This is an absolutely beautiful game and I am so glad I got to play it! The Fox was so well animated ( a bit of an unsettling little guy). Your suggestion of about an hour game play is correct, no need to brute force anything, just gotta be curious and explore the world a bit. The ending legitimately caused me a bit of panic. I realize that this took you a very long time to make, but it was well worth it! I hope you are able to make more puzzley games in the future. <3
I loved this game! It was so peaceful and it really focusses your mind. It was very cleverly set out as well! (a bit too clever for me though, i had to look at a tutorial 2 or 3 times..)
hey, I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this, loved the combination of calmness and creepiness in the atmosphere and the way the world looped around. definitely looking forward to another chapter if there ever is one!
Im not sure if this is a bug, but on the second shelf puzzel i put all the cubes on the shelf except i couldnt put the blue cube on the top shelf or any other cube. Am I missing something?
This game is absolutely wonderful! It was the first game I played on a new computer that iI got recently, and I enjoyed every second of it. It was ectremely tricky in some places, but not too hard to be fun. Great job! I will say that the graphics can be a bit intense for older machines.
Really blown away by your work, loved the clever use of cards. Really slick puzzles, nice and simple but interesting enough to make you feel clever. Took me 45 minutes to finish, but damn I will remember this game more than others I've played for tens of hours.
I thought I'd mention I found a bug, when holding the key, I walked over to the correct pylon and accidentally dropped it on the ground on the back side of the pylon. This then caused the key to vanish inside the small rock. And I had to randomly click around until I got lucky and could pick it up again.
Again, great work on the game, hope to see more in the future!
Sorry 'bout that. Can you believe I thought I could get away without colliders on everything? Naw, there's always gonna be a player who drops it in juuuuust the right spot, LOL.
Hello, Henning Koczy - Matthew L. Hornbostel - 'matthornb' here. I have a few things on Itch.IO right now but only stuff in the 'game assets' section, no actual games yet.
As a fellow indie game dev who is actively learning to use Unity, your game is really an inspiring example of what an individual can build with this engine. I'm impressed.
Your use of lighting, your animations, interactions & puzzle design are all quite solid and your uncle did an amazing job setting the mood with the music.
I have to admit I'm a sucker for the sort of atmospheric exploration puzzler you've created, I'm an acknowledged fan of the Myst series despite the flaws and age of that series, and I love exploring imaginative game worlds in first person view, and I enjoy solving puzzles, especially when they do things that are creative design-wise. I appreciate this 'The Witness' style of minimalist art you used here, it works well in this case and I personally feel your little game world is fascinating. I cannot help wondering what you would do in terms of design, world and puzzle wise, if you made a 'Foxhunt 2'.
Puzzle/adventure games, and puzzle platformers, seem to be a great category for indies and solo devs. 'Braid', 'Fez' and 'Gorogoa' are some outstanding examples of inventive puzzle, art, and game design done primarily by a single developer. Games like those - along with a number of notable but somewhat smaller projects like yours - inspire me creatively and give me some degree of hope that maybe I can make a game myself, on my own terms, and have it turn out well.
I am not really in a great position to back you right now but I will donate at least a few dollars as a thank you for this beautiful game when it's reasonable for me to do so.
(Right now I've got my own projects like Miniature Multiverse which are my top priority as far as budgeting is concerned. Once that launches, though, especially if it does at all well, I'd like to give back a bit to other developers working in the graphic adventure genre. Basically anyone who I think could push the genre into new and fascinating directions. You're one of those people now, I think, and I'd like to support - and play - whatever game you create next. )
I love all those games you mention... I barely play any games, but I managed to catch all of THOSE... and of course MYST when I was younger. I actually fell down a Myst hole after reading your comment, went to your fansite and had to watch that whole 'Origin of...' video and the postmortem... damn. Inspiring. I was surprised to see ol' Robyn and Rand say some of the things that I say about games lately... especially about wanting a place, not a game, not an experience, nor even necessarily a story...
Anyway, I'm totally inspired now... more worlds after this first little taste (or 'Ages' if you will, haha) has been the plan, as soon as I find another spare 300 hours...
Hello Anomalina it's me again I twittered about your game and Indiewatch wants to post your game on their Website i hope you are fine with this because this a very good opportunity please keep up the good work you are great :D
Haha ye the post was seen by 700 people (and I posted it today ^^) btw i'll write the review on indiewatch and I will send you the link to it when it is finished ^^
When you arrange the color cubes correctly on the outside, to open de apse... If you put first Yellow and Blue, then Red, and BEFORE putting the Green one you hit the Red cube with your body (trying to reach the green placeholder, for example) you can make it go outside and fall, but after you put the Green Cube, the Apse will open anyways, with the Red Cube outside it, being able to take it to the Apse without needing to block the entrance with the plank.
