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[beto]

I'm making this separate thread to test specifically the mini-games we have just implemented on A Night In-Between.

For this I prepared a separate build where the first door on the room after the intro sequence leads to some test chambers so that these puzzles can be proofed easily.
If you'd like to try the whole game, you can download it on this thread.

The default controls are:
Arrows - Movement
A - Action
S - Stealth movement (hold)
Space - Investigate and advance text
Enter - Pause menu
Esc - Cancel

We have two kinds of mini-game puzzles.

 

One is a Dial Rotation Puzzle, in which you have to spin the dials in a certain order, each puzzle has its own algorithm, matching the pieces on the center of all dials to form the image of an animal.

The Dial Puzzle controls are:
Move - Select Dials
Action - Turn Clockwise
Stealth - Turn Counter-Clockwise
Investigate - Help
Cancel - Exit Puzzle

The other one is the Alchemic Puzzle, that you have to learn an alchemic recipe and arrange the alchemic apparatus to create the desired substances. In some cases the apparatus will be incomplete and you'll have to collect the missing pieces to make it funcional.

The Alchemic Puzzle controls are:
Move - Move cursor
Action - Select pieces
Stealth - Swap between the grid and the pieces on the floor
Investigate - Build solution
Cancel - Exit Puzzle

You can download the puzzle test build here:
PC - http://www.qasir.adugestudio.com/builds/beta/QasirPuzzle120326.rar
Mac - http://www.qasir.adugestudio.com/builds/beta/QasirPuzzleMac120326.rar

There is also a Google Form with some questions about the experience with the puzzle here (feel free not to answer it if you want to post only your observations here, but if you do answer leave a note here saying that you've done that):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDFrWjQ1MmVQcklGUkxZdzNvLUpSQ1E6MQ

Ps: on the Alchemic Puzzle we know a horrible bug that in some cases you just can't select some pieces unless you close the puzzle and open it again. Even though we've seen it happen lots of times, we don't know how to reproduce it intentionally, so we still hasn't figured ou how to solve it. If you happen to find a way to reproduce this bug please tell me =)

Ps2: we still don't have sounds for when you use the alchemic products where they're supposed to be used, but we'll have these feedbacks soon.

[dishmoth]

I completed the alchemy puzzles.  I really like the style and the presentation, but the controls are rather awkward.  It took quite a while to understand what I was supposed to be doing (and what the recipes are supposed to show) but I expect that in the final version the instructions will be clearer - and hopefully there will be a couple of much easier puzzles to get started with.

I encountered the bug you describe (not being able to select a piece) but I've no idea how to reproduce it.  Also, my first solution to the second puzzle was not accepted (picture below) but I don't know why.



For the third puzzle it's not obvious that two of the 'filters' have two inputs and one output.

As for the dial puzzles, I solved the first few, but it's getting a bit too late at night for me to carry on with the rest.  (Also they're starting to get quite tricky - I may need to start working things out on a bit of paper, which takes me out of the game.)  Seeing the animals appear at the end is very pleasing though.

Simon

[beto]

I admit that everything that has to do with both minigame puzzles is quite a mess, since they were added later in the game to solve a gameplay problem we were having long ago...

Could you be more specific about the awkwardness of the controls? And what do you think that made the instructions (and everything else) confusing?

I wanted to have more alchemic puzzles, but I don't think how I could fit it on the level design of the whole game (and more puzzles would cost more graphic and content assets)...

This is such a nasty bug... It happens quite often but we can never reproduce it intentionally =/

Sorry about this bug with the digestion filter. It shouldn't be like this. This treatment was from the time the filters were all the same and they didn't have "tips", they could have inputs anywhere and the output would depend on the flow. So back then they couldn't be placed by the end.
I talked about it with the programmer but probably it just got lost in the process...

Thanks for the testing =)

When I fix these things I'll post a new build here.

[dishmoth]

Could you be more specific about the awkwardness of the controls? And what do you think that made the instructions (and everything else) confusing?

I think the alchemy controls are awkward because of the number of keys involved (arrows, A, S, and Space) and because the interface switches between two 'modes' (adding pieces and removing pieces).

Also, if you count the recipe page (which I had to look at a lot until I figured out how the recipes worked) then that's another two keys (Enter and Escape, as well as having to scroll to get to the right menu) and an additional 'mode'.  (Showing the recipe next to the apparatus would get around that.)

Doing something that feels like it should be quite simple, such as moving some assembled pipework one row lower in the grid, takes an awful lot of key presses.

If the game was controlled with the mouse (and I can understand that you'd want to stick with the keyboard for everything) then the controls would be obvious:  Click on a piece, drag it to where you want it, let go (and if you're dropping it on top of another piece, then the old piece flies back to the table, or something).  Could the keyboard controls be similar to that?  Move a 'hand' cursor with the arrows; press fire to pick up a piece; press fire again to drop it (or switch it with the piece below)?

I found the first puzzle in particular confusing because of the amount of new stuff I was being confronted with.  As well as getting used to the controls, the player needs to interpret the recipe (there are two lines to it, so presumably the recipe has two stages... doesn't it?), work out how the apparatus are supposed to be used, and solve the actual puzzle of following the recipe using the limited range of available pipes.  And there's no feedback that you're doing it right until the puzzle is solved.

A couple of suggestions for things that might make the first puzzle a bit less overwhelming.  First, let the player see a completed alchemy puzzle earlier in the game (just as an interactive bit of scenery).  Second, provide more bits of pipe so that there are more ways the puzzle can be solved.

Just my opinions of course.  Overall I think the alchemy puzzles are really rather good, niggles aside.

Simon

[beto]

That's quite an idea!
Even if it weren't controlled by the mouse, if you had a sort of pointer it would make things a lot easier.

We'll be able to free the investigation button for checking the recipe and things like this and it would be better to have the "submit function" by clicking on the final pot (the way the navigation is programmed, by a list of nodes, leaves it hard to make).

And probably would solve the bug everyone gets but no one knows how to reproduce that is the tubes being unselectable.

I'm considering the possibility of having more alchemic things you could do. Optional things =]

Thanks! And thanks for the feedbacks =]
I hope I'll have new improvements and a build soon.