Refresh: A Tale of Two Tabs
Warning: This game is very difficult and the clues are quite cryptic so I added a helpful hint section at the end of the description. The hints are in a relatively chronological order. Good Luck!
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 it but it'll be worth it!
DON'T 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 you should either close all other tabs unrelated to the game, especially other itch.io tabs or clear your cache/try 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 (before the controversy) - 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.
Hints (spoilers):
Click to reveal (Items)
How each item works: The white item is lead (Pb), it makes you heavy and unable to jump high but allows you to break some floors if you fall from a great enough height. The fire acts like a mobile light and can also burn wood. The crystal switches your gravity when you jump but only a certain amount of times before it breaks. The block allows you to place one square block in front of you that you can jump on.
Click to reveal (The Button)
The big red button simply opens another tab of the game but only two tabs are required to beat it so don't let it clog up your browser by pressing it a million times.Click to reveal (Refreshing)
Some information can be saved across a refresh but only when specific conditions are met.Click to reveal (Coordinate Display)
This clue reveals what would be saved when the game is refreshed but mainly how to save your position across a refresh. Pay close attention to your positioning in relation to the light when you refresh.Click to reveal (Two Tabs)
Cross-Tab Communication: some information can be transmitted from one tab of the game to another. The phrase "Last Light" is important here.Click to reveal (Button Mural)
This mural reveals how to save an item you are holding across a refresh and how to bring it into a position with light using another tab. Pay close attention to your positioning in relation to the light on both tabs.Click to reveal (Hidden Mural)
Mural behind wall: Using knowledge from previous hints this mural should be reachable. However, here is what it says: There is a special event that occurs during the first minute of each refresh which is revealed by the timer next to the mural. If a wooden or cracked wall is broken during this event, it will start broken in the next refresh.Click to reveal (Lift Mural)
The lift is special in that it can be activated from anywhere using previously learned mechanics. Think about why there are two images in the mural and the difference between them.Click to reveal (Putting it all Together)
Even after knowing all the meta mechanics the final solution can be quite difficult to discover, probably to its detriment, but here are a few hints on how to figure it out. Your goal is to bring all of the ingredients to the cauldron in one tab because the state of the cauldron cannot be saved across tabs or refreshes.Click to reveal (Which Wall?)
You only have enough time to break one wall during the glitch, so which one? You need to break the cracked floor to the far left that leads down into the lower level.Click to reveal (Order of Operation)
The items will be brought to the cauldron in the following order: Fire, Lead, Crystal.Click to reveal (Item Uses)
Fire: The fire will be used to burn the wall to the right of the cauldron before being deposited. Lead: The lead will be used to break the wall into the lower level and the wall above the cauldron room. Crystal: The crystal will be used to get the block. Block: The block will be used to create a path to the cauldron for the lead. Lift: The lift will be used to retrieve the crystal.Click to reveal (The Crystal's Path)
The crystal will not need to regain it's uses via a refresh. Before you even grab the crystal, the floor leading to the lower level, the floor above the cauldron, and the wall to the right of the cauldron will be broken. There exists a path that allows you to get up to where the block is stored with 2 crystal uses left, you will need to drop the crystal while on the ceiling but you will need to retrieve it from the ground.Click to reveal (The Final Solution)
The game can be beaten with just two tabs. Step one is to open two tabs in the default set-up with the player in the cauldron room and no items used or walls broken. In your “main” tab, grab the lead and climb up the stairs to break the cracked floor on the far left, wait for the glitch to occur and then break the floor, remain in the dark and then switch to your other tab. In this tab, break the same floor (glitch does not matter here) and bring the fire up to where you would be able to jump down and break the cracked floor in the gravity crystal room. Then switch to your other tab and refresh. You should now have the lead and be able to jump down and break the floor, landing in the hole in the cauldron room. Drop the lead and go get the fire, if done correctly the wall blocking the fire from getting out of the bottom level should already be broken. Bring the fire to the wooden wall in the room to the right of the cauldron and burn it, then deposit the fire in the cauldron. Next go get the gravity crystal and use it twice to get out and then hold left falling through the hole where the ground was. Keep holding left, this should bring you to the lower level and then go right to the room with the hole in the ceiling below the cauldron room. Go up there and hold right and travel up to the block item, drop the crystal on the ceiling inside the tunnel leading to the block item where there is a 1 block gap between the floor and the ceiling (so that it has 2 uses left and you can re-grab it from the floor later). Now grab the block and bring it down to where the lead is, this will allow you to bring the lead up to the cauldron. Finally, position yourself above where the rising platform would come through the floor. Activate the platform in the other tab and quickly switch back so that it brings you up to where you left the gravity crystal. Grab the crystal and use the last two clicks to escape through the left path and bring it to the cauldron.Download
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Comments
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This looks like it has great potential, but perhaps my brain is bad, because I feel like I have no idea what is successfully causing me to progress.
Also, if we only need two tabs, is it possible to make it so that pressing the button again just moves me to tab 2? I don't know how feasible that is, since someone could have as many tabs as they like open.
Thanks! I added some hints in the description to make it a bit easier since I wasn't really able to polish the puzzle design with the time limit. That's a great idea for the button but I'm not sure if I can do that, I'll look into it.
Too cryptic for its own good, ends up beeing miserable
The puzzle design definitely needs some polish but it was for a game jam so I'm not too worried about it. All the same I added some hints to the description to make it a bit more friendly.
Struggled to understand the glitch mechanic, feels poorly/weirdly communicated. Besides that, I played another one of your games (PTP) and had the same experience and issue. Very clever puzzle ideas but too tedious and frustrating to play, too much gameplay friction that gets in the way of the player's curiosity and ability to experiment with the puzzle aspect. In this case, even with the map being small, a player runs into the issue of tedious metroidvania backtracking combined with having to do multiple reloads and tab switching. With tighter gameplay and more playtesting, your puzzle design could be excellent.
Thank you for the feedback! I agree, these games are not at their full potential, more playtesting was needed. I'm working on another puzzlevania type game so hopefully I'll improve.
For some reason when I get the white flower can't jump anymore
Im on Chrome if that matters
too big brain for me
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