Yeah, definitely... i've done it a few times. I either need to make the "seated" cubes non physical so you can't bump them out, or make the "seating" position-based, not event-based, as mentioned before. As it is now, you can bump it out physically without the game registering that the hole you put it in is now empty.
awesome game dude. prob one of the best puzzle games ive ever had, keep up the good work. also could you deliver a message to the fox for me? tell him im stuck on the part where it says look under the cube at the end of the line. id appreciate if he gives me a hint/clue on what to do
Nice dude... good eye. Yeah I started wanting it smoothed out, then realized, he moves fast enough and it looks cool enough to leave it on steps...! Save me a buncha work.
I loved it ! Very good atmosphere, puzzles are balanced, a really enigmatic fox, I'm curious if there is a next episode ! I want to meet The Fox again ~
[Spoiler] Puzzles are balanced, except maybe about the "☐" during the last puzzle, who is a bit different than others about how to find it.
I deduced the color of "☐", so I finished the game without understanding why it was that. But, a friend tried the game after seeing me playing and he found how to do. So I was a bit frustrated because I had a similar idea but it didn't work well haha! I wanted to push the button quickly and go outside, but I was on the doorstep when I wanted to push the button. But if you are on the side of the button, you can't pushing it. So after that, I thought it was impossible to cross the barrier. But in reallity, you have to be inside to push the button. And I didn't notice that I had the time to go outside after pushing it ! (I hope it's clear haha) [/Spoiler]
So it's not a big problem finally ! I should have tried more time. But I think it was important to tell you ! And after that I tried to imagine new therories during at least 30min, to find the good color X'D
Beautiful game. I only had trouble with one part of the last puzzle which i ended up just brute forcing. Couldn't figure out the view from the top clue. Apart from that all the puzzles were great
This was a wonderful experience throughout, very clever uses of environmental puzzles and a calming soundtrack. This is a wonderful first game coming from you and I can't wait to see more coming from you!
Am I supposed to figure something out for when I must put the blue box at the top, or is it a glitch that I can't seem to be able to reach the topmost niche to place it in
Very well made game here. really like the aesthetic, very strong Witness vibes throughout. I would have hoped for some more challenging puzzles and maybe some ones revolving around perspective. Other then that I had a blast playing it even if it was only for 30 or so minutes :). Is this the final version or will this world be expanded upon? It would be cool to uncover more about this story and who this fox may be hiding from. That was probably one of the downsides the Witness has over a game like this, the story was almost nonexistent! Anyways, Good luck on your future development!
Just another random thought. I had to open a notepad to memorize the order for the final puzzle. It might be an interesting mechanic to incorporate that into the game and develop puzzles around utilizing this notepad. Thanks for the great little experience :)
Really liked this game. Artwork, scenery and gameplay is fantastic.
Making the field infinite, looping thru the same scene all over again when reaching the borders is so clever to give the player a sense of a massive scene and liberty, when it actually is pretty small.
Having to walk around a building with a door that you can't open until you reach some point made me remind The Witness a lot, probably the most Witness-like thing in the game for me. That "hnnnng I want to get there" sensation is great.
Would have liked a little bit more difficult puzzles. Some of them are just doing literally what the fox asks you to do, but in general the experience is great and enjoyed every minute of it.
I loved this game and have recommended it to some of my friends. I hope the Dev comes out with more games. As I will definitely buy them. The only thing I want is more puzzles.
Thank you for this wonderful little game. The music was nice and relaxing and didn't get too repetitive. My first playthrough took me a bit over an hour (although when I finished, it said 43 minutes, but that may be because I quit and reloaded the game when I got stuck).
I found that performance (on a Mac) with Intel HD graphics (2018 Mac mini) was pretty slow. I didn't expect it to be wonderful, but it felt like I was moving through honey at times. I ran it 1280 x 720 in a window and found I had to have it on High as the janky shadows on medium really spoiled the look of the world.
** Potential Spoilers below **
Some of the things that I got stuck on:
1. I accidentally dropped the key at the start, and then couldn't find it again. I'm not sure how I dropped it, but I looked around and couldn't see it. I had to quit and reload to get back on track.
2. It took me a while to figure out that after placing the sun cubes in order that I could then go outside again.
3. I worked out the plank fairly quickly, but mainly because I accidentally read a spoiler here. As so few other elements in the environment are able to be interacted with, it would have taken me quite while to try and do something with it. One thing I did naturally try was to walk up it. Maybe if you run into it, it could get bumped, make a noise and rock around a little bit, giving a hint that it's not just static scenery?
