Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3h

Transition to parenthood in 5 easy steps:
1.- I'll take turns [with partner] during the night
2.- If I could lean my head here
3.- What if I close just 1 eye?
4.- I wis... I cou... hmmm...
5.- Zzzz...

1

Reposted by Mael Duin 🧩

Alan Hazelden / Draknek & Friends @draknek.bsky.social · 18h

The (un)dead are growing restless. Spooky Express is almost here... 👀

Wishlist or pre-order now on the platform of your choice to be the first to play on October 21st
spooky.express

1 16 31

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 1d

In tomorrow's stream we won't PANIK while breaking out of a time loop imprisonment. Or maybe just a little:
😖 PANIK (by @chumasgames.bsky.social)
💎 Chronoquartz (by‬‬ @infinitestairs.bsky.social‬‪)

See you LIVE on YouTube❤️+💜Twitch
#puzzlegame #indiegame #live #stream #panik #chronoquartz

3 8

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

POSITIVES:
🙂+ concept and mechanics
😄+
😍+
NEGATIVES:
🙁- bugs
😠- reiterative levels
😡-

🔷 Find Shrink rooms here 👇
store.steampowered.com/app/3409430/...
🔹 and more puzzle games here 👇
www.youtube.com/@Mael_Duin

Save 25% on Shrink Rooms on Steam

Run! The walls are shrinking! This is about solving puzzles by pushing boxes from collapsing secret room. Accurately plan your steps, avoid deep pits and traps, use polymer and portal wall in the room...

store.steampowered.com

2

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔸 I find SR presents an interesting concept and the new mechanics presented in each chapter are fun to deal with. It just needs polishing: scrap repetitive levels and squash visual glitches. Knowing that, I recommend it, specially if you'd like a game that lasts a long time.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔸 The game also suffers from visual glitches when using 'undo', specially when it involves the glue/green goo, that sometimes made solutions easier. Since levels don't usually require long sequences of moves, it's better to use 'reset' instead.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔸 SR seems to also be self-aware of this. It doesn't have a hint system, but it doesn't ask you to solve all levels to keep going, so I ended up solving 1-3 levels per group.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔸 It's as if devs made extra levels but they didn't pick the most interesting ones, they just chucked them all in. There are a bit over 300 levels in total, grouped by their underlying solutions. What is presented as a group of 3-5 levels, could have been more interesting with 1-3.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔸 The game is fun but it has a problem that I rarely find: it has too much content. At first you solve levels like each presents a new challenge, until you realise that it's just the same trick (solution) with different elements.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔸 It has a minimal plot, developed between the 5 chapters through comic-style vignettes. The level selection menu is traversable and acts as a level at times, too. It's a sort of museum, with elements you can inspect for (satirical) info and lore of the world.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

🔶 In Shrink rooms (SR) you need to reach the exit before the walls close in too much. It's sokoban because you need to push boxes out of the way, but it's also pathfinding, as you need to do it in a maximum number of moves, too.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

Shrink rooms review 🔛 More is a bore
🔹 EXPECTATIONS: a sokoban game with quirky mechanics.
🔹 REALITY: a lengthy sokoban/pathfinding game with repetitive levels.

1 1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

Leafs odyssey has a hierarchy of action, when more than one reaction happens in one move, and it’s implemented perfectly. So I wonder, regardless of engine, if there’s a “best” way of doing it.

Last year there was a talk involving undoing, but it was about 1 specific programming/sequencing game.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

It makes sense 👍 I would imagine something like arrays, like you said, would be used to record position, but in many sokoban, it’s not just objects’ position that change. They interact and change each other in a hierarchy of actions. Undoing that chain of reactions seems not that easy to track.

1 1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

In my interview with Jeremy @laughingmanatee.bsky.social about Puzzle depot (sokoban/ adventure), he talked about how undoing was something they didn’t want to implement, but players pressure them to include it, and how they added it in the end.

So I’m wondering, why is it so much trouble?

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 3d

I just finished Shrink rooms (sokoban/pathfinding) where undoing produce visual glitches, and elements “not going back”. And earlier this year Mistified (sokoban) initially had similar problems. Many of those patched after release.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 4d

Someone should make a talk for the upcoming #ThinkyCon by @thinkygames.com about 'undo' in puzzle games: why is it so hard to implement and why is it a Pandora's box for bugs and visual glitches.

1 3

Reposted by Mael Duin 🧩

Dong Cha @dongchagames.bsky.social · 4d

Screenshot of my spot-the-difference game with arithmetic + rng mechanic!

#puzzlegames #puzzle #godot #godotengine #indiegames #indiegame #steam #gamedev #games #rng #math

7 23

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

POSITIVES:
🙂+ voice acting
😄+
😍+ humour
NEGATIVES:
🙁- dream box mechanic
😠-
😡- ending

🔷 Find Lucy dreaming here 👇
store.steampowered.com/app/1532710/...
🔹 and more puzzle games here 👇
www.youtube.com/@Mael_Duin

Save 40% on Lucy Dreaming on Steam

Discover a dark family secret and rid a young girl of her nightmares in this splendidly British point & click comedy adventure. Playing as sharp-witted Lucy, explore both dreams and reality to mee...

store.steampowered.com

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

🔸 I didn't enjoy LD as much as I thought I would, but all in all it's a more-funny-than-fun game that I still recommend if you're an absolute fan of the genre.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

🔸 Finally, the story disappointed me big time, specially the ending. It's about characters that you never get to see, even more inexplicably evident after witnessing the ending. The ending itself is (very!) rushed and neither brings closure to the characters nor is left open to interpretation.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

🔸 The other aspect that I enjoyed is the voice acting. Again very British, with a diverse repertoire and representing each character in a very funny and distinctive way. Some characters sound like inside a tin can sometimes (maybe a bug?), but it didn't break the experience.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

🔸 What LD nails is the humour. It's very British, so it won't land the same on everyone, but even if one doesn't get it, it still sounds funny. That's what probably carried me over to the end, exploring every scene, wanting to hear Lucy's comments on every object. Like pixel hunting, but good.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

🔸 I wished I could swap the box's contents from the inventory and see the changes after a fade to black, for example, but it only happened a couple of times (it's quite evident when it does). These dreams are used to recall information from Lucy's subconscious, and use it in the real world.

1

Mael Duin 🧩 @maelduinplays.bsky.social · 5d

🔸 From there, the experience got a bit better. You get to explore the town and set up a box near Lucy's bed that changes what she dreams of, depending on what's inside. This mechanic is interesting but at times tedious, as you need to go in and out of the dreams several times to solve puzzles.

1