I put the release notes at the bottom. And right here, is a short story about this game.

About the game

The idea came from a conversation with https://chaoticgood.itch.io/.  Her and I currently work at the same studio and we were talking about Global Game Jam 2022. She was set on making a "concept first" game. When I asked what that meant, she referenced games like "Getting Over it" and "Everything" by David OReilly. After our conversation, I realized I'd prefer to make a non-traditional game as well. I decided to go solo and make a game in the form of an essay. Essays are FUN, right? 

Consequently, she went a different direction. Even though she's a professional writer, her game focused on conveying two distinct feelings as much as possible without any words. (see it here: https://chaoticgood.itch.io/as-above-so-below).  I thought it was funny that I spent my time with words, and the writer spent most of her time with software.

So, even before the GGJ theme was announced, I was already thinking about making a simple essay-based game.

Pretty early on I decided on the combination lock as the central puzzle. And that decision made me think:
"How do you convince a player to try cracking a really really long combo lock?" 
They'd have to be invested in the game before they see the lock. Otherwise they're more likely to rage-quit/fear-quit.
"What if they have to walk down a long corridor or through a huge hall before they see the combo?"
Sure, that'd work. It makes them invest some time in the game before they have to DO anything. It'd also give a sense of weight and importance to the game and the combo lock. Especially if the lock was in a position of importance.
"But, what if they get stuck?"
Hmmm... I could add a room that gives hints.
"Couldn't that be a lot of work?"
You're right. I'll cut that from scope now. No hints. I'll just have to make the puzzles relatively simple.

From there, it was time to come up with puzzles and writing short essays about them.
Every puzzle maker seems to have trouble talking about their puzzle design process. After making a fair number of puzzles, I think I understand why. Every puzzle is like writing a song. You don't necessary start from the same place or follow the same steps each time. Otherwise you'd end up with the same song. I made around 10 puzzles for this game, but only 7 made the cut. The game as a whole has the same constraints. Solving the puzzles should happen outside the game. But I wanted slightly different constraints on each individual puzzle.
Some ask you to look up information. Some ask you to solve math problems. Some ask you to make logical leaps.
I suspect, if I wanted to expand this game, I could build more coherent blocks of puzzles. But GGJ really only allows for so much time, which is perfect. 

Oh sure... there was code to write and assets to make. There were voice overs to record and edit. But most of time was spent either conceptualizing the puzzles or writing about them. I had a lot of conversations with my partner and girlfriend. About what puzzles are too hard or too easy. About accessibility. About getting players engage and invested.

And after 2 weekends of work, I had what I have.
I'm happy with it and it's pretty cool.

Release Notes

Here's what changed in the most recent version:

• Fixed dozens of subtitle problems. Seriously, there were so many mistakes in the subtitles, it was like I was rushing this game to meet some arbitrary deadline.
• Actually building for OSx instead of iOS. 
• Writing all those fine words above about the making of the game.