4. The colours at the end required a bit of guesswork, but all the hints were there.
** /spoilers **
In terms of general UI/UX - it would be very handy to navigate the menus in the game with the arrow keys and use space/enter to activate menu items. When I brought up the menu in game, I sometimes wasn't able to select anything from the menu, so had to quit and relaunch the game.
With the cards, it's fine to have them brought up with Tab, that works very well for me however my natural inclination is to then hit Esc to get rid of them. This instead brought up the menu.
All in all however a quite enjoyable snack of a game. Thank you for all your hard work.
I hear ya on the UIUX menu nav thing. No one really likes it... I was trying to do a thing that matched the cluecard shuffling system in-game, but ended up skimping on the menu cos I wanted to be done. Sorry about the Mac issues, I just don't HAVE one to test on, so I'm going a little blind. I should probably have an option to remove moblur and possibly other niceties for a TRULY low/med-quality mode.
Thank you for enjoying it and leaving a comment nonetheless!
... and oh yeah... the timer will only save when the game saves. So if you wander around for a long time not making any progress, quit & reload the game forgets all that unproductive time and restarts from when you last made progress.
Thanks for the feedback - that's interesting re: the timer saving and it makes sense, it's like the shortest time you could have completed the game in.
You've done well making a Mac version of the game considering you don't have one to test on. On most iMacs they'll have a GPU that's better than the integrated graphics, it's only 12-inch and 13-inch laptops and the Mac mini that lack a dedicated GPU.
This game is absolutely adorable. The asthetics of the game, the story and the puzzles are fantastic. Not as hard as some other puzzle games but the last puzzle... or should I say riddles was the hardest out of them all. It took me at least 20 minutes to figure that out which calculated to most of my time on this game.
The wooden beam (as said by other commenters) did seem out of place as there was no introduction to enviromental mechanics anywhere else but this one section however, it was easy to figure out for the most part.
Honestly, I did think that the ending was.... Well wasn't was I expected. I wouldn't say it was underwhelming, just that we were looking for the fox all thoughout the gameplay but in the end it felt like it didn't matter.
The only mechanical problem was the menu system which used the same mechanic as the riddle scrolling in game. I felt like this was really out of place and even fiddly to move the cursor so I suggest using either W and S to move though the menu or use an actual cursor. It worked in game but it did feel a bit weird however, towards the end, I understood why that kind of mechanic was there.
Other than that, the game is fantastic and there is hardly anything to fault on the actual gameplay. More of the mechanical side to the game. I go in more depth in my video so I hope you enjoy.
I loved it! The aesthetic is super memorable, the length is just about perfect. I absolutely prefer this bite-sized package to obtuse first-person-puzzlers like The Witness or even Talos Principle. For me, those are like suffering through a bland soup just to get at a few good meatballs. This was like a delicious plate of pasta - just the right length to leave me wanting a bit more, but also easy to share.
*spoiler*
I had to watch someone's Let's Play to figure out the wood beam to jam the door. Mechanically, it just seemed a little out of place as it was the only time you really use an object from the environment that doesn't seem like a key. But maybe my missing it says more about me than the puzzle, I dunno. (It took me a while to figure out I had to push the box over with that board too, but I did get it.) In general, there aren't really any red herrings to the puzzles, and I felt like I had all the tools I needed, which I really liked.
*/end spoiler*
Other notes since it's fresh in my mind:
Everything looks wonderful. The fox animation was super great and even the orbiting of the sun made this feel a lot more "lived in" than The Witness. Which is maybe ironic since the white-heavy palette could be considered sterile in a way, but the way everything is kinda settled in, leaning on each other, also makes it feel like objects here have a story to tell. They're not perfectly erect; something has happened to them.
I also really like the notecard system, the actual notes themselves, and the way you can pick up and rotate objects. I liked the motion blur.
*one other minor, minor gripe: I got caught on the doorway coming up the stairs several times. urgh!
Anyway, kudos to you - can't wait to see what you work on next. I felt compelled to play it as soon as I saw a screenshot of it, I was compelled to finish it in a single sitting, and I enjoyed just about every moment of it. That's super rare.
That doorway IS a little small and skewed to fit your collider through... I will have to do some renovation there.
Thanks for stopping by to give me feedback, glad you liked it! I LOVE the longer puzzle games (though I havent tried Talos, I will have to...) where you really settle into a place and get to know it for a couple days... that was the plan with this, to make it longer if people liked it and want more. But when I do, stick to a series of small worldlets you can solve in about an hour apiece, like this one. So a longer coherent meal, but with courses... :)
I'm oficially hooked.This game was amazing!The grafics were simple and clean.The puzzels were very thought out and fun to solve!My favorite puzzle was the last one.It was kinda dificult but after a few minutes i solved it.The music was realy charming and calm.I loved it a lot :3 Keep up the good work!
