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[JobLeonard]

"A way to Normia"
 
The wardrobe puzzle is working & is present in the book "Bokomo".
The puzzle & text will be different each time you play, like the puzzle in the demo.
 
The last problem that I solved today was to show the particles in front of everything inside the wardrobe yet still make the walls of the wardrobe obscure them.
I have used the stencil buffer to define the insides of the wardrobe and only render the particles in that confined area.
 
Now I will think about some more puzzle variations or about a way to generate a list of compatible puzzle steps, so there will be a different puzzle for every player.
 

I love how these puzzles feel seamless with the environment, like how I would solve a real-world puzzle with physical objects and without any of the "snapping" or similar computer UI aspects

[RealScaniX]

I love how these puzzles feel seamless with the environment, like how I would solve a real-world puzzle with physical objects and without any of the "snapping" or similar computer UI aspects

I like that, too. I hope I can keep it that way. I have added quite an amount of hints and help texts in the demo (tutorial), because lots of people didn't manage to solve it. As a player I hate those hints and I feel better when solving it on my own, but there are others that get easily frustrated.
I might add an option for this. (I think I have already mentioned this ^^)

[Cannoncow]

I think what I like a lot about this is it's colorful AND the atmosphere is also scary. 

[RealScaniX]

I think what I like a lot about this is it's colorful AND the atmosphere is also scary. 

Thank you! The voxel look is a thing I like a lot myself and I think it's rewarding to work on it.

[vdapps]

Super-nice. Keep it that way. One thing which gives "a depth" and "detail" to games is interactivity with environment.

In example, when I play 15-years old game with lot of interactive elements (currently I'm playing Vampire: Bloodlines 1 from 2004), I have more feel of detailed world, than playing new games with millions of polygons but no interactivity.

Somehow my brain translates old games, even if worse looking and with less polygons, but with plenty of interactivity, being more detailed than "visually overhauled but shallow interactivity" new games.

[RealScaniX]

Super-nice. Keep it that way. One thing which gives "a depth" and "detail" to games is interactivity with environment.

In example, when I play 15-years old game with lot of interactive elements (currently I'm playing Vampire: Bloodlines 1 from 2004), I have more feel of detailed world, than playing new games with millions of polygons but no interactivity.

Somehow my brain translates old games, even if worse looking and with less polygons, but with plenty of interactivity, being more detailed than "visually overhauled but shallow interactivity" new games.

Thank you for your point of view! I think I can agree to this. I really hope that I don't fall into the same trap as lots of those "walking simulators/adventure/horror games" that have lots of empty containers (drawers, cupboards, etc.) and a lot of items that look good, but have zero meaning. I have a few things that might help with this:
1) the main goal of the game is to find a specific item, so looking through containers does not feel that senseless
2) there are collectibles, so you get rewarded for being thorough with your search

[JobLeonard]

I like that, too. I hope I can keep it that way. I have added quite an amount of hints and help texts in the demo (tutorial), because lots of people didn't manage to solve it. As a player I hate those hints and I feel better when solving it on my own, but there are others that get easily frustrated.

I think what you have to keep in mind is that the player actually has to unlearn quite a bit of game logic for your game, specifically surrounding the interactions. Physics in most games are cool gimmicks without semantic meaning, except for fun combat situations or the occasional create-a-platform-to-climb puzzle. The fact that sliding a coat rack is meaningful is weirdly mindblowing and requires quite a bit of out-of-the-box thinking.

So yeah, you need some kind of tutorial the really makes it clear that the player isn't in Kansas any more

[RealScaniX]

So yeah, you need some kind of tutorial the really makes it clear that the player isn't in Kansas any more

Hehe! Probably.

[Thaumaturge]

I really like that puzzle! It looks quite neat, and with a clever solution. ^_^

As to players understanding that such direct control is called for, I suspect that as long as such control is the primary means of interaction, and especially if you build up the complexity of the puzzles over the course of the game, few will have trouble in understanding that such interaction is the likely means of solving such a puzzle as this. Still, this may call for user-testing!

