Graytail

Loved The Way Home! I was excited to see you released this alpha build for a new game. Play through was easier than expected but enjoyable. If it's anything like The Way Home I anticipate the levels to become pretty challenging later on. The larger puzzle with the water took me a while to figure out, but not because it was difficult. It was a straightforward path with fairly simple puzzle mechanics but it wasn't immediately evident what my goal was so I just let solving the puzzles guide me through the dungeon. Could there be a cut scene to emphasize the water level and the three statues? That would clarify the ultimate goal of the puzzles.

I have not beat the whole bonus dungeon but it was fun to pick up so many extra skills and got me excited for the beta/ more game.

What is the yellow texture meant to represent that we break with the pickaxe? I would guess stone from the sound but it looks a bit like gold??

Thanks for a fun game!

❤️❤️❤️ loved it! Just heard there was a bonus dungeon don't know if I found it. Just saw a place I went beyond the map I don't know if that was intentional. can't wait to play the actual game.

Gave it a quick play - beat the main quest, haven't beaten the bonus dungeon yet. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes. I see potential, if it's the kind of game I think it is. But since you asked for feedback (yes it looks long, but only because I'm trying to be thorough why I think a couple things were issues, in the hope it's more useful than merely pointing out the issues):

The puzzles don't seem very difficult. This isn't necessarily a problem, in part it depends on what the gameplay is meant to be. I definitely get some "Zelda" hints from this (especially with the pixel art - has a nice retro feel to it), so focusing on exploration over hard puzzles isn't a bad thing. (also, having grown up on games like Zelda, Secret of Mana, etc my idea of what is a hard puzzle in such a game might be skewed). So I don't think it would hurt to be more challenging, but I also don't know that it needs to be.

I got a little lost at first going through the the first dungeon. In the end it was just because I didn't notice the water rise to let me make the crate bridge. I don't know if it just wasn't obvious to me though, or if I stumbled across a bug, since when I came back later and tried again I noticed it right away.

The main issues I had were the controls. I'll toss arrow keys out as just a personal preference when controlling games like this, so WASD + JK/etc feels a bit weird to me - but again, preference. At least you didn't use the mouse for attacking, so thank you for that. But I did find it to be awkward switching weapons/tools. K wouldn't always switch (I believe it was when I was in pushing distance of a block, the ready-to-push overrides the equipment switch, so when I wanted to change to the torch near some crates for example, I had to realize I needed to step back first). Also found myself accidentally changing the tool by hitting K in the middle of encounters, so don't think I'm sold on the "tool switch" interface. (I have a few other thoughts on inputs as well - although it starts to wander into HCI theory, and the comment section might not be where I want to write a UI dissertation right now 😅)

When I first picked up the torch and it asked if I wanted to equip it, I found that a bit annoying, and I didn't want to use it right then, so I said no - only to find out later that I needed to equip it in order to be able to switch to it. Later, when I got the umbrella I said "yes" to equipping it so I wouldn't have to later... only to find that unequipped my weapon because there's only 4 equip slots. This feels a little awkward, since there's kind of two levels of inventory management - one to decide which items are "usable" and one to decide which of the usable items you're using. I don't know how else the inventory is used, but I don't think I'm sold on that part of it at least. But I'm not sure I have a suggestion - depends on how much tool switching is necessary, and what else the inventory does what UI will make that cleaner.

I quite enjoyed how so many random pieces of the environment could be played with - lights, fans, ovens, etc turned on and off - it's not really necessary, but it's a kind of cute little bit of "flavour", but I did find having to interact with doors and ladders to use them a little bit awkward - in part because I'm not sure I remember playing too many games where you had to interact with ladders, but also because since you've got an interaction "target" you sometimes have to move around a bit before it targets the ladder or door. You might want to make "use" preferentially target things that can actually be interacted with in front of you, even if they're a little bit "outside" the default target zone (then you might not even need the visible target marker).

Looking forward to seeing the boss in the beta build!

Is the puzzle too difficult? / Is it too simple?

A - For me it was very simple at the beginning, but then the puzzle difficulty increased  at a good pace to the point that I had moments like I was feeling pretty smart lol, when I was exploring the extra hidden areas in the village with the extra equipment/stuff that I found, so it was very good.

Are you okay with directions? / Are you too lost? 

A - Yes I am, there was a moment that I was not remembering a specific place that I visited before but then I found it

 Would it be better if there was more explanation?

A - To me it was good enough explanation

One small thing,  the sound of the rock moving sounded a bit louder to me than other similar interactions, but not a big deal

I really enjoyed playing the demo of your game, keep going!