This game was a nice little puzzle game. The music was relaxing and even though I seem frustrated at times I really enjoyed the style and game :) I honestly can't wait for more. If you are reading this and want a pleasant experience to unwind from the day. Then give this a play.
p.s i complained about reading the notes but figured out how later in the game. Couldn't include the clip because of time restraints but just wanted to say that XD
Thanks, man! Yeah, okay... I think I need to get rid of the 'put clue away if you walk' thing. And sorry you played on a medium-quality-by-default build, where I hadn't thought of shadow draw distance from the top of the elevator :( ...you figured it out tho! Glad you still really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed watching you!
i loved the game and it might have been complicated for some but most of the puzzles i got right away except for the last one i had to write some stuff down. the motion blur was indeed a bit dissorienting and seeing the fox every now and then was pretty fun but the game in general should be just the right amount of hard to solve so people dont get too caught and dont get frustrated too much. and some might not like this because they want something harder but i think its okay just because its a game and not all people want it too hard.
It's supposed to be relaxing, not too brain-busting... but... I am imagining a hard/international version where there are only pictures drawn on the clue cards, not English language.
I freaking loved this game. If I'm being honest, a decent amount of the puzzles had me frustratingly stumped for a while, but the pay off in the end was well worth it. I only have two main gripes; the first one is that the two puzzles involving the plank are near impossible without knowing that you can knock over/pick up the plank (I had to look at other people's playthrough's to figure it out). Maybe in the next version there could be a mention in a note that implies the plank can be interacted with or an indicating mark on the plank itself that could help future players on that front. My second gripe is more of a nitpick, but maybe the game could go without camera motion blur. It's just kind of disorienting in general. Anyway, regardless of those two points, I loved the game!
Thank you so much. I think you and some other people complaining about moBlur are right... I don't need it, I barely notice it, it only serves to bog down some slower computers, why not lose it? I'll def make it an 'option' next revision, if not lose it altogether.
RE; the plank.... I think the problem might be that people are unaccustomed to items being used in this way. Up til that point, everything you can pick up and use is either a key or a suncube (a key by another name). I haven't given the player cause to look at items as actual physical things with possible practical uses... I don't want to get rid of the plank puzzle, and most of my testers figured it out and liked it, so maybe I'll just introduce the concept of practical items earlier, to get the player thinking in that direction. You DO have stones, I know, but they are useless. Hmm.
A lot of games of this type have the cursor react when the player moves it over an item that can be interacted with. Maybe the cursor goes bold, or rotates, or something to indicate you can use whatever may be in its view, within a certain distance.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Beautiful, creative, and fun!
I'm convinced there's something you can do with the "stone" that you can pick up, but which doesn't seem to have a purpose :)
As the sun set on this beautiful game, I was definitely left wanting more.
Thank you for creating it!
This is an absolutely beautiful game and I am so glad I got to play it! The Fox was so well animated ( a bit of an unsettling little guy). Your suggestion of about an hour game play is correct, no need to brute force anything, just gotta be curious and explore the world a bit. The ending legitimately caused me a bit of panic. I realize that this took you a very long time to make, but it was well worth it! I hope you are able to make more puzzley games in the future. <3
Thank you!! I can't wait to get to more, thanks largely to the nice comments like yours.
I loved this game! It was so peaceful and it really focusses your mind. It was very cleverly set out as well! (a bit too clever for me though, i had to look at a tutorial 2 or 3 times..)
What tutorial did you look at? You mean one of these play-throughs in the comments?
XD
hey, I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this, loved the combination of calmness and creepiness in the atmosphere and the way the world looped around. definitely looking forward to another chapter if there ever is one!
Breathtaking game, sincerely, reminded me so much of Journey.
The music is really good and the quality of the puzzles is on point.
Very well done!
Im not sure if this is a bug, but on the second shelf puzzel i put all the cubes on the shelf except i couldnt put the blue cube on the top shelf or any other cube. Am I missing something?
Yes. you are missing something. How could you get that cube up there?
No idea, but thanks for telling me instead of me spamming the mouse
This game is absolutely wonderful! It was the first game I played on a new computer that iI got recently, and I enjoyed every second of it. It was ectremely tricky in some places, but not too hard to be fun. Great job! I will say that the graphics can be a bit intense for older machines.
Are you gonna make part 2?
Also I loved the game, once I finished playing it I recommended it to my friends. Great work!
