I like this as a proof of concept, but there's a lot of bugginess, In the second room alone, putting the figurine in the trough and having to deal with pressing one of two identical (to the game) iron buttons is frustrating. The puzzles themselves are easy, which is fine for a beginner-rated competition where the goal is for the player to be acclimated to the format, but I don't think that the confusing language and lack of synonyms is conducive to a clean first-time experience. For instance, you can't "turn dial s" or "depress jaguar", you have to "turn dial south" or "depress relief". I think that after getting some more playtesting and ironing out those details, it could make for a much cleaner experience. Overall, I liked the writing and Ramen as a character, although he seemed more than knowledgeable enough to do the rooms by himself! Also, I liked the desert maze and the hints towards an oasis.
Viewing post in Adventure in the Crypt (TALP 2026) jam comments
Another person seemed to be flummoxed by the reliefs. Just an FYI, you can use "press the jaguar relief". When you use "relief" it must ask you to disambiguate because their are four nearly identically named objects in that location. That is just a facet of the engine. Ramen really was meant to be helpful as this was designed for an absolute beginner. I wanted to guide the player through all the puzzles without much frustration.