Thank you for the feedback and patience, you’re helping me a lot!
What i think you missed
This game is physics based, so you can grab the cyan key, it is moving with the bookshelf (big box) because of physics and not because of a bug! It’s like if you place food on a plate and move the plate, the food moves with it! (it is possible for the key to slide which is normal physics, or to phase through the bookshelf if you yank it too hard, which is not normal) Note that you may actually grab onto the bookshelf by accident instead. (more technically, the shapecast used to detect dragging has a bit of a radius to it, making it inaccurate, i’ll fix that)
The other colored boxes with the doors are drawers. (i’ll give them handles like real drawers)
You probably noticed (if you play with sound) that every key use plays an “unlock” sound. Every key has only one place where it’s useful, so after you’re done with a key, it’s useless now. (i’ll discolor each key after it’s used to better show that it has been used)
Also there’s a subtle hint with the colors. Every key is a rainbow color and the order in which the keys are useful is the rainbow order.
You’re not supposed to phase objects through walls which is why i have the restart button. An object that was necessary to progress was falling through the floor and it made the game unable to progress.
I won’t spoil much else for now, i think this isn’t too much as the keys aren’t really the main appeal of the game, but you’ll have to progress to see what is! Remember that this game uses physics and what works physically also works here even if it’s sometimes difficult or inconvenient. (in fact for me, that aspect of it not being trivially easy makes it feel like a small, earned victory when you solve it)
Updates
I’ll make some updates, but since games are locked during jam voting periods, that’ll have to be uploaded later.
The updates are related to communication, but not limited to. The static orange box you see first is like a counter or a table or something that blocks your path. The next room’s floating orange box is a drawer, the big sliding one is a bookshelf and it should be made of wood-like material.
It would also be useful to optimize the game since i’m sure one doesn’t need all these physics objects being simulated and rendered all the time.
Questions
Since i want to make the game better, i want to ask several questions:
- Do you usually play/enjoy/make games where the interactions involve having to physically move objects, or the interactions are not that physical at all (like E to open door)? Which do you prefer? (i looked at your jam entry which didn’t really answer this question, so i wish to know! also i’ll give feedback on your game soon)
- What did your instinct first tell you when you saw the yellow key on the floor? What did you do with it?
- Did you have struggles opening the first glass door (if yes, what was it like) or did you immediately find the way to open it?
Last note
This really became a massive reply, sorry! At least it shows that i love writing about this!