Really blown away by your work, loved the clever use of cards. Really slick puzzles, nice and simple but interesting enough to make you feel clever. Took me 45 minutes to finish, but damn I will remember this game more than others I've played for tens of hours.
Thanks man. I was intrigued by your name, and checked out "Blooming" for about 20 minutes. Very restful. You should expand it!
Thank you! I'm expanding it with a day/night cycle (mushrooms and fireflies!) also porting it to Unity, want to get more familiar with it. :)
Just played through this game! Really nice :)
I thought I'd mention I found a bug, when holding the key, I walked over to the correct pylon and accidentally dropped it on the ground on the back side of the pylon.
This then caused the key to vanish inside the small rock. And I had to randomly click around until I got lucky and could pick it up again.
Again, great work on the game, hope to see more in the future!
Sorry 'bout that. Can you believe I thought I could get away without colliders on everything? Naw, there's always gonna be a player who drops it in juuuuust the right spot, LOL.
Thanks!
Same thing happend to me, but i was forced to start from my last save
Hello, Henning Koczy - Matthew L. Hornbostel - 'matthornb' here. I have a few things on Itch.IO right now but only stuff in the 'game assets' section, no actual games yet.
As a fellow indie game dev who is actively learning to use Unity, your game is really an inspiring example of what an individual can build with this engine. I'm impressed.
Your use of lighting, your animations, interactions & puzzle design are all quite solid and your uncle did an amazing job setting the mood with the music.
I have to admit I'm a sucker for the sort of atmospheric exploration puzzler you've created, I'm an acknowledged fan of the Myst series despite the flaws and age of that series, and I love exploring imaginative game worlds in first person view, and I enjoy solving puzzles, especially when they do things that are creative design-wise. I appreciate this 'The Witness' style of minimalist art you used here, it works well in this case and I personally feel your little game world is fascinating. I cannot help wondering what you would do in terms of design, world and puzzle wise, if you made a 'Foxhunt 2'.
Puzzle/adventure games, and puzzle platformers, seem to be a great category for indies and solo devs. 'Braid', 'Fez' and 'Gorogoa' are some outstanding examples of inventive puzzle, art, and game design done primarily by a single developer. Games like those - along with a number of notable but somewhat smaller projects like yours - inspire me creatively and give me some degree of hope that maybe I can make a game myself, on my own terms, and have it turn out well.
I am not really in a great position to back you right now but I will donate at least a few dollars as a thank you for this beautiful game when it's reasonable for me to do so.
(Right now I've got my own projects like Miniature Multiverse which are my top priority as far as budgeting is concerned. Once that launches, though, especially if it does at all well, I'd like to give back a bit to other developers working in the graphic adventure genre. Basically anyone who I think could push the genre into new and fascinating directions. You're one of those people now, I think, and I'd like to support - and play - whatever game you create next. )
I love all those games you mention... I barely play any games, but I managed to catch all of THOSE... and of course MYST when I was younger. I actually fell down a Myst hole after reading your comment, went to your fansite and had to watch that whole 'Origin of...' video and the postmortem... damn. Inspiring. I was surprised to see ol' Robyn and Rand say some of the things that I say about games lately... especially about wanting a place, not a game, not an experience, nor even necessarily a story...
Anyway, I'm totally inspired now... more worlds after this first little taste (or 'Ages' if you will, haha) has been the plan, as soon as I find another spare 300 hours...
Oh... i totally bought realMyst and my favorite of the series, Riven, to replay on Steam. Back to my roots!
Hello Anomalina it's me again I twittered about your game and Indiewatch wants to post your game on their Website i hope you are fine with this because this a very good opportunity please keep up the good work you are great :D
Sounds great to me! Thanks! I guess I should get a twitter, huh? So I know when people are doing that...
Haha ye the post was seen by 700 people (and I posted it today ^^) btw i'll write the review on indiewatch and I will send you the link to it when it is finished ^^
I guess I'll go with this old one.. @statelycoach.
anomalina is already taken...! Thanks for the tweets again.
Found a bug! (My GF did, actually)
SPOILER
When you arrange the color cubes correctly on the outside, to open de apse... If you put first Yellow and Blue, then Red, and BEFORE putting the Green one you hit the Red cube with your body (trying to reach the green placeholder, for example) you can make it go outside and fall, but after you put the Green Cube, the Apse will open anyways, with the Red Cube outside it, being able to take it to the Apse without needing to block the entrance with the plank.
/SPOILER
Yeah, definitely... i've done it a few times. I either need to make the "seated" cubes non physical so you can't bump them out, or make the "seating" position-based, not event-based, as mentioned before. As it is now, you can bump it out physically without the game registering that the hole you put it in is now empty.
