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[reheated]

Play the game here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/reheated/beams-with-enlightenment

About the game
In Beams with Enlightenment, you help an old man collect paper cranes on his way to attaining enlightenment. It's a puzzle game, and one that's fair on the player: once you understand the mechanics, everything you need to solve the puzzle is there in front of you and you won't need to guess what the developer is thinking. There are 25 levels that will give puzzle fans about 1 - 1.5 hours of gameplay.

The game is written in HTML5, requiring a modern browser. You can interact with the game using keyboard, touchscreen or mouse.

What I want to hear from you
I'd like to hear any opinions you have on the game. Do you like the general idea? Is there anything that's preventing you from fully enjoying it? I'm also interested in a few specific things:

• Please let me know of any bugs ASAP (tell me your OS and browser);
• Any opinions on particular levels? Was there a style of level you liked the most and would want to see more of?
• I'd like to try and make money from this game and what I'm thinking is to make a level pack and sell it using Kongregate's in-game purchase system. Does this seem like a viable idea to you? Do you think that people who finished the game might be prepared to pay e.g. 90 cents for a set of 25 levels that are on average harder than the first lot?
• Any thoughts on the music and the art?
• Do you like the flavour text that's at the start of some of the levels?

[caou]

interesting game, easy to get the mecanism.
Maybe you would add some animation? Like few steps when the character moves...

[reheated]

Thanks caou, you're right. The game already had two frames of the character walking but I looked again and the steps he took were so tiny I nearly couldn't see them. I've updated the game to make him take bigger steps. It just alternates between the two frames as you make each move - I think he walks quickly enough that any further effort would not be noticed... opinions?

[Alec S.]

The mechanic is pretty clever and it leads to some fun puzzles.  The game could use a fair amount of polish, though.  I couldn't hear any sound.  At first I thought it was just because the sound button was off (sound should not be set default to off in a flash game), but then when I tried turning it on, it loaded for a while, then still didn't have any sound.  Also the graphics are fairly simple (although they more or less get the job done).  At the very least I'd get rid of that gradient in the title.  Even a plain white title would be better.

I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor text.  I didn't feel like it added much to the game, but that may just be me.  Anyway, overall the game is pretty enjoyable.

[reheated]

Hi Alec, thanks for your thoughtful comments.

The mechanic is pretty clever and it leads to some fun puzzles.  The game could use a fair amount of polish, though.  I couldn't hear any sound.  At first I thought it was just because the sound button was off (sound should not be set default to off in a flash game), but then when I tried turning it on, it loaded for a while, then still didn't have any sound.

Oh no! What OS and browser (including versions) are you using? I'll do my best to find out the problem. And OK, I'm thinking I'll also turn the sound on by default in a future update.

Also the graphics are fairly simple (although they more or less get the job done).  At the very least I'd get rid of that gradient in the title.  Even a plain white title would be better.

I'm pretty much OK with simple-but-gets-the-job-done, as long as no part of it hurts your eyes. Is the issue with the title that it is too gaudy? Let's compare the original title:
http://i.imgur.com/zCXqz.png
with a plain white one.
http://i.imgur.com/FoFD2.png
To me the plain white title looks too bland. What about a compromise?
http://i.imgur.com/F8P0B.png
or maybe I should be doing something altogether different... I had better think about it.

I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor text.  I didn't feel like it added much to the game, but that may just be me.  Anyway, overall the game is pretty enjoyable.

Yeah. A lot of friends said they enjoyed it but it was pointed out that it wouldn't be so entertaining for people who couldn't imagine me saying these things with my mannerisms. On the other hand they don't get in the way very much. Hopefully I will hear some more opinions that will tip the scale towards keeping or deleting them.

[Alec S.]

Using gradients like that is a big no-no in graphic design, and will give a pretty unprofessional first impression.  If you don't like the plain white one, I'd go with something else.  Maybe make the letters out of solid red and staggered blue beams or something.

[reheated]

I made a couple of new attempts at the title. I couldn't think of a way to make nice looking words with staggered blue, so I've just tried solid colours.

1. Just solid blue and red: http://i.imgur.com/xHKVg.png
2. Same as #1 with a white outline: http://i.imgur.com/jtn7v.png
3. Courier New, white: http://i.imgur.com/A1Iis.png
4. Courier New, solid colours: http://i.imgur.com/BXjqb.png

I liked 2 but could be convinced to go with 1 or 3. I don't like 4 as much, and when I tried to add a white outline it looked worse. Unless you think it's a bad idea, I think I'll change the title to #2.

[Ankmannen]

I like the concept. Easy to understand and it's extendable. (pointed out before, but you might like to hear it again ).

No sounds for me using IE 10. That game on a mobile device would be really good.

