I like the vibe! I see, I spotted a fellow Remedy-head 😎 The Eyes are well animated, and the little graphical flourish that appears when they communicate is great. It’s nicely unnerving in a non-grating way! The music adds to it, although a few more music tracks would have been nice. The game introduces new mechanics gently to you. Great onboarding! I played until squeeze, where there was just too much going on to fit in my head without it feeling like homework. Maybe a hint system would have been nice?

I also spot a little bit of ludo-narrative dissonance in the question of who exactly we, the player, are. The UI points towards us being some kind of controlling entity, maybe similar to The Eyes. I say this because the “Simon Says” screen is directly controlled by us. Well, assuming that “Simon Says” refers to the commands themselves and not the “max 8 commands” and such restriction. This implies we are the metaphorical “Simon” controlling The Dude that needs to reach the goal. This is further reinforced by there being a ludic disconnect between our commands and what The Dude does, as we cannot control his movement directly while in motion, but only indirectly, strategically.

On the other hand, The Eyes seem to imply that we are in fact The Dude. They say things like how we are there to entertain them while directly watching The Dude. In fact, their tone of voice fits a scenario where they have captured us for their own reasons, which visually fits The Dude’s situation. In this case, who is the metaphorical Simon?

Maybe we are supposed to be an incorporeal entity that is being held captive by The Eyes and The Dude is just a figurine that we ultimately move on a board, and the reason The Eyes look intensely at them is because they yearn for entertainment? Similar to when we look at a stage magician, we don’t look at their faces, but at what their hands are doing and at what gadgets they are handling? This argument is supported by the fact that The Dude does not have any animations, as you would expect from a figurine. Or The Eyes are breaking the fourth wall and addressing us, the human, directly?

Maybe this is all supposed to be ambiguous, but for me personally it feels like something that is not entirely cleanly communicated.

Over all, I enjoyed my experience with the game. I usually don’t like puzzle games much, but I played this one before going to bed and then decided I needed to play some more right when I got up :D

i love these kinds of puzzle games! and its incredibly well made <3

Amazing submission, there is so much about this that I like.

The graphics are inspired, the audio feels so clean and the game is quite fun. (You knew your audience would be programmers so mechanics like this are a shoe-in)

Well done

Incredible ! Very clean and well designed. Did not finish it, but loved doing the parcimony challenges

I enjoyed the different challenges that force you to approach each level differently on a second replay!

I liked the level design, each level taught something specific! And the Control homage was fun ▽. A lot of nice polish.

very clean UI and fun game.