way around it :P I only saw the answer to the 2nd door, though. After that part, it was pretty obvious what types of answers you wanted, and then it was a lot more fun. I just think it needed a little more direction. The player really didn't know what they were looking for. Other than that, though, I thought the game was great. I really enjoyed it and appreciate the work you put into it. I look forward to anything else you might create :)

I also didn't get past the first door- but then I never claimed I was good at puzzles. The ambience/sound was great, just wish I could have made it farther! Shows promise though!

pink screen :v what is dat mean

I had no idea what I was doing. I included it in part 4 of my Asylum Jam Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) http://youtu.be/s_CEVauFcqE