Hey ^^ your game is really fun and well made :D awesome d
ude . I just made a Youtube video about it :) I am looking forward to see your games in the future ^^
I love this game so much!!love you dude
It's truly amazing! The fox animation is godlike. Great job!
Thanks! Animation is my day job... so I made a world where i can show THAT off, my strength... and not so much of the modeling and texturing! :)
Well, it works really well! ^_^
awesome game dude. prob one of the best puzzle games ive ever had, keep up the good work. also could you deliver a message to the fox for me? tell him im stuck on the part where it says look under the cube at the end of the line. id appreciate if he gives me a hint/clue on what to do
Try looking around for the line.
Really good work. Having the fox animate on twos was a pretty clever move.
Nice dude... good eye. Yeah I started wanting it smoothed out, then realized, he moves fast enough and it looks cool enough to leave it on steps...! Save me a buncha work.
I loved it ! Very good atmosphere, puzzles are balanced, a really enigmatic fox, I'm curious if there is a next episode ! I want to meet The Fox again ~
[Spoiler]
Puzzles are balanced, except maybe about the "☐" during the last puzzle, who is a bit different than others about how to find it.
I deduced the color of "☐", so I finished the game without understanding why it was that. But, a friend tried the game after seeing me playing and he found how to do. So I was a bit frustrated because I had a similar idea but it didn't work well haha! I wanted to push the button quickly and go outside, but I was on the doorstep when I wanted to push the button. But if you are on the side of the button, you can't pushing it. So after that, I thought it was impossible to cross the barrier. But in reallity, you have to be inside to push the button. And I didn't notice that I had the time to go outside after pushing it ! (I hope it's clear haha)
[/Spoiler]
So it's not a big problem finally ! I should have tried more time. But I think it was important to tell you ! And after that I tried to imagine new therories during at least 30min, to find the good color X'D
By the way, I noticed a little glitch, I made a clip of that on Twitch (yes I was streaming during my test :D)
Link: https://www.twitch.tv/titouniverse/clip/AmericanAdorableSushiTinyFace
I will be glad to play again!
Good luck for the future ~
Awesome game! I got stuck on a puzzle but I'm sure I'll figure it out in the next episode.
Beautiful game. I only had trouble with one part of the last puzzle which i ended up just brute forcing. Couldn't figure out the view from the top clue. Apart from that all the puzzles were great
This was a wonderful experience throughout, very clever uses of environmental puzzles and a calming soundtrack. This is a wonderful first game coming from you and I can't wait to see more coming from you!
Gave it a go...
Really cute game. The ending wasn't what I expected, but it was a neat puzzle game to play.
Am I supposed to figure something out for when I must put the blue box at the top, or is it a glitch that I can't seem to be able to reach the topmost niche to place it in
How could you get up there? Look around. (not a glitch)
Very well made game here. really like the aesthetic, very strong Witness vibes throughout. I would have hoped for some more challenging puzzles and maybe some ones revolving around perspective. Other then that I had a blast playing it even if it was only for 30 or so minutes :). Is this the final version or will this world be expanded upon? It would be cool to uncover more about this story and who this fox may be hiding from. That was probably one of the downsides the Witness has over a game like this, the story was almost nonexistent! Anyways, Good luck on your future development!
I'll expand it with more chapters if people like it enough! Seems like they do, I'm having a really good coupla weeks here due to the response!
RE: perspective puzzles. Yeah, I like those too, but ...can't crib TOO much from the Witness... ; )
Just another random thought. I had to open a notepad to memorize the order for the final puzzle. It might be an interesting mechanic to incorporate that into the game and develop puzzles around utilizing this notepad. Thanks for the great little experience :)
Dude, I really enjoyed this game! Doing a letsplay series on it. Absolutely gorgeous, and atmospheric.
Really liked this game. Artwork, scenery and gameplay is fantastic.
Making the field infinite, looping thru the same scene all over again when reaching the borders is so clever to give the player a sense of a massive scene and liberty, when it actually is pretty small.
Having to walk around a building with a door that you can't open until you reach some point made me remind The Witness a lot, probably the most Witness-like thing in the game for me. That "hnnnng I want to get there" sensation is great.
Would have liked a little bit more difficult puzzles. Some of them are just doing literally what the fox asks you to do, but in general the experience is great and enjoyed every minute of it.
I would prefer a little harder myself... I tested on some young kids tho, and non-gamers... I'm thinking up a hard-mode...
Good point about the Big Mysterious Door and the importance of anticipation! (and the Witness comparison :) )
RE: infinite field... yeah, thanks! I didn't want another puzzle ISLAND (Myst, Witness...), so had to think of someway to bound it! :)
I loved this game and have recommended it to some of my friends. I hope the Dev comes out with more games. As I will definitely buy them. The only thing I want is more puzzles.
