The goal is to use clues to get to the next page of the puzzle; most levels require the user to guess the correct URL to move on, using clues on the page, in the source code, or embedded in files like images and sound files.
If you are into puzzle games I really recommend Braid ( http://braid-game.com/ ) - it's a game where you manipulate time to solve puzzles. There's an surprising end ;)
I found this game a week or so ago, when it didn't tell you what level you finished or how many were left after each level. :)
The game got a whole lot less arbitrary and confusing once I figured out that to link from one frame to the next, the entire pattern of solid and empty space on that edge must match, not just the hole you're trying to squeeze through.
I finished the game in an hour or two. Fun, innovative concept. The final level was the hardest for me.
Some of the levels feel like the authors just put them together arbitrarily to overwhelm, but there are a good amount of easier "fun" levels which introduce new ways of thinking about things. Unfortunately, the entire game seemed to be made up of either easy/"fun" levels or harder/"overwhelm" levels -- the concepts introduced in the fun levels didn't seem to make it into the normal gameplay. (Or then again, maybe I was just using the new concepts so often I didn't notice!)
I was initially angered and almost quit when I thought that the authors weren't letting me know when I could jump down pits without dying. It took me a while to realize that the entire edges had to overlap, rather than just the specific pit I was jumping down.
Overall though, it's rare for me to finish a Flash game. So it gets five stars from me!
My wife just finished this game last night. She usually sticks to the usual boring flash games, but got into this and was up late finishing it. It was about 8 hours of play for her (with the usual web browsing and such). She really enjoyed it. I don't think it has much replay value (yet). The difficulty definitely ramped up in the last 12 levels. We really enjoyed the gameplay. To break it down further it combines a 2d-portal element, side scroll elements and puzzle elements in a cohesive way.
I think a faster ramp-up would be better. I just finished 19, I see the solution to 20, and I kind of feel like it isn't worth the time to see 21. Maybe you could limit the game to three levels for each new concept? The comparison to Portal is apt, but there weren't many routine levels in Portal. I think you could cut the number of levels by half and still retain all the puzzle-solving challenge. It would just be more concentrated.
Still, this is really good. I don't bother with flash games very often, but I'll be sharing this link with a few friends.
I showed it to a few friends and I'm glad the ramp-up is at the pace it's at. It makes it friendlier for folks who aren't naturally analytical thinkers, I think.
That is to say, the ramp-up pace is good because analytical thinkers will blaze through the levels quickly enough that they don't get bored, and non-analytical thinkers won't feel like it's too hard too soon. Maximum audience retention.
Difficulty rampup (and the rate at which you introduce new concepts) is very tricky to do right. Valve did a lot of user testing for Portal to get it as smooth as they did.
If you're interested in this stuff, don't miss Portal's developer commentary.
Great game, very addictive. Did the performance get really slow for anybody else around level 10? Feels like a memory leak, events not being handled properly or similar are making the little guy slow down to a crawl after a while.
Is there some sort of mathematics applicable to the level generation? For some reason, something about the game vaguely reminds me of hypercubes... though I'm not particularly familiar with hypercubes.
Too bad that they introduce the clever idea needed for levels like 16 (& I think 14?) in a level that allows no alternative: the skill build-up is a little too slow to make those AHAs as satisfying as they should be.
Yeah, but it has so many possibilities. What if you can flip tiles over? What if you have to race other people who can also move the tiles? What if you combine it with the concept in the game Shift? http://www.kongregate.com/games/ArmorGames/shift
One pet peeve is the connections between tiles. I think if the tiles match each other, the border between them should vanish (if not in the large manipulation view, at least in the small character view).
Here's another unique online game, called Ouverture Facile: http://www.ouverture-facile.com/start/index.html
It's a riddle/puzzle/problem solving game of sorts.