Very well made demo, but ....

[Edwin]

I played through both sets of puzzles and decided it could be helpful to leave my two cents.

First of all I was impressed by how well made everything is. Nicely presented, functional and I had no issues playing through it. Even my old fashioned CTRL+INS / SHIFT-INS copy paste keys worked, which is not actually that common.

But of course, as the title gave away, there is a "but". As I'm not new to programming (never LUA), that part was easy for me. However, that also meant that the puzzles were never actually puzzles and more like tasks. You look at what you need to do and do it. No challenge at all. Hell, if I wanted to, I could put a line in for every voxel and done.

Looking more for a "game" with a "challenge", I decided to try and optimise some of the puzzles. While having some success, I quickly noticed that I was flying blind. Having no prior Lua experience, I did check the docs for some extra info. But eventually it was not enough. Certain changes I was certain would help didn't. Others I thought wouldn't actually made things better and other things made a difference where I didn't see a reason for it. At that point, it ceased to feel like a game. There's too much specific knowledge needed to things right.

At the end of the day I think the problem with this game is that it uses Lua. It provides no restrictions and changes the puzzles into tasks. Additionally, it makes the source of the code size and cycles numbers hard to figure out. I think the game would have greatly benefited from something more restrictive where the metrics can be made clear in-game. Just take TIS-100 for instance. Probably one of the greatest programming games in existence and it's defined by the restrictions.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Good luck with game!

[walaber]

Thanks for your feedback, it makes sense and I can definitely see your point of view.

My hope is that the inclusion of the in-game forums will mean players can enjoy a more social experience where they can discuss strategies and also share their own interesting puzzles with each other.

In addition, one element I think I will add to the game is "challenges". These would be interesting restrictions designed on a per-puzzle basis that can make the player think differently and have a more prescribed and specific "puzzle" to solve beyond recreating the objects and caring about code size or cycle efficiency. For example, a certain puzzle might have an additional (optional) challenge "complete this puzzle without a single "if" statement" or things like that.

[JOHNNY GUEGGU]

OP spotted my secret strategy for when the game comes out: Make a 3D-array, fill it with color numbers & win.

If all else fails, I can resort to that. It surely will secure me a place in the leaderboards for the clunkiest solution. 🤣