... Hello, and welcome to the final devlog before... the end...

The End

Over the course of its development, we've been developing the various systems that allows the game to function as a whole, and not much of making things readable, or understandable. As previously stated, our tests found that players struggled to grasp the game's concepts, and understand what parts of the UI did what. So in the latest update, we've been working on fixing that new player experience and improving their understanding of how our game works.

Specific Tutorials

To better explain each mechanic, we've made tutorials specific to the various functions that a player can perform. We now have a basic tutorial on the movement and picking up, and placing of keys into slots - this one is incredibly simple, with just a key, a slot, and a door that the player has to interact with. We have a tutorial focused on the deleting of timeframes to fix paradoxes, and a tutorial on deleting a paradox itself from the timeline; these two tutorials are slightly different in their execution, with the fixing of paradoxes one being more about changing the past with your deletion ability to fix the future, rather than just deleting it.  Finally, we have a tutorial based on the sending of items back in time, to be used in the future - this one is the staple mechanic of our game, and teaches the player about how an object can exist in two places at the same time, as long as its current self is able to be sent back in the future (confusing, I know [that's what the tutorials are for]

Timeline Readability

In order to improve the readability of the timeline, especially considering the sending and receiving of items, we have been working on various methods to better explain what is happening, and when.

Firstly, you'll notice that the timeline actions have a test that will only appear when the mouse is hovered above it, which are there to explain what the type of action is and where it is occurring. In our current version we only print a very debug-level of information on each action, but in the future this would likely be adapted to more human-like speech.

We've also been working on the drawing of arrows, which connect each send and receive action on the timeline. This makes it easier for the player to understand which key is going where. This will be achieve by the enabling and disabling of certain arrow graphics under the icon of an action, as long as that action is in the path of an arrow. Of course, only having so much space available underneath these icons means that we'll have to restrict the amount of arrows that can be drawn to around five, subsequently meaning the player will only be capable of sending back five keys in the timeline. This is good, because it both improves readability, and restricts the player in the solving of puzzles, making it more interesting to discover the solution, and less overwhelming.

More levels!

Unsurprisingly, we're actually working on new levels for the game! No, not just more tutorial... You'll have to be there to see them. ;p

In this prototype version of the game, the levels will only make use of keys, doors, slots, and time travel; but future versions would of course have more puzzle elements, such as lasers, portals and other typical puzzle-y things!