Feedback / my walkthrough

[Eglaios]

[FULL GAME SPOILERS AHEAD]

I had a bit of a rough time on puzzles ; here's how it went for me :
Skip to the end for overall review

• First start, I see the phone has no battery, find the key and go to work.
  In the train, I discover timeshift and figure it'll be useful (because the train seems empty)
  I notice the first floor clock, go to floor 60 and find out that I'm missing D2 and D3.
  By clicking on everything, I get in the boss room and "respawn", understanding I'm in a time loop.
  
  
• Noticing the note about D2 on floor 60, I realize I have to rush to the shredder before the report's destruction.
  I find out about the website. I remember the strikethrough "782" on the D2 note, which leads to D2 online version. I notice inputing 781 or 783 lead to the matching report, with the later saying I must access it from server room.
  
  
• I then remember the phone was discharged. I use the chair for timeshift (I wish I would spin like in Yume Nikki lol) and read the message.
  I clearly understand the "meet at first floor at 11:53", but "elevator" took me some more time.
  I meet the "other" in the elevator, and only then, find out about glitches.
  I "read" the first floor glitch and understand I must be in the train at said time.
  I don't understand the "3" at first glance, but I then remember about the 4 labelled seats.
  
  
• I get the train event and this cursed password.
  At first glance, I recognize this is hexadecimal (0 - f), a common notation for encoding.
  I remember what items are left : Percolator, clock and computer, which won't help, so I search on google whatever hexa -> alphabet.
  What I didn't realize was that D1 and D2 had glitches as well. I never knew because I only found out about that by the time I already read both, so never went back to them.
  Worst is, I remember seeing the glitch "somewhere else", but never remembered.
  On top of that, I was playing at .3 brightness since then, so I "should have" found other glitches.
  
  
• I give up and watch the walkthrough.
  I watch the rest of it since while I gave up doing everything by myself, why not just see what's left.
  
  
• Assuming I found D1 and D2 glitches, I would've made it to the server room and known the "abcdefgh" order.
  
  
• The "work = life" would've been hard. Walkthrough didn't show it, but I knew the floor 1 clock did serve of a clue for this (goes 1 to 9, then starts alphabetical over 10).
  Assuming this was the end, I would've known the clock had to work that way for something, but I could've struggled a bit since there was already another word decoder.

Overall, the whole game was quite playable and clearable, and apart from that issue when I was "done" with D1 and D2 before finding about glitches, I definitely feel the cleverness from whoever made it.


I say this as I know making puzzles isn't as easy as it seems.
So many ones have awkward and/or missable elements. This game did a flawless job to prevent any misunderstanding.
Usable items are not only flashy, but the whole rooms are colored in tones that make these even more noticeable. Without vision issues, I can't imagine someone missing a single relevant object.
As I said, I even remembered previously noticing the glitches on D1 and D2 when I found their purpose afterwards.

Another trap of making puzzle games is to introduce new principles at the middle/end, which can result into "Wait I never had to do this until now, how could I tell?".
TEST TEST TEST clearly warns the player that every (most) item has a purpose, and that codes always have their meaning within the game's content or basic logic.


To top it off, it's a great reminder that, while the industry uses huge content and lifetime as commercial arguments, a pixelated game that takes place in 7 rooms and lasts about 1 hour can as well provide a complete and enjoyable experience, even released in 2024.




For all of the above, TEST TEST TEST absolutely gets my pass.
I'm checking new steam freebies and demos dailies, and no doubt this game is among the few that really grabbed me, even despite getting unlucky by doing D2 event first.

And if you read all that then, oh well, get yourself a cookie.