General Help/Questions/Feedback Megathread

[Sam]

Hello! Just checking this weekend in to say thanks to everyone who's been contributing in the forums to provide hints and help others figure things out.

I'm going to pin this thread as a centralized place for those seeking or providing help. offering feedback, or sending bug reports, but please feel free to continue creating standalone topics if that's easier.

[Colonel Damneders]

I think I've got a bug, funnily enough for the Bug Report 2 code. I've got what I know is the right answer REZOLO and it does not work. I've tried caps and lower case and neither have worked so I'm pretty stumped,

[NishYou]

Originalmente postado por Colonel Damneders:

I think I've got a bug, funnily enough for the Bug Report 2 code. I've got what I know is the right answer REZOLO and it does not work. I've tried caps and lower case and neither have worked so I'm pretty stumped,

Hmm You're on the right path. I know that this puzzle values can be randomized per save file (the 1 2 3 number placements, the letters remain same) so best bet for you if you feel it is bugged even after triple checking your puzzle solving steps is to try all order combinations. My game I had to enter LOZORE to clear it based on my notes. So you have arrived at the 3 proper wordblocks. And yes, they're supposed to be all caps - caps key pressed down

[theyrewatching]

One thing I ran into that I haven't seen mentioned yet was eye strain from a few of the documents, specifically the ones that were black text on a solid white background. Especially if you're playing in a dim room as recommended they can be glaringly bright. One of my friends playing it right now mentioned this as well so it's not just me (though I'm likely an extreme case since bright white screens have a history of causing migraines for me). Some of the other notes were off-white and/or had a textured background and were a vast improvement. It's not that many so it's not a huge deal but I thought I'd mention it.

Also, loved the game! Best thing I've played this year.

[Back Surpriser]

I cannot play the game. When I try to launch the game, it crashes and when it doesn't I get a black screen but I can access the inventory, interact with objects etc.

Edit: Changing localization fixed the problem.

[Ting]

+1 to adding a dark mode to the reading of the text, insofar as that's possible. My vision isn't what it once was, and reading in this game is painful (visual snow)

[seabombs]

I have an odd bug, unless I am missing something...

In some of the numbered door puzzle rooms there is a camera you can pick up and move around with, but when I pick up the camera I can't move (I can turn left and right, but can't move forward/backward). Otherwise in the game I can move around normally of course, it's just when holding the cameras.

I know some rooms have an intentionally fixed camera on a tripod, I'm not talking about that. The particular room I can't get past is 1962, as I can't move after picking up the camera and move in front of each number to look out the window to see the shape I need.

I had the same issue in 1960 too but managed to figure out the numbers from the fixed camera angle anyway, with a bit of trial and error.

I should note I'm playing this on linux with proton, and have tried experimental, 9 and 8 but same bug on each. Otherwise the game runs perfect, great performance and no crashes. And no change using a controller (DS4) or keyboard either.

[NishYou]

Originalmente postado por seabombs:

I have an odd bug, unless I am missing something...

In some of the numbered door puzzle rooms there is a camera you can pick up and move around with, but when I pick up the camera I can't move (I can turn left and right, but can't move forward/backward). Otherwise in the game I can move around normally of course, it's just when holding the cameras.

I know some rooms have an intentionally fixed camera on a tripod, I'm not talking about that. The particular room I can't get past is 1962, as I can't move after picking up the camera and move in front of each number to look out the window to see the shape I need.

I had the same issue in 1960 too but managed to figure out the numbers from the fixed camera angle anyway, with a bit of trial and error.

I should note I'm playing this on linux with proton, and have tried experimental, 9 and 8 but same bug on each. Otherwise the game runs perfect, great performance and no crashes. And no change using a controller (DS4) or keyboard either.

You're def supposed to be able to move around the room freely with the camera in the shape+window room. Looks like a bug.

[seabombs]

Originalmente postado por seabombs:

I have an odd bug, unless I am missing something...

In some of the numbered door puzzle rooms there is a camera you can pick up and move around with, but when I pick up the camera I can't move (I can turn left and right, but can't move forward/backward). Otherwise in the game I can move around normally of course, it's just when holding the cameras.

I know some rooms have an intentionally fixed camera on a tripod, I'm not talking about that. The particular room I can't get past is 1962, as I can't move after picking up the camera and move in front of each number to look out the window to see the shape I need.

I had the same issue in 1960 too but managed to figure out the numbers from the fixed camera angle anyway, with a bit of trial and error.

I should note I'm playing this on linux with proton, and have tried experimental, 9 and 8 but same bug on each. Otherwise the game runs perfect, great performance and no crashes. And no change using a controller (DS4) or keyboard either.

