There are some really cool bits in here mixed with lots of frustrating bits.
The Good Stuff:
I love the idea of picking up friends and having the stylized cars join your train. Also love the music which fits really well into the vibe and theme of the game. The music and characters definitely add to the fun. The rest of the art (color palette, stylized filter) does this too, albeit to a lesser extent.
I also really like that each character has a unique mechanic that you have to figure out how to use to unlock new areas.
The Funky ;) Stuff
I almost wanted to quit because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do in the beginning. I played the Puzzle Quest first and kept seeing the Red "X" when trying to pass through the first gate. The gate had no indication of why it was blocked and what I needed to do.
I was also constantly fighting the camera. Since this is a game where you have to see what's ahead of you, camera control is very important, but I felt like the camera control was wrestled away from me and I had to keep dragging the screen to readjust. The frustration compounded because while the camera turned away, I would miss turns or clues in the distance so then I would have to do a loop multiple unintended times. Additionally, because the levers are controlled by dragging the mouse and the camera is controlled by dragging the mouse, I would often unintentionally do the opposite of what I wanted, again causing me to miss turns or clues and having to repeat tracks multiple unintended times. This is also why I missed the first friend at the train station (also because the friend is a 2D spite so he can't be seen at all angles).
I ended up quitting the browser, downloading the executable and playing the Jam Quest to see if things were clearer. That's when I saw that the gate required a friend to pass! Then I went back to Puzzle Quest and started looking more closely for the friend
Here's a few suggestions:
- You can use onscreen markers (like a floating arrow) to point down at the friends (or at least the very first friend
- Make the first gate sprite communicate that you need a friend to pass (the one in Jam Quest worked well enough)
- You could replace the follow camera with a camera that is always controlled by the mouse (like an FPS, with no dragging needed) and then make the levers controlled with keys like W/S for speed and A/D for track switching. The push/pull levers are cool, but only work well if your camera is very very good so it doesn't need manual adjustment.
Hope that helps!