// AnkMannen

[Alec S.]

Yeah, 2 seems like a good choice

[reheated]

Updated the game.

• Changed the title to style #2 above
• Fixed a bug that might sometimes cause audio not to play
• Music downloads and starts after you choose to start the game
• Fiddled with the beam graphics a tiny bit

I like the concept. Easy to understand and it's extendable. (pointed out before, but you might like to hear it again ).

No sounds for me using IE 10. That game on a mobile device would be really good.

// AnkMannen

Thanks a lot for your support! Hope something I've done fixes the sound for you - I tested it in IE 10 in Windows 7 but don't have access to a Windows 8 computer. Re mobile, the game actually is tested on an iPhone and android phone outside of the Kongregate iframe. I do hope to get the game out onto phones.

[dormir]

Hi,

I've just played the available 25 levels. I liked the puzzle mechanic. It's a new one to me and yet it was easy to pick up. The impossible-to-kill-yourself design decision was definitely a good one as is the reversible nature of every action. My main criticism is that there isn't usually much planning or forethought required for most levels. While the puzzle mechanic is quite inherently complex and puzzling, the level design mostly allows the player to follow a strategy of just interacting with whatever is reachable. This is actually a good thing in the early levels to introduce the mechanics, but options stay pretty narrow until about level 18 which is a bit much. It'd be nice to have to pause and ponder the levels a bit more.

The music worked fine for me, though I can't comment on whether I liked it or not because I immediately turned it off.

I had no problem with the visuals. Very functional and fine by me.

I didn't really like the flavour text either. I'd personally avoid any 'thoughtful' style text in an otherwise abstract game. Seems a bit unsubstantiated or incongruous or something. I'd suggest a humourous angle to the text instead.

Encountered a very small bug. I did all the levels in one go. At the end, all the levels are displayed, cycling between the level name and the time/turns taken. However, the level 'spaceship' only displayed the level name and didn't change. I played that level again and then the stats for it were displayed correctly.
(Firefox 17, Win 7)

[reheated]

Thanks, dormir.

I reproduced the bug causing the game to forget your time/moves for a level, and updated the game to hopefully fix it.

Your comments on the way too many levels don't require much planning forced me to think about who my target audience was. Many of my private playtesters seemed happy with the difficulty, but most were not gamers let alone puzzle gamers. A few people wanted to be punished more for mistakes, and they were the ones who are more serious about puzzles. I think I have to acknowledge that most people won't click my game out of a list unless they are interested in puzzles. So, here's my plan (though I doubt I'll be able to make the update until a little after Christmas):

• Replacing some of the duller levels with hard ones, lifting the average difficulty. "Crossing" is first on the chopping block but I'll also probably do something about "Main Street" and "Tomb".
• Adding a par number of moves for every level as an extra challenge. This requires a whole lot more forethought. E.g. try completing "Rubble" in 150 moves or less, or "Grocery Store" in 100 moves or less.
• Removing the flavour texts, except maybe the first one.

[dormir]

I just replayed Grocery Store to see how the 100 moves target would affect the gameplay. It's magic! The focus immediately shifts to a more deep and thoughtful approach. This is definitely the key to boosting the gameplay of this game massively.

While it should be a pretty easy enhancement to implement, I'd make sure to strike the balance right between too punishing early on and too inconsequential to bother with. For example, if you had a hard turn limit from level 1, many people might balk at having to do the level again before getting interested in the game at all. On the other hand, if the turn targets are just an optional challenge that affect nothing (level unlocking, etc.) then players may never even have a go at meeting the turn target and not know what they're missing. I personally feel that either of these scenarios could apply to me btw; I'm not just talking about casual gamers.

Couple of simple points:
Remove the time-keeping and time score. It really doesn't suit the game and is pointlessly antagonistic with the turn score.

Think about adding 'turn undo' functionality. Without turn targets, this would be unnecessary, but losing score because of careless or impatient key pressing would be annoying. There's other ways you could choose to address this issue too.

[reheated]

Updated the game:

• Redesigned 3 levels that were too easy:
  • Main Street -> Freeway
  • Crossing -> Traffic lights
  • Tomb -> Mausoleum
• Added a par number of moves for every level.
• Added the ability to undo a move (press z)
• Removed the timer display
• Removed most of the flavour text

Thanks to dormir for many of the ideas that lead to this update.

For now you don't get anything new from beating the pars but hopefully they are sufficiently in-your-face that players will know they are missing out on part of the challenge. (And a couple of the early ones are made quite easy so there's a good chance you'll get one or two just by luck, which might compel you to try for the rest.) If this isn't compelling enough, maybe I should make a 26th level that only unlocks once you beat all the pars?