I managed to get around this by enabling Steam Input. Steam showed me a warning that the game has built in DS4 support and I shouldn't need it, and now my DS4 doesn't work in game at all, but my keyboard DOES work and I can move around with the camera!

[M-J]

Feedback: I didn't realise until reading a steam review that you can see room names on the map page! Also, I'm not able to see the names of doors - I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a function.

Other than that I adore the game so far!

[lordfrikk]

Originalmente postado por Rando Man Machy Savage:

Posting this here in the hopes it actually gets seen and addressed, especially since Simogo's web page for this game says it was intended to be "playable by almost anyone".

The game has a lot of accessibility problems. They've meant I currently haven't been able to play past the intro puzzles, so this is just based on the first like five or ten minutes.

• The wavy/blurry text is nauseating and difficult to read. (The moving environment textures are also unpleasant, but unless reading them is required that's slightly less of a problem.)
  
• Other text (including on the status screen, and judging from screenshots some "dialogue"?) is low contrast, sometimes extremely low, and is very difficult to read, sometimes unreadable.
  
• The transitions when switching between screens are unpleasant, especially the ones in the status menu, as are the effects on the computer monitor. The latter also affects the readability of text.
  
• Failing a puzzle plays a sound effect, but there doesn't seem to be a corresponding visual effect or caption for the sound.
  
• It's not clear what's interactive and what isn't, which is a particular problem when the player needs to not be near/facing something interactive just to open the menu, or when there isn't a universal or clear way to leave screens like close-ups of puzzle inputs.
  
• The "one button" control scheme requires more dexterity, not less (on top of being much more confusing, which is also an accessibility issue). For example, instead of simply using a second input (e.g. the B button) to back out of a screen, it's necessary to navigate to whatever element is "exit" for a given screen and then press a button. Simply pressing a different button (or using a different input of any kind mapped to that different button) has been changed to precisely using the directional input (plus sometimes figuring out how to even leave a given screen), which just isn't more accessible for most people. The input scheme has clearly been inconvenient and confusing even for people who don't have disabilities that might affect this.
  
• The fact that the selection on menus wraps around instead of stopping at the top and bottom (where the back/exit button tends to be) makes the above problem much worse. Not wrapping around would at least only require holding a directional input for long enough instead of requiring precisely selecting an option, as it currently does.
  
• Adding to the problems with the control scheme, it isn't always clear how to exit a screen, for example puzzle input close-ups, which adds more barriers, including more unnecessary inputs.
  
• On top of that, sometimes there's no exit/back element to select and that's because the B button actually is the back button now! (Because at that point every button is the back button. But there seems to be indication when this is and isn't the case.)

If the control scheme were deliberately chosen to disorient and confuse and actively be a barrier, that would be one thing. But it's described as making it more accessible, despite seeming to do the opposite for most people, and requiring less dexterity, despite it now requiring precise use of directional input for even extremely basic functions.

All the unnecessary moving or flickering text and screen effects, with no options to reduce or remove them, the super low contrast text, etc. makes it seem like the game was designed without even looking at basic accessibility guidelines, which I would have expected to be part of making a game designed to be "playable by almost anyone"...

Agreed. I have a hard time with the controls and have to fight them constantly even after 15 hours of playtime.

[lathee]

Originalmente postado por Rando Man Machy Savage:

Posting this here in the hopes it actually gets seen and addressed, especially since Simogo's web page for this game says it was intended to be "playable by almost anyone".

The game has a lot of accessibility problems. They've meant I currently haven't been able to play past the intro puzzles, so this is just based on the first like five or ten minutes.

• The wavy/blurry text is nauseating and difficult to read. (The moving environment textures are also unpleasant, but unless reading them is required that's slightly less of a problem.)
  
• Other text (including on the status screen, and judging from screenshots some "dialogue"?) is low contrast, sometimes extremely low, and is very difficult to read, sometimes unreadable.
  
• The transitions when switching between screens are unpleasant, especially the ones in the status menu, as are the effects on the computer monitor. The latter also affects the readability of text.
  
• Failing a puzzle plays a sound effect, but there doesn't seem to be a corresponding visual effect or caption for the sound.
  
• It's not clear what's interactive and what isn't, which is a particular problem when the player needs to not be near/facing something interactive just to open the menu, or when there isn't a universal or clear way to leave screens like close-ups of puzzle inputs.
  