Thank you for this wonderful little game. The music was nice and relaxing and didn't get too repetitive. My first playthrough took me a bit over an hour (although when I finished, it said 43 minutes, but that may be because I quit and reloaded the game when I got stuck).
I found that performance (on a Mac) with Intel HD graphics (2018 Mac mini) was pretty slow. I didn't expect it to be wonderful, but it felt like I was moving through honey at times. I ran it 1280 x 720 in a window and found I had to have it on High as the janky shadows on medium really spoiled the look of the world.
** Potential Spoilers below **
Some of the things that I got stuck on:
1. I accidentally dropped the key at the start, and then couldn't find it again. I'm not sure how I dropped it, but I looked around and couldn't see it. I had to quit and reload to get back on track.
2. It took me a while to figure out that after placing the sun cubes in order that I could then go outside again.
3. I worked out the plank fairly quickly, but mainly because I accidentally read a spoiler here. As so few other elements in the environment are able to be interacted with, it would have taken me quite while to try and do something with it. One thing I did naturally try was to walk up it. Maybe if you run into it, it could get bumped, make a noise and rock around a little bit, giving a hint that it's not just static scenery?
4. The colours at the end required a bit of guesswork, but all the hints were there.
** /spoilers **
In terms of general UI/UX - it would be very handy to navigate the menus in the game with the arrow keys and use space/enter to activate menu items. When I brought up the menu in game, I sometimes wasn't able to select anything from the menu, so had to quit and relaunch the game.
With the cards, it's fine to have them brought up with Tab, that works very well for me however my natural inclination is to then hit Esc to get rid of them. This instead brought up the menu.
All in all however a quite enjoyable snack of a game. Thank you for all your hard work.
I hear ya on the UIUX menu nav thing. No one really likes it... I was trying to do a thing that matched the cluecard shuffling system in-game, but ended up skimping on the menu cos I wanted to be done. Sorry about the Mac issues, I just don't HAVE one to test on, so I'm going a little blind. I should probably have an option to remove moblur and possibly other niceties for a TRULY low/med-quality mode.
Thank you for enjoying it and leaving a comment nonetheless!
... and oh yeah... the timer will only save when the game saves. So if you wander around for a long time not making any progress, quit & reload the game forgets all that unproductive time and restarts from when you last made progress.
Thanks for the feedback - that's interesting re: the timer saving and it makes sense, it's like the shortest time you could have completed the game in.
You've done well making a Mac version of the game considering you don't have one to test on. On most iMacs they'll have a GPU that's better than the integrated graphics, it's only 12-inch and 13-inch laptops and the Mac mini that lack a dedicated GPU.
BUG: It looks gorgeous, but I seem to be stuck moving left at full speed after the first click on the fox.
Well... THAT is a really fuckin' weird one...
This game is absolutely adorable. The asthetics of the game, the story and the puzzles are fantastic. Not as hard as some other puzzle games but the last puzzle... or should I say riddles was the hardest out of them all. It took me at least 20 minutes to figure that out which calculated to most of my time on this game.
The wooden beam (as said by other commenters) did seem out of place as there was no introduction to enviromental mechanics anywhere else but this one section however, it was easy to figure out for the most part.
Honestly, I did think that the ending was.... Well wasn't was I expected. I wouldn't say it was underwhelming, just that we were looking for the fox all thoughout the gameplay but in the end it felt like it didn't matter.
The only mechanical problem was the menu system which used the same mechanic as the riddle scrolling in game. I felt like this was really out of place and even fiddly to move the cursor so I suggest using either W and S to move though the menu or use an actual cursor. It worked in game but it did feel a bit weird however, towards the end, I understood why that kind of mechanic was there.
Other than that, the game is fantastic and there is hardly anything to fault on the actual gameplay. More of the mechanical side to the game. I go in more depth in my video so I hope you enjoy.
I loved it! The aesthetic is super memorable, the length is just about perfect. I absolutely prefer this bite-sized package to obtuse first-person-puzzlers like The Witness or even Talos Principle. For me, those are like suffering through a bland soup just to get at a few good meatballs. This was like a delicious plate of pasta - just the right length to leave me wanting a bit more, but also easy to share.
*spoiler*
I had to watch someone's Let's Play to figure out the wood beam to jam the door. Mechanically, it just seemed a little out of place as it was the only time you really use an object from the environment that doesn't seem like a key. But maybe my missing it says more about me than the puzzle, I dunno. (It took me a while to figure out I had to push the box over with that board too, but I did get it.) In general, there aren't really any red herrings to the puzzles, and I felt like I had all the tools I needed, which I really liked.
