I had fun with this one! It’s quite polished and has a smooth parser and a nice UI. I followed the advice here and looked at the instructions for minigame #1 before attempting it, and was glad I did because I don’t think I would have figured that out on my own. However, I did get a bit tired of that puzzle by the fifth or so go-round. Part of the reason, I think, is that having 24 tries after getting the implant upgrade took away the sense of pressure and made me stop thinking very carefully about my guesses, whereas the two I solved with only 8 guesses had that sense of tension and needing to make every guess count.
My other main critique is the writing of the NPCs, of which there are six or seven. It’s immediately very clear that they only exist as pieces of the game’s puzzles; none of them interact with you until you approach them, and while some are introduced with a characterizing line like “A bureaucrat peers at the deck’s monitor with dead eyes,” others simply get “X is here.” Livening up those introductory descriptions (sure, Dr. Mohr is here, but what’s she doing?) and having them act more naturally—e.g., greeting you when you walk into their offices—would go a long way toward making them feel more like actual people and better integrating them into the game.
I would also have liked a bit more color for the NPCs!
I talked about the minigame explanation in my write-up, but let me just say I am very much enjoying the ongoing discussion of which forum denizens deserve the crown for figuring that one out on their own Not me, in this case, but keep fighting it out!
I’m very happy to see players talk about that word puzzle. I should have provided an in-game explanation of how the puzzle worked. Simple instructions about how to look for clues would have made it a lot more fun without eliminating the challenge. That was a mistake on my part.
I also appreciate the discussion about NPCs. I think I did better with this game than I’ve done in the past, but there’s clearly room for improvement.
I played this game last night and enjoyed it! I really felt like a hacker for a while there. I loved the first type of hacking puzzles—after a couple guesses I figured out what the rules were and it was a real triumphant moment. So adding instructions by default would’ve taken away that triumph, but that doesn’t matter if the overall consensus is that it’s more fun when you know what’s going on. Or could there be a way to provide instructions optionally? Anyway, they were fun and I would do one every day with my morning Wordle-likes.
I thought the storytelling worked well with the puzzles, and also just in general—things felt tense and dangerous without being too punishing or too bleak. I do agree that a few more character details would have added texture to the world. And finally, I appreciated all the synonyms. Not having to type out “technician” or “identify” every time was nice!
Not me, in this case, but keep fighting it out!