• The "one button" control scheme requires more dexterity, not less (on top of being much more confusing, which is also an accessibility issue). For example, instead of simply using a second input (e.g. the B button) to back out of a screen, it's necessary to navigate to whatever element is "exit" for a given screen and then press a button. Simply pressing a different button (or using a different input of any kind mapped to that different button) has been changed to precisely using the directional input (plus sometimes figuring out how to even leave a given screen), which just isn't more accessible for most people. The input scheme has clearly been inconvenient and confusing even for people who don't have disabilities that might affect this.
  
• The fact that the selection on menus wraps around instead of stopping at the top and bottom (where the back/exit button tends to be) makes the above problem much worse. Not wrapping around would at least only require holding a directional input for long enough instead of requiring precisely selecting an option, as it currently does.
  
• Adding to the problems with the control scheme, it isn't always clear how to exit a screen, for example puzzle input close-ups, which adds more barriers, including more unnecessary inputs.
  
• On top of that, sometimes there's no exit/back element to select and that's because the B button actually is the back button now! (Because at that point every button is the back button. But there seems to be indication when this is and isn't the case.)

If the control scheme were deliberately chosen to disorient and confuse and actively be a barrier, that would be one thing. But it's described as making it more accessible, despite seeming to do the opposite for most people, and requiring less dexterity, despite it now requiring precise use of directional input for even extremely basic functions.

All the unnecessary moving or flickering text and screen effects, with no options to reduce or remove them, the super low contrast text, etc. makes it seem like the game was designed without even looking at basic accessibility guidelines, which I would have expected to be part of making a game designed to be "playable by almost anyone"...

I'm seconding all of this. I'm past the refund point, and honestly I really don't want to refund it anyway, but I can't keep playing this unless it has a toggle between one hand or two hand controls at the minimum.
Being playable with one hand is neat, but it really doesn't help me anyway since I tab out and take screenshots, write notes in notepad and draw stuff in ms paint.
Dark mode would also be really helpful as my eyes are cloudy and light sensitive, makes it really hard to play bright/white games like this on a bad eye day.

[Mordain607]

I've already made a thread about this, but thought I may as well post it here as well: how do I get into the coffee-scented room? I'm guessing this is something somehow easy that I've missed since I can find no discussion about it. However, I've "beaten" the game and haven't got the motivation to go hunting for the coffee key or whatever lol.

I'll post my feedback here as well. Overall, I loved the game. The most general and largest bit of feedback would be to concur with a lot of people on the matter of disliking the "one button" control scheme. I can see why it could be nice for accessibility in some cases, but it just felt slightly irritating almost all the time to me. Maybe an optional "alternate" control scheme would be nice? Though I get that having lots of complex options is kind of annoying as well.

A more "micro" bit of feedback is a couple of puzzles I didn't like, they both come from the puzzle book:
"Find the hidden number" puzzle. Don't know what to say, this one's just annoying. There's no reason to think that the number has to be upright/unreflected so you end up just looking at loads of numbers everywhere, and the graphic is so complex that I was trying multiple absurd things to solve this. On some level it makes sense to enter the "most" legibile number but I don't think it makes that much sense and I just think the puzzle isn't that good lol.
"The four lines of numbers find the diamond/square and do maths" puzzle. This one I think is good in concept but IMO it should be made more clear in some way that we should be looking at the numbers as four different lines of four numbers and not a grid of 16 numbers. I never solved this one and to me this is the big reason why. Obviously my input makes the puzzle easier so I can understand why one might not want to do that

The other thing I ended up doing that perhaps isn't ideal is I spent a lot of time in the Red Gallery trying to DO something, instead of just taking the code elsewhere. I'm not sure what the solution is to this or even if it's a widespread issue. Might just be me.

[CreeperJoe]

Is there any possibility of adding an alternate control scheme, at least as an option from the options menu? I think I speak for all of us when I say the one-button version gets cumbersome.

Ideal control scheme would be, one button interacts, one button opens up the introspection menu, one button backs out of the menu or puzzles, and one button opens up the map of whatever location you're in. Four buttons total.

[gnolam]

If you pet Rudi at an inopportune moment, you can get stuck.
When the animation finished, I had been moved to inside one of the topiary hedges in the courtyard and couldn't get out again. I hoped I could pet my way out again, but no luck. He didn't get close enough to interact with, or the wall that blocked me also blocked the interaction.
So I had to quit and restart the game. Luckily I had just saved so I didn't lose that much progress.

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/l6efO1P.png

[ebryetas]

Im 80% in and need a little help,
if anyone wants to give me VAGUE hints for the piano, the mannequins, or what to do with the cemetery graves Id be thankful!

Ive also got three numbered rooms/boxes/memories left too (cant reach the key sin the maze, am somewhere missing pertinent info for the last keys) but I think those are unrelated to the first 3 puzzles I mentioned. I'm also missing the right eye and a rose to give to the magician