Transcribe

An interactive exploration puzzle game

Explore your way through this little interactive game. All you have to do is transcribing a sequence of letters and/or digits that is given to you.

Just remember that you can't always see everything.

Game Engine: Unity
Graphics: Inkskape, Krita
Sound Effects: taken from www.soundlebible.com and www.noiseforfun.com

** Update ** I uploaded a new version which hopefully partially corrects the mouse issues reported by mac and linux users. I tested on a mac and the mouse seems to be confined to the game as long as the user does not change application while running the game.

Edit: Given the feedback that some of the puzzles might be a bit too hard, I decided to include the solutions here so that you can progress even if you get stuck at some of the levels.

Spoiler alert

Level 1

Just write what you see

Level 2

Solution: ABC
Explanation: part of the letters is invisible, but can be detected by collision with the mouse tool

Level 3

Solution: HZ
Explanation: part of the letters is obscured by "dust"; click and drag the mouse repeatedly to rub the dust away

Level 4

Solution: HI5
Explanation: the letters produce sound when the mouse tool is hovering over them

Level 5

Solution: 74
Explanation: this one is a bit of a trickster, just write what you see again!

Level 6

Solution: 8N
Explanation: click and drag in the upper left corner, you will drag an upper layer wihich is hiding part of the letters

Level 7

Solution: 2C
Explanation: the letters are visible, but almost white; you should be able to see them by tilting the screen/looking at it from an angle

Level 8

Solution: D3ND
Explanation: click and drag the mouse to paint around the letters (actually I think one can see the letters as in the previous level, but that is unintended, probably due to some colour mistake while creating the sprites)

Voting results

Overall
12th
24%
6.769
Graphics
27th
58%
5.192
Gameplay
16th
33%
6.038
Originality
2nd
2%
8.577
Theme
2nd
2%
8.692

This game entered in the Solo competition (45 entries).

Comments (23)

isubka
 • 6 years ago • 

It's a bit hard but the idea is good! :)

Caique Assis
(@caiqueassis) • 6 years ago • 

Hey!

Very clever use of the theme! I got some issues because my mouse wasn't always "centered", but I could play up until the part where you need to "listen" to the shapes to identify them.

One of the most original ideas I've played on this jam!

treslapin
 • 6 years ago • 

It gets difficult a bit too quickly. I think putting in a few easier puzzles in between would have made this a lot better. I like the overall concept though!

ciobeni
 • 6 years ago • 

Great variety in puzzles, I didn't know what to expect in those last 2.

I found the font a bit hard to read at first.

dorkulon
 • 6 years ago • 

It's like captchas, the game! I really like the idea a lot! The progression could be a little easier, say, iterate a few times on one style of revealing at a time before moving to the next one. As far as a showcase of what kind of ideas you can do with this concept, it was great.

Sílvia Cavadas
(@silviacavadas)  • 6 years ago • 

@isubka, @caiqueassis, @treslapin, @ciobeni, @dorkulon Thank you all for the feedback!

I have now included the solutions in the game description so that you can progress even if you get stuck at some point.

Since I didn't really playtest with different people I had no good estimate for the difficulty of the puzzles, and I suppose they always feel easier if you're the one thinking about them! I didn't want the game to become repetitive, but I see now that perhaps that made the game too abrupt. I will try to include a more gentle level progression (and even more variety!) in a future version of the game.

horizontale
 • 6 years ago • 

Hey! I had to rely on the solutions pretty hard. Some of the mouse movement was pretty finicky and hard to figure out. but i really liked the idea!

notnullnotvoid
 • 6 years ago • 

I love the concept of exploring the various ways to discover hidden information using the mouse. This was really fun, and I got through it without the solutions (the in-game hints make things decently easy) but I did like some puzzles more than others. I liked the audio puzzle, and I especially loved the first puzzle where I had "feel" the letters with the mouse. There's something very satisfying about how tactile it is.