[RealScaniX]

A first attempt of creating a fade out when "entering" a portal. The fade color will be different depending on the place you are going to visit.
Originally, the text was supposed to cover the whole screen, but I'd need to many layers.
 
I think, I will play around with this a little more.
 
Nevertheless it feels at least good to have done anything at all after being lazy for too long.

[JobLeonard]

I love the glyphs taking over the textures of the surrounding objects!

[RealScaniX]

I love the glyphs taking over the textures of the surrounding objects!

Thanks! It's not exactly like imagined and I'll surely revisit this, but for now I have a transition and can move on to actually travelling elsewhere.

[Thaumaturge]

I think that it looks pretty good! And as with the poster above, I actually quite like having the symbols cover the surrounding objects. ^_^

[RealScaniX]

I think that it looks pretty good! And as with the poster above, I actually quite like having the symbols cover the surrounding objects. ^_^

Hey, thank you. I now know what I was bothering: The way the text spread wasn't looking as desired. I changed it a bit.
Now, I will work on the place this portal will take you to. I like the transition when arriving even more at the moment.

[Thaumaturge]

I feel that it's useful when a portal actually takes me somewhere, yes. ;P

[vdapps]

A first attempt of creating a fade out when "entering" a portal. The fade color will be different depending on the place you are going to visit.
Originally, the text was supposed to cover the whole screen, but I'd need to many layers.
 
I think, I will play around with this a little more.
 
Nevertheless it feels at least good to have done anything at all after being lazy for too long.

Heh, I was not lazy and I feel that my pace is crappy anyway.

And to portal, doing such FX is not easy. You have one thing in mind, and it's just hard to translate to real thing on screen. Mostly it's just different than you imagined. I found it just recently when I wanted to make end-level portal to my game and after 2 days of attempts (everything went to bin) I ended up with just simple door in the end.

If you play with FX too much and get frustrated, my suggestion, switch to something else and return to it later.

IMO, fade needs tweak still, glyphs are great.

[RealScaniX]

A first attempt of creating a fade out when "entering" a portal. The fade color will be different depending on the place you are going to visit.
Originally, the text was supposed to cover the whole screen, but I'd need to many layers.
 
I think, I will play around with this a little more.
 
Nevertheless it feels at least good to have done anything at all after being lazy for too long.

Heh, I was not lazy and I feel that my pace is crappy anyway.

And to portal, doing such FX is not easy. You have one thing in mind, and it's just hard to translate to real thing on screen. Mostly it's just different than you imagined. I found it just recently when I wanted to make end-level portal to my game and after 2 days of attempts (everything went to bin) I ended up with just simple door in the end.

If you play with FX too much and get frustrated, my suggestion, switch to something else and return to it later.

IMO, fade needs tweak still, glyphs are great.

Yes, I already marked it as "working for now" after some improvements on the effect. The fade to the color in the end looks a bit plain and needs some more work, but the idea is to fade to a color specific to the destination of the portal, so they are not all the same.
 
I hope that I can continue working on this next week. Some real life things got in the way and I currently cannot really concentrate on gamedev.

[Sazem]

Really decent voxel art stuff! I really loved that dish washing physic thing, its so "juicy" and the general athmosphere. Good luck with the project 

[RealScaniX]

Really decent voxel art stuff! I really loved that dish washing physic thing, its so "juicy" and the general athmosphere. Good luck with the project 

Thank you! I will do my best to continue focusing on nice ways to interact with the environment.

[vdapps]

Yes, I already marked it as "working for now" after some improvements on the effect. The fade to the color in the end looks a bit plain and needs some more work, but the idea is to fade to a color specific to the destination of the portal, so they are not all the same.
 
I hope that I can continue working on this next week. Some real life things got in the way and I currently cannot really concentrate on gamedev.

Yep, I know it very good. Real-life stuff braking progress. Similar happening to me right now.

However, we´re here to support. I´ll be happy to see your progress, even if tiny one.

Btw, this devlog writing here on forum, is great thing, I´m on my 1st project with writing devlog. It keeps developer better on track, even if track is not totally straight and without issues. But it´s much better to develop and share, than just develop.