Almost done with puzzles! Counting Levels of each type/main mechanic

I am nearly done with making puzzles for the game! I might still add a couple puzzles here and there but the bulk of the work is done.

I was curious about how many levels of each type (i.e. main mechanic) there were so I made this (approximate) chart:

The colors indicate main mechanics and the subcolors indicate relative difficulty within a mechanic. (Some levels use more than one mechanic, however…). The surprising thing for me is the large “blue” section, which is one fourth of the game, and which I added almost as an afterthought and didn’t anticipate would be so rich, while some other sections didn’t end up as relatively interesting as I thought they would be.

I am very happy with the result as every single one of these levels contains a unique idea. Luckily the 4D mechanic is extremely rich so I didn’t have to look much higher than the low-hanging fruits.

It seems like I almost doubled the number of puzzles in the game these past seven months? The initial prototype had about 30 puzzles, which defined the basic rules and most of the mechanics. Then I fleshed out the tutorial section and added two main mechanics: two years later I had about twice that amount. Then I mostly stopped making puzzles (even though all the mechanics were set) to focus on improving the graphics (which in turn improved the gameplay), but I added a few puzzles here and there, and I had about 80. This final push increased that to around 140: I added puzzles to all the mechanics to fill-in blind spots and make the difficulty ramps smoother, then made most of the puzzles for two main mechanics and replaced a small mechanic that had been bothering me for a long time with one that is much cooler.

Now I will do a last pass improving various graphical things, while we work on making each of these puzzles and the rest of the game look and sound as good as possible.

Finally, here’s a recent screenshot I didn’t post on the blog yet:

29 Responses to “Almost done with puzzles! Counting Levels of each type/main mechanic”

  1. Patrick says:

    Looks awesome. I hope I live to see the release! :p

    • Jojo says:

      …..annnndddd almost a year later….. I too would like to see this game before running the risk of passing on…

  2. Erik McLennan says:

    Awesome 🙂

  3. Sami says:

    Sweet! I love how much work you’re putting into the aesthetics as well; it’s definitely important, considering that the world essentially morphs and the visuals are a significant part of the gameplay itself.

    Looking forward to it!

  4. Paddy says:

    I agree, Patrick. Since finding out about this promised game, I’ve had three major operations and several stints an the hospital emergency. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be long dead before I get the chance to try it out.

  5. sixtyfps says:

    Whenever I see a ‘tabletop’-style VR demo, I wish it were this game.

  6. Hypersapien says:

    Cool! When’s the release date?

    Kidding.

    Seriously though, have you talked at all with Steam about getting it listed? Or are you thinking you might want to stay away from them? I have no idea what they’re like from the Dev’s side of things.

  7. Orestes says:

    Hi Marc!

    Do you reckon you’ll share your 4D development environment once the game is out, so other people can add puzzles or mod the game in explorative/interesting ways? Perhaps open-source your SDK on Git or something?

    Keep up the awesome games, ideas and articles! (more articles please, we like reading them ^_^ )

    • marc says:

      Sure, I will do something so that people can make their own levels.

    • Orestes says:

      Cool stuff!
      Do you reckon you’ll allow people to add to the tool, or will it be a fixed level editor?
      Also: (you will probably evade this question, but…)
      is there any mechanic in the game that uses more than 4 spacial dimensions?

      • marc says:

        It’s not super clear right now what I will do, but the level format is pretty simple, so it is possible that people will make their own tools?

  8. Ehnawneemuss says:

    Man, how’d I miss THIS getting posted?

    Talk about being late to the party 😛

    On topic:

    YAYZ!
    BRAIN-BENDING PUZZLE-Y GOODNESS!

  9. Jamato says:

    All these years I waited. Now the end is nigh. I bow to your dedication, sir.

  10. Josh says:

    I’m very interesting in this game. And I’m looking forward to playing it. Just wondering, will you continue to add levels after release like Candy Crush.

  11. Roberto says:

    You my friend are an awesome person and coder!!! I wish you can make a ton of cash and make all your dreams come true. 😀 Cant wait to get your game.

  12. Benjipede says:

    Wouldn’t it be cool if you included a real Klein bottle?

  13. Thomas says:

    I have read in one of your answers to questions in the comments that you are modeling the character of the game as a 3D-object within a 4D-world and adding some infinitesimal width into the fourth dimension for collision detection. My question is about the NPCs you meet while playing: Say, while being (or viewing) a particular 3D-slice of our 4D-world, you meet another person, who is 3D and bound to live in this 3D-slice. If you were now to leave this slice — its 3D and thus has infinitesimal width — how would you ever find your way back to this person. Any 3D-slice in a 4D would has measure 0, thus, when I move through the 4D world in order to find the original 3D-slice — to meet the person who lives in this slice — the probability of stopping at the exact right moment is zero.

    As I have seen in your videos, you meet and re-meet other people in the game. So, do they live in a 4D-world, i.e., do they have a specific fourth-dimensional thickness? If this is the case, do they “shape-shift” depending on the angle at which I look at them?

    • Sam says:

      From what I’ve seen it looks like rotations don’t happen around your character as much as they happen around a grid point. I can’t say for sure, but that’s what it looks like

    • marc says:

      Hum, I replied to this a while ago but it didn’t show up? Sorry about that.

      You are right that this is a problem. They have some 4D thickness but we also project them onto your slice sometimes so that you always see them if they are nearby. It’s kind of a hack, which I don’t really like, but it seems necessary (It only happens for characters).

  14. monica says:

    your work is so beautiful. it’s a real privilege to be able to read about your process in creating Miegakure thus far.

  15. Sam says:

    anticipation grows…

  16. Guy says:

    Awesome!! I’m really looking forward to this game!