Ooh, I've made a game like this before!
Hearing it from the description, I thought it was going to be a lot like mine, but Im glad that you took it in another unique direction. Being able to switch between multiple loops is very interesting, and can lead to a lot of combinations of actions happening to solve some likely insane puzzles.
Although, I think with that, the mental tax put on the player to remember all of these things, on top of the key presses needed to make it happen is very high. I think a bit of a rework to the UI of the game could help this out. Im not entirely sure what it would all be, but here are some quick notes / ideas:
- Having recording be more obvious, I would sometimes not realize I was recording, or think that I was then realize I wasn't when trying to play it back.
- Switching between 1 2 and 3, I would have 3 entirely different icons for each one. Then show if one has already been recorded, or is currently playing aswell.
The level design on the first few levels is actually really good, I think they taught the mechanics well, but I got stuck on the two boxes level, and everything after that looked very difficult. I think a slower curve could help get the player going. I took a look at the last level, and while I am new to the game, it just looked like a lot going on, and even beginning to discern it would be hard. Possibly breaking it out into sections could help, where the puzzle is the same, but its easier to digest in pieces, like Portal's chambers.
I will say, that having the door move to the right on one of the first puzzles is a very clever solution to not letter the player accidentally kill themselves. Its such a simple way to avoid it, but I don't think I would've thought of it, and having the player "lose" that early on in the game can be pretty harsh for retention.
I think that the player jump is a bit floaty, but I can see the value in it not being specifically a platformer game, and you'd want to give the player more control of where they are going to land. But maybe fix up some of the values a bit.
Overall great game, I love that the cranes pick the options buttons in the menus :)
Nice work!