Traffic by D. S. Yu
Playtime: 52 minutes
The one where: package delivery is complicated by a timeloop
I’ll start by agreeing with those who mentioned that the game could benefit from more directly helping the player understand what’s going on with the puzzles and cluing the puzzles. I struggled on a good bit, and ultimately ended up more or less inputting the walkthrough, which is not the ideal experience. That said, kudos to the author for including a walkthrough, which did permit me to complete the game.
Below the cut is the transcript of me struggling with the first puzzle. I was trying to input a value into a traffic-light control panel (although actually you do not need to do that and I think it may be impossible(ETA: it is possible, apparently, but not required). And I’ll sneak in here that I think this kind of stuff hurts the most when it hits on the very first puzzle in the game—if the game is going to include a section of scorching puzzles it will go down a lot better if the player already completed some easier puzzles—now the player is invested and trusting in the process.)
extremely painful transcript of me trying to enter a value into the panel
After all that, my understanding from the walkthrough is that you cannot and don’t need to enter any values in the panel. You open it with a screwdriver and push the reset button instead.
ETA: per comments below, you CAN enter values using ENTER ON SCREEN
Perhaps, if entering a value into the panel is not something we do, my pal should not say “all we have to do is enter the correct value for D on that little screen there, and then press that green button”? Perhaps he could say something like “That’s strange— the StopNGo X9000 must be bugged, it should be displaying a value for D.” or something that would clue the player to try to repair the operation of the panel?
After that first puzzle, I was still pretty confused. Because the first intervention with the traffic light control box seems to happen on its own / cannot be repeated, I had the impression that the game was picking where you would go and that being sent back meant you hadn’t done it successfully–I didn’t get that looking was involved until I read other reviews. (This is a personal preference, but games can go really broad on this type of thing and I don’t think it hurts: “The last thing you see before the speeding car crushes you again is the square glasses of the uncomfortable businessman” / “you realize you’re in the body of the uncomfortable businessman you locked eyes with before you died” etc.)
I also thought the game could have made more clear what problem you were supposed to be solving in the bus / cab / student driver sections.
- topics other than the soul-scouring level of difficulty
The concept for the game is good! A time loop enabling the multiple interventions to save my life, body-hopping into different people (and being able to select who we want to body-hop into) with returning to one main incident as a central “spoke,” these are really creative, interesting concepts.
The writing was also generally effective, I enjoyed the “if you had [body part]” gag.
I was pretty amused at the ending if you try to steal the woman’s phone. If anything, I would have enjoyed more playing with those concepts (I mean, my LIFE is on the line–surely this is the time for the PC to throw caution to the wind in terms of observing social norms, although I can see how that could get out of hand, writing-wise). And I wouldn’t have minded at least some flavor text explaining why you can’t, you know, walk a few feet so you’re not standing in the metaphorical chalk outline.
| Front matter | ||
|---|---|---|
| Could better set the table for the game | Successfully sets the table for the game | Successfully sets the table for the game PLUS |
I think it might help the game find its audience if the blurb cued the time loop / body swap elements, which are selling points.
And I’m generally against opening by negging the game (“This game is unlikely to change your life in any meaningful way”). I think there’s a sort of self-protective impulse (“let me get ahead of anyone saying ____”), but better I think to leave open the possibility of people connecting with the game in ways you don’t expect.
Overall, I thought creative concept for puzzles, but a pretty strenuous player experience
Gameplay tips / typos
- The description text varies between “boom box” and “boombox," although only “boombox” is accepted as input
Traffic wolfbiter transcript - Copy.txt (31.0 KB)