A great game! Not much to say that hasn't already been said. I enjoyed the .- level the most, like many others did.
One thing I got stuck on for a long time, though, was the secret ending. I was sure it was "Lethal Typewritings", but apparently I was nowhere close. Oh well!
No idea what the last badge is, though.
I'm glad you said something anyway ^ ^
It's also great that so many people seemed to like that level in particular :D
Oh wow! That's pretty awesome!!! Almost good enough that I should use it somehow in the future :O
The last badge is the normal ending. You can figure out his last name, if you replay the game, take specific notes, think about the theme of the game, and think about what the final title means :)
Good luck ;)
//i have jUsT FInisheD PlAYing Both GaMEs AnD I musT SaY ONe tHInG beFore I begin my reVIew,
i Do NOt LIKe bACOn iAnD it Is why I Am Not Using ContRaCtIONs. SorrY, I nEEded to sAy it.
AnotHER thINg, THOuGh yOU maY FInd It irONiB thAt i Am POINtiNG iT OUt, bUT tHerE is// a typo
in "Long Time No See, Detective"; Apparently Noel can write twice the same word in a same text
and he may very well use two different spellings. I'm persuaded that you'll figure it out if you read it again; if you can imagine a detective, you can become one.
In my opinion the story is perfect and the personality of both characters are very well worked.
Everything so far makes little sense and in that way, it makes sense, as it should be. What motivates someone as crazy as NS is beyond comprehension. My guess is that even killers, apparently more so than anyone, need to kill time eh?
The music in both games are perfect and gives a dark atmosphere to the games. But I admit the reversed one in "reverse" (previous game) was irritating, but that's probably just me. I'm sensitive to those things. also, as with any music, on the long run, it may become annoying, I often had to mute my pc to concentrate on the puzzles; it wouldn't have been a bad idea to add a mute button.
I'm a very literal person, taking things by the letter, so I admit this one was much easier than the previous one. It had more to do with actual ciphers and less with obscure, hidden meanings. the horrors of the likes of the "what will never change", argh, the struggle. I'm glad you didn't include any things like that in this one.
There are only two puzzles, if we exclude the secret endings, which I didn't solve myself. I don't mean to say that they are easy, but that they aren't unreasonably hard. but the secret endings both felt pulled out of your ass. sorry for the vulgarity. but that sentence, you could have translated it in thai, turkish, french, spanish or japanese and the context which goes with it could've been similar, it would make as much sense to me, I still don't understand that it can be a correct answer, but then again I don't know what I would've done in your shoes.
It's the same for this one, which forces Noel to actually indirectly break the fourth wall to express his surprise (unless if I missed something). Sincerely, it disappointed me much more than the previous ending. Breaking the fourth wall is an absolute sin in my book, especially when it comes to this kind of story telling.
One last thing, the fonts you chose are hard to read. I know it gives a unique feel to your game, but please, this is going overboard. You should never sacrifice readability, especially in a text game. I admit the first game surprised me when it told me to press "2" to continue only to realize that it's
just a terribly drawn "Z" or how certainly letters looked like white spots rather than letters, especially the letter "B".
The second game used a different font which in my opinion was even worst because the letters were so bolded and "squeezed" together than I had to slow down my read, I especially had problems with the later E. Though it wouldn't have been that bad if your game made a distinction between capital and small letters.
Please note here that I'm being picky because there is really nothing much to criticize about, overall, your game was very good. For successfully keeping me entertained, I've left for you a little puzzle. It's much harder than yours because I don't really care about typos and the answer isn't on google if you happen to be stuck. So if you feel like not doing it or giving up halfway, it's all good,
no need to waste more than 30 minutes on this. Good luck.
Oh wow :O Thank you for the long review!
I spent some 5 minutes thinking about the puzzle you left me with, and didn't solve it. I think I'm going to leave it at that, since I have a lot of things to work on today. I figured that it's connected to the capital letters // between these //, but if they're an anagram (which I doubt) I could never solve it, and they don't spell out anything that makes sense to me, in reverse or otherwise. Ofc, as you said there may be typos too. Thank you, btw, for correcting me on the one that was in the game, even though you said you don't really care about typos :'D (an alarming amount of I's are capitalized, and I'm not sure if some of those are by mistake).
Interesting that no one that noticed it before told me about it :)
I'm sure your puzzle is fairly simple once one figures out the key/trick, but there are a lot of things it could be based on (examplewise, I don't know if bacon was something you just forced in there in order to make the puzzle work).
However, maybe someone else with more energy will come along and try to solve it. Here are the letters I gathered, if you want some place to read them all at once (though I did it quickly, so I may have missed some):
'UTDPYBGMEDITSYONHIGFIVIDNOLIKACOADIIANUCRCIONYEEAHERINTHOGOUYFIONIBAPOINNGTOUBUHE'
Back to the review though.
Thanks for complimenting the story and the characters! As a side not, could you try revealing less spoilers the next time :)? Most of them are fairly vague, but they still give out what I think is an unnecessary amount of information.
