3 Goddesses Puzzle is takes place at +- 35% of the game. After these playtests I have labeled it puzzle no. 5.
This made it a good initial puzzle to test the game loop and the different elements i wanted to incorporate in my game, but not a great puzzle for this stage of playtesting, which was essentially aimed to test difficulty and approach. I will have to redo this puzzle.
Scans of the prototype can be found below and include the prototype for puzzle 8, matching shells.
When asked for the names of a goddess, Taz started thinking about the water gods from other pantheons she already knew. Both got stuck on the specifics of the vocab used (the word deity instead of goddess for the crossword).
When she found out the answer she had a major WOAH DISCOVERY moment, which was succesful.
As for the language question, they assumed they were deciphering a letter instead of a grammatical function. They also didn’t know that “x” in the transliteration meant that a letter was crossed out. The PC knows this but the player doesn’t, therefore I have to establish universal knowledge at the right time. For language puzzles I should also stick the the alphabet first, and introduce grammatical concepts separately and clearly.
—> key takeaway 1. introduce the logic of the naming conventions in Huandzaj early on (I will do this in puzzle 3: the harbor buildings)
—> key takeaway 2. be very specific about the descriptions I use in the logbook
—> key takeaway 3. establish foundational knowledge before I present the player with the puzzle. Separate letters, vocabulary and grammatical excercises. (glyph decipherment will be completed in puzzle 2: Huandzaj alphabet transliteration note)
(added info on determinative & another puzzle)
Lee and Sophie discarded the questions initially and read the logbook.
Lee compared the symbols of puzzle 2 with those of puzzle 1 (good but not yet ready for playtesting!)
They liked spreading out all the materials on the table & liked that the puzzles were clearly separated from the story.
—> key takeaway: work in interconnected modules because players will want to compare information of different puzzles.
Took the excavation notes of the goddess puzzle and the shells and started the actual translation process of the alphabet (impossible with the info so far). They liked mixing and matching things.
They compared it the Wreck thsi Journal & gave advice on crossword (one-word answers only).
—> key takeaway: indicate clearly what player is expected to do and remove excess information.