I finally figured out what my problem was. The cyan (or is it green?) key that glitches its way out of its container sometime, I got confused because that happened to me early on, so I thought I had done something to trigger it appearing. So I kept trying to re-create the conditions that I thought caused it, when really I was supposed to get that key later.
I think I've basically completed it now though, as I've gotten to the part where you jump over the low orange cubes to get through a bunch of empty rooms, and in one spot I jumped over there was no room on the other side so I fell away from the world into blackness and assumed that was either the end or that the end was close.
As for my preferences, both are good. It depends on how you use them. You made some good use of physics interactions here, especially later on with the water pool and in the room after that with the sliding springy thing. When it comes to pressing a button to use something like clicking or pressing E, I think that works too but more for switchable interactions, like what you did for the light switches. In my game it's more of that type, where you just click on something to use it or pick-up/drop. Mine also had click on lights to turn them on/off and click on the TV to turn it on/off, and on the objects that create the sounds necessary to solve puzzles. A combination of the two might feel more complete and natural. Mine uses a little bit of physics, but not for solving the puzzles - in mine things like the ball rolling around don't actually help anything. I probably should have included a physics-based puzzle, but I ran out of time.
As for the yellow key, my instinct told me it was for the door. When that wasn't it, I thought maybe I need to save it for later. I didn't even think for a long time to use it on the thing it was meant for because I didn't realize they might be more than just furniture since I don't see any seams in the cubes, but that's probably just my lack of ideas. After I got that first container open the rest went mostly smoothly from there and took a few minutes of exploration and probing to figure out each room... except for the water room, that one took maybe 10 or 20 minutes but eventually got it.
As for the very first glass door, actually because it's so clear I didn't even realize it was a glass door the first few times I went through. I didn't notice it, and it just pushes open as you walk through, so I didn't even realize it was a glass door until after I had passed through it a couple times.
Good job. After I got over my confusion and stopped trying to lead myself to do things in the wrong order, then it was much more fun. I think that if you have enough creative puzzle ideas to make a very long string of puzzle rooms that you could make a nice long-form game of this.
I also did a 3D, first-person view, multiple small puzzle rooms to progress through type of game (though I only got 2 puzzle rooms done), so I feel like there's some overlap here. Mine was supposed to have a narrative of a guy that leaves his house but on this day his front door magically leads to a mystical series of escape rooms (I was going to have him chase after his cat that runs out into the escape room, but I wasn't going to try to add and animate a cat when I was already time-starved). I tried for a dark mysterious feel, but I feel like my lighting got more of a horror vibe than a dark fantasy mystery vibe, and I didn't get in all the fantasy props I wanted to help sell the setting. I also had intended for a clever use of the glass door mechanic where you can see through doors exiting the escape rooms and have to try to decide which door to continue through based on what you see, but again, time.
I'm on the fence about whether to continue working on mine, and the artist that made the few models I had doesn't want to continue working on it. If you can either do the graphics or find them online or get a 3D artist on board, and if you'd be interested in my setting and narrative I described, then if you're interested and have lots of puzzle ideas maybe we could combine our ideas. I had not thought to use physics puzzles in mine, and I think that would help round out the puzzle diversity, but I don't want to just steal the idea. Though I probably won't continue mine if I don't find a decent artist interested in the setting.
Viewing post in Bubble in the Void jam comments
Very interesting, thank you a lot for the additional feedback and answered questions, you’re being quite comprehensive and i like it!
There is indeed some overlap between our games, but i think that’s because of time constraints and the fact that we chose what the game engines do well. However, our ideas are vastly different. My reason for a space-themed main menu is because the game is set in space and you’re someone who is being tested on a remote spaceship. I didn’t get to the point of modelling the spaceship, hence the abrupt ending with the empty rooms that are just layout for more undone puzzle ideas. If you have a keen eye, the lights are slightly cold in color which indicates the cold idea of you being a test subject. Though that really doesn’t fit with the orange i put everywhere, does it!
I even planned HUD glasses to make the game more interesting. You would use them to see what everything is, there would be text and tooltips, and dragged objects would glow. However just like you, i also ran into time constraints. And i also planned gravity generators you can toggle like the lamps to better indicate you being on a spaceship with artificial gravity.
You’ve answered my questions quite comprehensively and i am very thankful for that! Will be looking deeper into the feedback as i work on this update. Adding some seams to the models will definitely make them more intuitive.
As for the invite, thanks, but i don’t think this is going to happen! My main skill is programming and i use Godot currently by writing GDScript. You used Unity and need artistic skills which i don’t yet have, at least i don’t think i’m good enough. And even if i was good enough at those, they’d still be support skills to programming, rather than main skills.