I'm generally assuming that everything other than puzzles is very much WIP, so I'm not going to talk too much about how doing anything other than solving them tends to trap you in a map where you can't do anything. I assume you know that.
The levels
When I was reading the description, I read the "Should not be moving when counter is 3." as an example. I immediately stopped reading to avoid spoilers, but it did mean I already knew the solution to level 1.
Level 2 took me a few tries, but I eventually figured I'd try standing on the square when it hits 3 to see what happens.
Since it's an early level, I would recommend moving those corridors filled with squares a bit earlier not to frustrate players too easily.
3 and 4 were rather simple to figure out.
5 was mostly what I expected, though I did fumble a few times and went on the wrong thing.
6 was a really fun twist. I liked how you made a rather winding path that lulled me into a false sense a security thinking movement is perfectly normal. It was a very "wait, what just happened?" moment. Figuring this one out was fun.
Level 7 took me some time, because for some reason I couldn't wrap my head around which side the boots will send you in. I kept thinking that each one must be independent, I even started finding different patterns that different ones follow. I got a bit annoyed that they're not at least a different colour for each pattern. It was a bit of a facepalm when I realised how they actually work xD
Level 8 was reasonably simple. A spent a moment in the starting room figuring it out and establishing that 3 and only 3 is the value that works. Other shapes requiring different values was a reasonable guess that got proven right.
I'm not sure what was the purpose of the lever at the very end was. Most components in the game seem to have some kind of purpose, even if that purpose is to be a distraction, so it did feel a bit out of place.
In level 9, I did like that the circle made a sound when stepping on it, since it lead me to immediately try to figure out what changed. But someone playing with sound off wouldn't get that hint - I'd recommend adding some subtle visual effect for pressing "button" shapes.
The level was rather straightforward - even if you forgot the order, you'd never flail because of it, which I appreciated. Though I did die quite a few times because I underestimated how quickly that timer will change xD
I think level 10 was definitely too long. It was fun noticing that some squares don't change, but that spiral really could have been 4 times shorter and it would have worked just as well.
Level 11 is weird, because I don't remember it xD I'm currently looking at level select to remind myself which level was which, and I don't think I've played this one. Either level 10 goes directly to 12 or I somehow solved it so quickly I forgot about it.
Solved it now - interesting how a familiar rule of "alternating squares and circles" can feel completely different when presented in a different way.
12 was fairly straightforward, since I already knew both rules that applied.
What made it a bit annoying is the boost the increased my speed for a bit and then decreased it. Because it decreased it
too much. Permanently, even after a reset or reloading the game. So I had to start another save not to be super slow all the time. Thankfully you can still pick from any puzzles on a new game.
13 was a bit boring, being just simple memorisation, though I guess it was different.
14 was funny, especially figuring out the rule. I did managed to die a few times to making a mistake, but when I went through super carefully I made it.
15 had a fairly simple rule, it was more of a maze, but it was fun.
I liked 16 too, especially how it makes you imagine there is gravity, but the solution requires realising that there
isn't and that you can just move down by a single step anytime you want.
17 was rather straightforward, though I guess it was important to establish that mechanic for later.
18 had some cool eureka moments. I figured it was a circle->triangle->square->... cycle immediately, thanks to puzzle 17. But then realised that surely there's no way to flip that lever on the left. Then realised that oh, I
can step on another square after flipping the level, I guess it also works like a shape? Only after I flipped both the left and right, the path forward opened up, but then closed did I actually notice that the left lever can flip without me touching it, and in fact flipping it is what circles and squares
do. That was really cool.
I have no idea what's going on in 19. The rule, as far as I figured out is:
- You can't step on 2 of the same shape in a row
- You can't step on the same shape twice out of 3 shapes in a row, unless the middle one is a triangle
As much as I tried any and all possible variations, I couldn't prove it wrong in any way.
But of course, it's rather obvious that according to
all known laws of aviation these rules, the level is impossible - you have to go through 3 shapes that are not triangles. So there must be something else to it, but I could not figure out what it is.
I did notice that these 3 tiles can be walked on. So I tried all other walls to see if you can walk through any, but it looks like you can't.
On level 20, the moment I step on the arrow, I can't move anymore. I tried moving in all sorts of ways, waiting, but nothing worked. Since all rules so far would just teleport you to the start, but not do anything else like stop you from moving, I'm assuming something probably went wrong (and if it didn't, I just couldn't figure out what to do).
General complaints
One think I really didn't like about levels 7, 17 and 19 was that the reset didn't actually fully reset the level. Which is something that I'd expect a reset to do. This led me to believe that the direction from the boots could be random, since the ones at the start would sometimes move left first, and sometimes right.
And in 19, it made figuring out the pattern a lot more annoying, since I couldn't try the same thing twice and get the same result. So I couldn't know if a change was due to something I did differently, or different starting conditions.
It does increase the difficulty, but it does so in a rather frustrating way. I think having a harder rule but levels that are entirely deterministic would have been much more pleasant.
The other thing is the timer and the score. I don't think that really fits the game, at all. Figuring out the puzzles is fun, but repeating your solutions faster is not, at least not without an actually fun movement system (which, to be clear, a puzzle game absolutely doesn't need, but it is a requirement to make
timed traversal fun).
Here's a good write up on the topic - it's about move counters, but all those points should apply to a timer as well. My favourite quote from it that sums it up quite well:
It feels like adding a timer to eating breakfast. Doing it faster is harder, but not improving my breakfast experience. It's optimizing for the wrong thing.
Some complaints aside, I really enjoyed the puzzles! Figuring them out was fun, and there was a good amount of eureka moments. It left me wanting to play more of them, which is always a good sign.
I hope you'll find this feedback useful!