*/end spoiler*
Other notes since it's fresh in my mind:
Everything looks wonderful. The fox animation was super great and even the orbiting of the sun made this feel a lot more "lived in" than The Witness. Which is maybe ironic since the white-heavy palette could be considered sterile in a way, but the way everything is kinda settled in, leaning on each other, also makes it feel like objects here have a story to tell. They're not perfectly erect; something has happened to them.
I also really like the notecard system, the actual notes themselves, and the way you can pick up and rotate objects. I liked the motion blur.
*one other minor, minor gripe: I got caught on the doorway coming up the stairs several times. urgh!
Anyway, kudos to you - can't wait to see what you work on next. I felt compelled to play it as soon as I saw a screenshot of it, I was compelled to finish it in a single sitting, and I enjoyed just about every moment of it. That's super rare.
That doorway IS a little small and skewed to fit your collider through... I will have to do some renovation there.
Thanks for stopping by to give me feedback, glad you liked it! I LOVE the longer puzzle games (though I havent tried Talos, I will have to...) where you really settle into a place and get to know it for a couple days... that was the plan with this, to make it longer if people liked it and want more. But when I do, stick to a series of small worldlets you can solve in about an hour apiece, like this one. So a longer coherent meal, but with courses... :)
That sounds like a really great way to do it! Looking forward to whatever you come up with next...
I'm oficially hooked.This game was amazing!The grafics were simple and clean.The puzzels were very thought out and fun to solve!My favorite puzzle was the last one.It was kinda dificult but after a few minutes i solved it.The music was realy charming and calm.I loved it a lot :3 Keep up the good work!
Thank you! RE: difficulty, how long did it end up taking you? 30-60 minutes like most people?
It took me around 20-45 minutes :3
This game was a nice little puzzle game. The music was relaxing and even though I seem frustrated at times I really enjoyed the style and game :) I honestly can't wait for more. If you are reading this and want a pleasant experience to unwind from the day. Then give this a play.
p.s i complained about reading the notes but figured out how later in the game. Couldn't include the clip because of time restraints but just wanted to say that XDThanks, man! Yeah, okay... I think I need to get rid of the 'put clue away if you walk' thing. And sorry you played on a medium-quality-by-default build, where I hadn't thought of shadow draw distance from the top of the elevator :( ...you figured it out tho! Glad you still really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed watching you!
I brute forced the code at the end XD but it was still a fun experience. I really can't wait for your next project!
Beautiful visual design, a real unique rarity <3
i loved the game and it might have been complicated for some but most of the puzzles i got right away except for the last one i had to write some stuff down. the motion blur was indeed a bit dissorienting and seeing the fox every now and then was pretty fun but the game in general should be just the right amount of hard to solve so people dont get too caught and dont get frustrated too much. and some might not like this because they want something harder but i think its okay just because its a game and not all people want it too hard.
overall great game i enjoyed it.
see you next time mister fox
It's supposed to be relaxing, not too brain-busting... but... I am imagining a hard/international version where there are only pictures drawn on the clue cards, not English language.
I freaking loved this game. If I'm being honest, a decent amount of the puzzles had me frustratingly stumped for a while, but the pay off in the end was well worth it. I only have two main gripes; the first one is that the two puzzles involving the plank are near impossible without knowing that you can knock over/pick up the plank (I had to look at other people's playthrough's to figure it out). Maybe in the next version there could be a mention in a note that implies the plank can be interacted with or an indicating mark on the plank itself that could help future players on that front. My second gripe is more of a nitpick, but maybe the game could go without camera motion blur. It's just kind of disorienting in general. Anyway, regardless of those two points, I loved the game!
Hope to see you again, Fox ;)
Thank you so much. I think you and some other people complaining about moBlur are right... I don't need it, I barely notice it, it only serves to bog down some slower computers, why not lose it? I'll def make it an 'option' next revision, if not lose it altogether.
RE; the plank.... I think the problem might be that people are unaccustomed to items being used in this way. Up til that point, everything you can pick up and use is either a key or a suncube (a key by another name). I haven't given the player cause to look at items as actual physical things with possible practical uses... I don't want to get rid of the plank puzzle, and most of my testers figured it out and liked it, so maybe I'll just introduce the concept of practical items earlier, to get the player thinking in that direction. You DO have stones, I know, but they are useless. Hmm.
A lot of games of this type have the cursor react when the player moves it over an item that can be interacted with. Maybe the cursor goes bold, or rotates, or something to indicate you can use whatever may be in its view, within a certain distance.