Three Sigils
Click here to play the game on mobile: https://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=77dbb2340f8364e432fddb20a9ca3af3
Explore multiple paths in a connected world, and learn the rituals behind the three sigils to summon an ancient power. After completing your journey, venture through the north door to experience eternal suffering!
One of my goals was to demonstrate some of the things I spoke about in my presentation at Thinky Con. Watch that talk here!
Made in 72 hours for the Ludum Dare 55 Jam with the theme: Summoning.
Comments
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Nice game! Though the mechanic of (ROT13) oyhr pbaqhpgvat terra (ROT13 end) is only required at the final puzzle and can be confusing. I looked at the other comments and you said an earlier puzzle should illustrate that, but it kinda didn't?
You're completely right, my attempt to fix the issue failed again : P now that ratings for ludum dare are over I can make another update. The idea is that you were supposed to be required to use the mechanic to complete (ROT13) gur ebbz jvgu bayl oyhr naq terra. Thank you for playing and for the feedback!
pretty nice!
I really enjoyed this game and the fact that all the moves could be manually undone by just rearranging the blocks some more. It made solving the puzzles more fun since I knew I couldn’t get the pieces stuck somewhere I couldn’t get them out from.
neither the undo nor the restart functions are working for me.
That’s intentional! The game never has any need for undo or restart since all moves are reversible. The only exception is in the very top room, you can press r to exit.
Ok. I was only mentioning it as the game start screen says that they exist. Have a nice day!
Good point, totally reasonable to assume that. Unfortunately PuzzleScript doesn't let you customize that part of the menu. Thanks!
nice puzzle! and... even automatically generated puzzles? (although it's pretty easy)
Cool game. Looks like you forgot to add the link to the ludum dare page when you marked with the ludum-dare-55 tag.
Thanks, didn't realize that was a feature! Just added
2. go to top immediately, beat it and go to opening
3. game does not load.
perhaps this is what is meant by eternal suffering because no game = no fun?
Gah! Sorry for that, I think I know what happened, but I thought I had fixed it. I’ll add a note: if the game ever freezes for you in the eternal suffering room, you can press R to exit the room and maintain your save. Also, if you try reentering the room after that, it shouldn’t freeze again. I’ll look into a better fix. Thanks for the report! Hope you’re still able to enjoy the game!
I love this game so much! very unique! I just struggled on the last stage (based on the designs along the border of the page,) info on how i struggled below picture in hopes of not spoiling!
I can't seem to fulfill the red cross requirements, as it is in a space that cannot be moved, but the green squares also cannot be moved (from my attempts) and they are spawned in in the way of the red cross. (if that makes sense!) Am I missing something?
I finally got it. The unlock for me was that the greens don't need to be connected by other greens, they can be connected by blues(as long as the blues are also satisfying their rule)
Thank you for sticking with it! An earlier puzzle was meant to illustrate that key insight:
That blues can "conduct" greens, but it was beatable without using that mechanic, I've since patched it. Thanks!
Maybe blues can “conduct” green signal?
Very cool! I love mechanic-discovery puzzlers and this one was a lot of fun. I'm a little sceptical of the procgen approach in general, but the combination of artisanal puzzles and a single procedural room seems like an interesting approach. I slightly wish the top room had its own arc & ending, whether upping the size or complexity of rooms, but I assume you're working against some of the limitations of the puzzlescript engine.
I was a bit surprised by the lack of undo/restart, though I'm guessing the pushing mechanics mean you can't failstate yourself? Though looking at the presentation you gave, I might actually have been doing some high-stakes puzzle-solving :)
Thank you for your feedback! I wasn’t able to do quite as much with the procedural generation as I wanted to, I guess I overestimated puzzlescript’s abilities, and also was running out of time for Ludum Dare. I would have ideally liked the top to have multiple rooms you have to complete under time pressure, leading to a secret ending, but I just couldn’t get that working. In the end, I thought it was fitting to loop a single basic room, and call it “eternal suffering” lol.
You are correct that undo/restart is never necessary! That was one of the first principles I wanted to explore with the design; in a variant of Sokoban in which every move is reversible, how can I still make interesting puzzles? The lack of undo/restart also made it possible to have the structure the game does where you can freely walk between multiple puzzle paths while knowing none of them can be stuck. It also is what made the method of procedural generation used here possible. The game simply places sigils in a valid position, then randomly moves the player character around to scramble them, with the knowledge that any move made can be undone.
Thanks again for playing!
fck i went through the top
Bug?
This is fun but I can’t proceed
hint: The rule for the red plus squares isn't being met
Very nice. Challenging w/out being maddening. I liked the clean lines too. Thanx.
thank you!