The Tutorial
This build introduces the tutorial for the game. I spent some time sketching for myself all the different mechanics I need to teach the player in order to have them fluetly swinging boxes around. I also implemented books that the player can open and there’s a string of text inside, so I can verbally instruct the player.
First screen
The tutorial starts in a confined space with the only way out blocked by a box. The first book immediately next to the player tells about books, and the player can access this by pressing a spacebar. Next they need to use the WASD or arrow keys to move (as the screen instructs). The second book tells about how you can push boxes, one of which is blocking the only way forward for the player.
While they push the box out, there’s another book that the player automatically walks past. When they press spacebar to open the book here, the book tells about picking up boxes, while the character also picks up a box! Unfortunately the game no longer works like this, as you were essentially trying to pick up both items at the same time. Mainly this isn’t possible anymore as in the later versions you pick up towards a direction you last moved, which made the playability much better. I also later added a way to open the boxes by just pushing against them, so the books are even more accessible.
The third section of this tutorial is the pressure plate -> door connection, and in the book I also tell how the doors and plates can have different colors.
Next is the box swinging playground, where I have a book about the swing controls. Immmediately after the book there’s two rows of boxes blocking the player’s way, so they get a good chance to try out this swinging mechanic.
The last section of the tutorial is this pretty compact puzzle, where I’m trying my best to teach the player how the ruined walls work. As mentioned in earlier posts, it’s not immediately clear how this mechanic works and behaves, as I learned from my friends struggling to figure it out without my guidance.
The first part is to see how the boxes go over the ruined walls, so there’s a spot marked with a grass patch where the player has to go stand, pick up the box, and swing the only direction it’s allowed to swing, do that twice and they solve the first door. There’s also a book hinting at the mechanic, but the tone is less direct, as I tried to write some of the tutorial texts less instructional and more hint-like.
The second part is about the double doors and the pressure plates on the right side. Here I use the grass patches again as hints for where to stand and do the swinging. This part teaches first how you can push boxes over the low walls with a swing, and then how you can push things on the other side with your swings. There’s sort of two solutions for the second puzzle, you can either swing the first box to the white pressure plate, or swing a box over the wall and push the boxes by walking.
Second screen
I reworked this level that had been the first screen for the game until now, as I needed to still keep teaching some key elements of the game. This room introduces keys and locked doors, and also introduces us to the goal of a yellow door with the duck behind it. (There’s just a duck and a book behind the door, so it must be the end, right?)
But first, I wanted to give a little exercise of the previous section, so the player has to pick a box here and swing it to activate the pressure plate.
After the first room there’s two books, one teaching how keys and doors work, and the other hinting at how the keys behave like boxes in the game. The latter poit is demonstrated with the little puzzle of the blue key being between the rows of boxes. This puzzle also introduces the concept that I call “a hammer and a nail” where you keep pushing a row of boxes to push something important.
The blue key opens a door to the box storage, which is mostly there so that I have this puzzle step of red pressure plate, but also to give a lot of boxes for the player. I’ve spent a lot of time pushing rows of boxes around making this game and I think it’s a pretty fun mechanic, so I’m intentionally giving way too many boxes to play with.
The third screen stays as-is, and the airlock will never be changed.