Oh wow, thanks for the feedback and for coming back to finish it! I found the first episode a while back, and it was one factor leading me to change Puzzle 11's title to match its category name.
You made good points about certain parts being unfair, but I'm hesitant to reverse IS/NOT/DEW on puzzle #0, or to add more hints to early puzzles like #3. However, I might be able to address most of your concerns just by adding a bigger hint for the bottom text! My current plan is to explicitly label them as "Hints" or "Initial Hints" in puzzle 0, or perhaps add a line of text to puzzle 0 like "Additional hints are at the bottom of each page". (Or perhaps an even more explicit tutorial on puzzle 0?)
I prefer this over hinting about the right-hand side for a few reasons:
- I've seen several players figure out Puzzle 2 without knowing which words were backward, just by using the hints at the bottom. [edit: Ah, I see you still got stuck on 2 after learning the hints.]
- I think it's actually great when the right-hand side is the last discovery. Some players, like the streamer Dwarfwoot, had a great time on puzzle 12 because they didn't realize the leftovers would be backwards until they started filling in the blanks.
- As you said, teaching about the hints on the bottom is super important. They help with puzzles 1 and 3, and make the word list order feel less arbitrary. Some players actually solved the whole book without using the hints, and then were confused and disappointed that they weren't a secret extra message to solve at the end.
What do you think? Would an "Initial Hints" label in puzzle 0 have been an adequate clue for you?
