Refresh: A Tale of Two Tabs
Play my GMTK 2024 Entry: https://ecremprown.itch.io/bubballistic
Game Design Document (puzzle spoilers): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSkQShIfZdUmYfO_xDETLXGTGpuKZ4QU_AGl...
Brew up a nice refreshment as Keek the frog. You may have to break a few time-space continuum laws to do so but it'll be worth it!
DO NOT PLAY ON EDGE BROWSER, the jump height is lower for some reason. Chrome or Firefox recommended. Jump height is also messed up by performance so refresh if it gets laggy. There has been one case where the meta mechanics were not working, to avoid this I would advise either closing all other tabs unrelated to the game, especially other itch.io tabs or clearing your cache/trying a different browser.
Move - Arrows/WASD
Jump - Space/Up
Interact/Place - Down
Refresh Tab - Manual refresh is part of the game
Unsoftlock - U (only for if you get completely trapped even after refreshing the tab, you should not be regularly using this: resets position, destroys items, and resets cauldron, not part of any puzzle solutions)
Song - Luciid by TeraVex https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/905077
This game has meta mechanics, allow pop ups, its part of the game. Keep an open mind, clues are important!
Made in 2 weeks for the Pirate Software - Game Jam 15. The theme was Shadows and Alchemy. The main goal of the game is to gather ingredients to make a brew (alchemy), and the shadow theme is implemented but I cannot say how without spoilers.
Happy Birthday Alyssa! I finished this on your bd :)
Download
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Comments
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This is full of amazing ideas! I do feel it's a little unintelligible at the moment, and that more testing could make it actually GREAT.
Even Outer Wilds had to make clues super straightforward for testers to pick up on the relevant information. I feel we as players are often left feeling that game was much more cryptic than it actually is.
I have to admit, the actual solution took me like 20 minutes to execute after I gave up and grabbed the guide (but I was too engaged not to see the ending!). I kept messing it up and wondering how on Earth I'd have done it without step by step instructions.
It's true that I could've experimented more. Now that I know how to use the elevator, I definitely feel "why didn't I try that?" But most other things (shadow/light, glitch) were more on the side of "I wouldn't have noticed that in a million years".
Just spit-balling here but maybe limiting the amount of simultaneous tabs would help. It feels too overwhelming to be allowed to open as many as I want when I have no clue how many I need to test how they interact with each other. Of course you can't prevent new tabs, but I'm sure there's a way to comunicate a limit.
Thank you for your comprehensive feedback! I agree that it is too hard right now, I didnt put a lot of play-testing into it because it was just for a game jam but I think I may go back and make it easier now. I did actually want to limit the number of tabs at one point but I couldnt figure out how to do it in the time frame of the jam. I will try to make the hints less cryptic. Thanks for playing it!
Incredibly well put together! Only bug I found was that refreshing where the lift was clips you partially into the floor (but you can still move and escape). Gradually uncovering how the game works felt pretty magical, and while I ended up having to use a guide, the sheer depth of the game's puzzle mechanics is crazy impressive.
sooooooooo clver! (likely too clever haha)
Ok this is amazing but it's way too complicated for me. Apologies.
Croak! <3
Refresh A Tale of Two Tabs Gameplay
Lovely music, challenging puzzle!
The weight mechanic is pretty cool
Edit:
OK This is actually way cooler than what I initially thought
Amazing