This game looks good enough that I *don't* want to play the demo... wanna wait for the full game

But is the corner of the new area still drab

Context: I made a new optimization that sorted entities differently when saving out levels, and there was an interaction that broke because it was apparently dependent on load order. Never ran into the issue before because every level just *happened* to store things in a non-problematic order.

i like the sheep

I guess it's probably not the point of your post, but tetr.io and jstris are pretty nice online options

2026 goals:

I kinda just wanna release my game and play it by ear from there not gonna lie

In real life, if I watch a video about some advanced mathematical/scientific topic, my reaction is "cool", not "how was I supposed to figure this out". I try to feel that way when I externally find things out about games I've played as well 😛

But you are right at the same time - those secrets often feel lazy and smug. But I think that's the case because we've all built up this mindset that every bit of content exists to be played, instead of also existing to support the feeling of a game being a new mysterious pocket universe to explore.

I like not knowing how big a game is. It's a special kind of feeling when the game expands in front of you and you have no idea where it's going to go after that - and the existence of the kinds of secrets you describe, the kinds that aren't "meant" to be solved, are good at creating that feeling.

I agree with the negative feelings you've pointed out (I really soured on Blue Prince by the end because I felt like the puzzle quality dropped off a cliff). But I also don't subscribe to the mindset that every game needs to be 100%'d and every gamer needs to feel a compulsion to do so.

stop it

Obviously this is not a small fix, but if the cool part of your game is the rule discovery and meta-puzzling, penguins and walruses being the first thing you show people might be working against you. Just my 2 cents.

It seems like you wanted to make a game revolving around arctic animals. But then there are all these random tools like hammers and bombs and canes. And there are portals, and force fields. And meta stuff. None of this really connects back to the whole penguin thing aside from the sliding mechanics.

My biggest issue with the game is that it doesn't have a consistent thematic identity. People checking out the game and catching a surface-level glimpse see this inconsistency immediately in the trailer and might be turned off assuming the rest of the game is similarly disjointed.