Electron DanceNov 13, 2022

Playing more of Stereo Boy as it's not an incredibly difficult puzzler and looks nice.

There is the mandatory goal - to get to the exit of a level - and the optional goals, retrieving logs and (somewhat more importantly) retrieving shards. #indiegames #puzzlegame

Show threadElectron DanceNov 13, 2022
Retrieving shards in Stereo Boy unlocks bonus levels and often it's the shards that turn out to quite hard to retrieve. I've abandoned a handful, with a mind to return later.
Show threadElectron DanceNov 13, 2022
The effort to acquire shards in the final level of the Stereo Boy's second area, for example, requires some patience including grabbing this key. Finishing the level itself is not so difficult.
Show threadElectron DanceNov 13, 2022
There are a number of different elements in Stereo Boy now: basic puzzle elements like locked doors and buttons - but also blocks which follow you through teleport and sections which will teleport if you shoot them.
Show threadElectron DanceNov 13, 2022

Stereo Boy, the good: interesting puzzles, not a difficult puzzler like Snakebird and fun trying to work out where all the sneaky shards are hiding.

The middling: Thinly veiled climate change story is OK with some cute jokes about how teleportation could be used.

The bad: action bits feel unnecessary; large levels are worrying if you don't get the shards (or die, even) - you have to start them over if you want to get missed shards.

#Indiegames #puzzlegame

Show threadElectron DanceNov 14, 2022

Important #StereoBoy discovery! You can change your l'il robots health so it has a better chance against spinny spikes and shooty things.

You can also make it INFINITE

Show threadElectron DanceNov 14, 2022

And it was a good time to discover it as well - this bonus level "Fortress" had a lot of enemies. Everywhere. Placed in a way to panic and kill you. #StereoBoy continues

#Indiegames #thinkygames

Show threadElectron Dance

I'm into the final area in #StereoBoy by @jeffomatic et al and I'm still having fun. It's not perfect - no puzzle game is, especially not The Witness.

The lack of an undo is not usually a problem but when collecting shards you do need to be careful: some of these need to be picked up before you commit to certain irreversible actions.

And I actually dropped myself into a dead end situation (depicted) and lack of undo is a pain in this rare scenario.

#Indiegames #puzzlegame

Nov 18, 2022 at 11:14pmWeb
Show threadElectron DanceNov 18, 2022
Still, this is not a big problem with #StereoBoy. There's this fascinating process whereby I look at one of its lovely-looking levels and have NO UNDERSTANDING of what I'm seeing. I start to hack away at it and, slowly, the levels become familiar but in a unusual piecewise fashion; I see different parts of the level as almost separate fiefdoms.
Show threadElectron DanceDec 19, 2022

Hey hey I've finally completed #StereoBoy by @jeffomatic and team. I mean collected every shard as well (which necessitated doing a few levels twice as I was unable to pick up all the shards on the first attempt).

#indiegames #puzzlegames

Show threadElectron DanceDec 19, 2022
This was one of the hardest mandatory puzzles in the game towards the end. Fun solution and I award #StereoBoy gold points for obscuring it. As I have also tried to obscure it also :)
Show threadJeff LeeDec 19, 2022
@ElectronDance Amazing, you got the cat ending. Hope it was a good time! Now that you're done, I'm curious to know what your favorite level was.
Show threadElectron DanceDec 20, 2022
@jeffomatic I'm not sure! I broke up the play a little bit too much and it's difficult to remember. Even though I had a love/hate relationship with the big-ass levels, I think they are the ones that remained in memory as they felt like adventures: Fortress, Space Elevator and the one where you're going down and down and down. Also some of the bonus levels in the final area are sassy.
Show threadJeff LeeNov 18, 2022

@ElectronDance Woof, that seems like such an obvious softlock in retrospect.

Our policy is that you should always be able to reach the level exit, even if you can't get every shard in a single run. We'll look into shipping a tweak. Thanks for the heads-up, glad you're still enjoying it!

Show threadElectron DanceNov 18, 2022
@jeffomatic I had indeed become very accustomed to that design tenet, that levels were always finishable (but shards were dicey), and I was quite shocked to have accidentally set up this situation. "no, this can't be right, surely there must be... what, no..."
Show threadJeff LeeNov 18, 2022

@ElectronDance That level (Ocean Rig) seems to be jinxed...we've patched it at least a couple times already.

I'd be equally curious to find cases of the opposite problem, which is a path that lets you skip puzzles. Teleportation makes these not so easy to spot!

There's an automated solution to both of these, but it's a bit scary/hard so we haven't really tried. The closest I ever got to that was writing a program to cheat at one of those column wraparound puzzles in the Witness.