Thanks! You're right about level 1, the only way to win is Ransack, which by my math happens about 30% of the time. A player of average luck should need to do it about 3 times; if you got unlucky, very sorry!
Fun concept that really tested my vocabulary - definitely stands out among the rest of the games in this jam. Not all parts of speech seem to be tagged correctly though; for instance I got "counterrevolutionist", which wasn't considered an adjective.
I see how the concept could be expanded on, but there isn't much here at the moment. One small note - it might be worth including a Controls section in your itch.io description. I found the mailbox but didn't realise left click interacts with it
Thanks for playing! To address one of your concerns; the deck doesn't really have a size - it's just an infinite source of scrolls.
I'll investigate the bug you found - I've been in that situation before though and that hasn't happened to me, so there may be an additional condition where that occurs.
Cool animations, but the puzzles weren't that hard. All you had to do was expose every point on the loop at one point or another to fill in the whole loop.
Really cool idea. I don't think I've seen a game that explored the concept of time travel as fully as this game. I wish it were longer and really really hope you consider expanding on this with a post-jam version since you have the fundamental mechanics in place.
Creative concept, but a little difficult to learn. The tutorial especially feels a bit crowded with text. I enjoyed it though; surprisingly well made for a first game jam submission!
Brilliant game! Of all the takes on the phrase "In the Loop", this one is by far my favourite. I won pretty quickly though, and I do wish it was a bit longer.
Oops, you're right. I remembered needing to find 07-ED as the entry point to Act 2, and for some reason I forgot you could just... remember the files you've typed.
I still think it's good to force people to fill in a bit more of Act 1 before letting them access the Act that gives you the tools to solve the mystery, but even with that in mind, I can't really find a good reason to defend hiding the "list 2" command.
100% with you on the act command. I never used it; the agent's names for them are fine.
The act system is how the game prevents you from progressing too far with the incorrect assumption that rot13(gurer vf bayl bar svyr cre gvzr-pbqr). [EDIT: it only slows you down, my bad!] If you make that assumption and don't read 06-ST closely, you'll never find the file that tells you about the act command.
The real problem, in my opinion, is that the agent implies that 07-ED contains nothing of value; that comment should encourage the player to look at it.
Also, I could not disagree more with your final paragraph. The two most rewarding files (you know the ones) can only be solved after figuring out the mystery. The agent's final note may not be much of explanation about the curse, but surely the fact that rot13(gur ntrag vf gur svany crefba va gur punva) counts as a resolution to the story.
The key word is "clap", which evokes the idea of a short, loud burst of sound. Rolling thunder is quieter but longer - it takes time for a sound to be "rolling".
P.S I didn't know this before writing this, but there are actually defined lengths and pitches to classify different types of thunder, which is neat! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder#Types
You can't use 00-audio-recovery as a hint to find 01-ST-12, because that file is found inside 01-ST-12.
Personally, I think the numbering system being the way it is was a good call. On a meta level, if the numbers were random then the player would at one point have to be directly told a number for Rupert, which would have been extremely conspicuous since he's a non-speaking character. It's also logical in the story that the agent numbers things in a consistent order (at least, before he realised the K thing) rather than assigning them randomly. And as other comments say, if the number system stays, K has to stay, unless you're willing to number her 1.5.
I kind of agree on the thunderclap - to me, rolling thunder isn't quite the same as a thunderclap. Personally, I would've liked a bit more of a hint to Wintercote specifically, e.g if Victoria had said "We'll drive to Wintercote, it's only 10km away" and then scene 25 said "thunder can be heard about 10km away". Distant could mean absolutely anywhere, and the only real clue to Katherine is the phone call.
