[StackBPoppin]

A reality-bending anomaly game where you are the anomaly: as you interact with items in your environment, you may notice some anomalies. Moving a cookie jar opens the fridge door. Closing the fridge door makes a painting on the wall shrink, and rotating that painting switches the lights on.

The idea is for the game to make logical sense, but make the player sound completely unhinged from reality "I need to put the toaster on top of the oven to make the lamp spin around, that way I can move the lamp across the room near the couch to unlock the next level"

[ab071c41]

This sounds interesting; how are you guiding the player from one object to the next? E.g. if I'm looking at the fridge, I have to observe the painting shrink or that it's a lot smaller the next time I see it. And if there are a lot of objects in the room, how do I know what's relevant? I'm curious!

[StackBPoppin]

I haven't completely decided yet, but I'm thinking of having the next object emit a "scraping" sound as it moves/scales, that way the sound gives you a general idea of the vicinity of where you should be looking. It will take some experimentation to get the balance correct: too easy and the game isn't fun, too difficult and it's just frustrating and tedious.

Here is a tiny preview of the basic mechanics: https://youtu.be/cUU1HnT95RE

[ab071c41]

This is definitely an interesting UX puzzle to solve from a game design perspective. I get what you're saying on finding the right balance.

Beyond sound alerts, some glow effect around an object might help? A tutorial at the start almost seems necessary so people get the mechanics, if you don't have that already. Just my $.02!

[StackBPoppin]

I've made a more in depth video showing this mechanic with sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUCB189Om9s

I think sound gives just the right amount of help to get you in the general vicinity of the next clue, without completely giving it away. Of course there could be lower difficulty levels with visual indicators as well.

I will definitely be adding a tutorial since the mechanics are so bizarre. I was also going to add an additional mechanic: it's not just about moving a specific object, but also placing an object within the vicinity of another unknown object.

[ab071c41]

I just had a chance to watch the video and think it’s coming together pretty nicely! I wonder if more different sound effects would help. I like the size of the level - I don’t think something like this could work as well in a giant room.

For an intro/tutorial, I think the first 1-2 minutes of the video would provide a pretty good outline for the player, especially if it’s text on the screen. Have them move a couple of things in sequence and then they know the gameplay.