(I mean, in some sense, Hadean Lands is the fixed version of Journey! It’s all about limited elemental resources. But I invented all new puzzles which were amenable to an action-shortcut mechanic.)
4 Likes
Another option is to just create new games with the game philosophy but without the flaws 
The good news is that most modern tools allows this kind of game, even Inform 7.
3 Likes
Since I’m in the minority (?) who thinks Journey is mostly fine (at least for its time), the only improvement that probably wouldn’t require major re-design that I can think of would be if there was just a bit more of the magical essences. When I made my walkthrough, by the time I reached the final puzzle I had 0 Air, 2 Fire, 5 Earth and 1 Water. At this point, you only need Air, Fire and Earth but you needed Air for the puzzle right before. You can probably save some essences by using knowledge from prior games, but if you want to play it fair I don’t think you can afford to waste any Air! That’s cruel in a game that allows multiple solutions to some puzzles.
The final puzzle requires you to have made notes of some clues you saw during the course of the game. It would be nice if you could take notes in-game, but Journey is hardly alone in that.
5 Likes