I made the atmosphere one of the biggest focuses of the game. For that, I had to sacrifice a few other things. There are a few reasons as to why there isn't a mute button. One being that you might actually miss something important because of it, one is because I think this game isn't really whole without it, and finally because it's always a bit of a hazzle to 'code' one into a game like this, for a few additional reasons. So those factors combined, I decided not to use one.
As for the font, I know it's far from perfect. White text on a black screen can be a bit jarring even if it would be; the reason I use a font like this is partly beacuse I wanted to use a self made font. I got used to reading this text really quickly though, so I figured most others would do the same. A secret benefit of having a text that takes longer to read, is that people subconsciously pay more attention to every small part. That's not a reason I've made any choice like this though, it just happens to be a silver lining.
As for the first and second instalment using very different puzzles for the most part, is because they're themes are different. The first one was probably more difficult/annoying for you, as it's mostly based around wordgames, which can indeed be vague at points. This one though, isn't based around those much at all, but more around codes and similar stuff.
As for the secret endings, they are supposed to be secret, and very difficult. I didn't really want as many people to get them as they have done now. The reason people are solving it, is beacuse a walkthrough which gives it away. Ofc, they were within their rights to do so, but I'm sure it resulted in a lot of people spending less time on each puzzle, and not even really thinking about the secret one. That said, for both games, there were several people figuring out the secret endings on their own (meaning they're not impossible), and that's the way I imagined it. Though of course, I was aware that they would probably be leaked eventually :)
Also, I don't see how you mean there is a breaking of the fourth wall. It's all canon. In fact, I avoided giving more hints, or making a bigger thing out of it, precisely because in that case, it would break the fourth wall. That said, I personally don't see much of a problem breaking the fourth wall, unless it exceptionally ruins the feel of something, for whatever reason.
It's fine that you're picky! You're right in most of your criticism, even though there are reasons for most of the things too. It's impossible to make a game that's perfect in every aspect, as some things cancel each other out. Also, I am far from the most accomplished game designer, so any tips are good ones, more ore less :p
It's cool that you enjoyed te game, and even cooler that you left such a long review!
Thank you for that ^ ^
I'll be straight forward, I honestly enjoyed this game, from the music to the gameplay itself. Trust me when I say I had a few tabs open to help me with some puzzles, as well as many notes on my desk, noting every little nudge I thought it'd be useful. As something that was written on the last game, the difficulty depends on each person, and on that you were accurate.
I also must admit, after reading the comments here for a bit, I was also given a clue to the whereabouts of the secret ending, very clever indeed.
But alas, I'll stop rambling. This is an amazing brain teaser, that'll really make you make good use of that noggin of yours, and I cannot wait for the sequel, whenever it happens. Until then, have a good one.
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed my game :D
Oh yeah, I think that a few tabs with different services are a great help when playing this game. Since aspects of the game require either previous knowledge, good research skills, or simply the right kind of thinking, the difficulty will definitely vary a ton.
Good job if you managed to figure out the secret ending based on the clues you found!
Unfortunately, I think it'll be a while until I create the third and final game. However, I aim to make it a good one whenever I get to it :)
Thank you for reviewing, and for playing the game ^ ^
this is not my type of game. i don't that the time to be reading this shit. i need something more interesting. i'm not talking about picture but... idk this is lame. i looked at the more interesting comments and saw that the people who did take the time to play this really liked it so it must be good. i though, am still unsatisfied.
I get that it's not everyone's type of game. But if you know that, why would you play it? :p
And even review it without knowing much about it :)
But, thank you for leaving your thoughts anyway, and thanks for the high score!
Omg, my head hurts now. Had to open a couple of windows to let the smoke out. This was a well thought out concoction of testing peoples knowledge and/or resourcefulness. If you don't have working knowledge of the puzzles' mechanics, then you better make Google your best friend. I had never heard of the "Rotate" thing before. Good to know for any future games. I am impressed with the variety that you have here. No 1 puzzle is truly alike.
Great job on the music, too. Music may be your passion, but you have a knack for this as well. I applaud you, and everybody that aided you on this endeavor, for a job well done.
I can't seem to get the secret ending. Maybe, I'm burnt out a lil bit, and need to recharge my batteries. Lol
I look forward to the next one.
Thank you for playing the second game as well!
Yeah, I know it can be a bit of a tough nut to crack. But I suppose that's the point of the entire game, hehhe :p
Google is definitely recommended for beating the game, since the game increases in difficulty to an unnecessary degree without it. A fairly impossible one, even, if one doesn't happen to have the knowledge required from the get go.
While I kind of repeated 1 thing from the previous game, that repetition had its purpose too. Other than that, I did my best to give you new and interesting challenges to face ^ ^
I like creating things in general, whether it be music, games, art or writing (along with other things). It's pleasing to hear that you think I have a knack for game design as well! I'm a better designer than a creator, I think, as I can only make fairly simple games on my own at this point, but that's enough to satisfy me :p
The secret ending is a bit of a difficult one. The only hint you need is really the title, hehe :D
But if you're desperate for more, I suppose you could shoot me a PM if you find yourself stuck :3