I entered a game in Spring Thing 2022 called Thin Walls. I’m now thinking of getting an itch.io page and uploading a version with minor improvements.
I didn’t intend the game to be too puzzly, but I wanted to give the reader a little bit of a challenge: I wanted to encourage them to explore, to click on things and see what happens next, rather than being pushed through the narrative without any agency.
Looking back, and judging from some of the feedback I received, it was unnecessarily difficult to navigate in a few places. Although I don’t plan to make radical changes, I’d like to smooth these points out for the second version.
I’d like to ask a volunteer or two to please read it through and identify where it is easiest to get lost and confused. I would describe the game as being mid-length, hopefully no longer than an hour’s read.
I think there is likely to be an issue at these three points:
- 2nd/3rd chapter: The chapter called #perfecthome (Ivana’s room): did you find the secret link when it was invisible, or how many times did you have to enter the room in order to find it?
- After 6 chapters: You reach a point where there are no more open doors on the first floor of the house. At this point, you need to go into the kitchen and start messing with the contents of the fridge, in order to open up Ash’s room and start the chapter called ‘Knowing the Score’. Was this difficult to figure out?
- After 7 chapters: After finishing ‘Knowing the Score’, you need to open up the cupboard under the stairs in order to progress. Was this difficult to figure out?
And were there any other points that caused any significant difficulties?
Many thanks for any help you are able to give.