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(2 edits) (+1)

Really badass puzzle game, a perfect balance of the theme for this jam! I only had a few gripes, but they were worth working through.

My first issue was the reference board. I didn't know the reference board behind the desk existed at the beginning of the game, so instead of referring to the first note I received, I had to alt tab out of the game to access the reference I needed in one of the game's screenshots. I was getting mad because I thought the references I was grabbing were disappearing to nowhere! Then, the character references the board with information on it for a different puzzle. Perhaps he should have said "Ahh, a note, I'm putting this on my reference board just above the desk" the first time he got something. Or, the game could have started with the camera entering the room with a full view of the room before sitting at the desk, and with a different note than the rest (probably a briefing) on the board so you're forced to interact with it before doing anything else.

Anyways, the other gripe I had was with the musical notation. I know how to read music, but it isn't so much use if I completely lack a clef to work with! Is it treble or bass clef? I was having a hard time matching the notes up with the ones on the paper, and I realized I was defaulting to treble because that was the one for the instrument I know, but it could easily be bass clef and I'm none the wiser. Also, some of the notes on that paper were very ambiguous, like I'd see two notes on the thing and they both look kinda like a G, but one note is higher or lower than the other but not all the way off the line so I wasn't sure. It was distracting me and making me a little upset... but nonetheless, I guestimated and still managed to win

Thank you so much for playing and leaving feedback! I really appreciate it.

First of all, I agree, I think mentioning the board earlier would have been a good idea. I assumed the player might find it when checking the drawers and stuff but yeah that's completely on me ;-; I'm sorry it was so frustrating! It's my first puzzle game and I definitely could have done more research on more satisfying puzzles rather than like analytical puzzles requiring translators. They were just the first things that came to mind. I like your idea though, forcing the player to look at it early!

I also completely understand your frustration with the note puzzle. It probably made it even worse that we didn't actually use the depicted notes, and went more for like a general "vibe" between different notes (Just whether it pitches up or down from the previous note) since we assumed most people don't know how to read sheet music (me included lol). The specific cipher we used was called the Motivik Music Cipher and we just copied what they had but in reality we probably should have made our own melodies because a LOT of them look very similar to one another.

Again, so sorry you had a frustrating time. Clearly I need to work on that because you're not the only person who got frustrated by this game! But I'm very happy you were able to power through it regardless! Thank you so much for leaving your thoughts!

(+1)

Thanks! It's still a great idea and I did have fun with it, it's just the little roughness around the edges and inconsistencies that drove me a little bit crazy