I did encounter some technical problems, though:

  • The mouse movement is a bit janky. It lags behind the mouse's real movements when you move it fast, and because it doesn't lock the mouse to the center of the screen, the mouse can end up at the edges. That's a problem in OSX because when the mouse is at the top edge of the screen in fullscreen mode, the application menu shows up (it looks like this), which obscures a small part of the screen, and you can accidentally start clicking around in menus instead of in the game.
  • The third puzzle seems a bit unfair. I tried clicking and dragging at first, but gave up because it didn't look like it was doing anything. But in fact you just have to drag back and forth multiple times before the hidden parts start showing up.
  • Puzzle 6 won't work for people with monitors that have good viewing angles. I was able to see it just by looking intently at a normal angle, but not by tilting my screen.

Overall a very good entry.

Antti Haavikko
(@anttihaavikko) • 6 years ago • 

Pretty cool!

As has been pointed out, the mouse movement was quite bad. Since it didn't align with the actual cursor, I kept clicking outside the play area opening different apps and so on. In that first collider puzzle I had to constantly bait the cursor back to real cursor because it was already in the edge of the screen and couldn't move anymore.

On the 6th one, couldn't really see it at all before screenshotting and dropping it to photoshop. Guess it's just the screen calibration. On the 7th then, the text was clearly visible without any changes.

The pacing was a bit off. Probably would have been better to first introduce each idea as a simpler puzzle (like only one hidden letter per puzzle). Then after introducing some of the concepts, you could even start combining them. I would have left the numbers out completely. They just add more guess work wether it's 5/S and so on.

The drawing bit was cool but could have used an erasing with RMB or something instead of just requiring one to clear everything. I scribbled quite a bit of extras in some of the puzzles and didn't want to clear the whole thing I had already done so it just made it needlessly hard to recognize the letters/numbers.

The in game hints (didn't need your spoilers, actually didn't even notice them before finishing the game, I have a bad habit of not reading the descriptions at all before playing the games) were a bit hit and miss. Majority of the time the hints were way too late because I refures to trigger them manually and had already figured out the puzzle and just had wrong letter/number or something. Like adding some "smartness" to the hint system would work, for example maybe don't tell the player about the ability to click on the canvas when they've already been painting on it.

And by the way, opting out of a category doesnn't mean you can break the rules of said category.

All in all, good job!

Sílvia Cavadas
(@silviacavadas)  • 6 years ago • 

@notnullnotvoid, @anttihaavikko Thank you for the detailed feedback!

I knew that the mouse movement could be a problem; when I ran it in my computer in full screen it worked decently, but apparently in other machines the cursor is still able to activate other menus/apps. But I think that locking the mouse would solve most of it! I had already heard about that possibility, but I totally forgot about it! Thank you for the tip @notnullnotvoid.

I will try to incorporate your suggestions about game flow in a future version of the game.

Sílvia Cavadas
(@silviacavadas)  • 6 years ago • 

@anttihaavikko

Regarding the sound category: I was under the impression that one can use pre-existing sound effects (but not music) as indicated here:

Finally, you could just grab existing sounds, which is allowed even in rated competitions, as long as the assets you use have a permissive license.

Antti Haavikko
(@anttihaavikko) • 6 years ago • 

Hmm, kinda weird that it says so there and otherwise on the actual rules page:

Audio asset reuse: You must make all your audio assets during the event. However, you are allowed to use:
Any existing sounds for SFX or as short samples for music, including drums and other sampled instruments (reusing full music tracks is not allowed);
Assets created from sound generation or speech synthesis tools.

And I am no authority on the rules at all and it's not a big deal anyway, just pointing it out for future reference ;)

edit: And I completely missed that "for SFX" part there which seems to mean that it is allowed anyway. My bad! Kinda weirdly worded if it only using full music is not allowed but other sounds are just fine.

edit 2: Or it could even mean that you can use existing sounds as samples when creating new sound effects and music, so remixing the sounds a bit at least instead of using them as is. But dunno, who knows…

Giustitia
 • 6 years ago • 

The gameplay is good, i didn't get stuck more than normal. Loved the 2nd level and the idea :)

thomastc
 • 6 years ago • 

Attention: WeTransfer says they'll delete the Linux file in 4 days.

Very clever idea!

The Linux version works, but my mouse cursor tends to get stuck in subregions of the play area without a way to get back. I'm guessing that the actual mouse pointer is bumping up to the edge of the screen at that point, so you may need to reset it to the actual position of the dot every frame, or to the middle of the screen.

As to sound, I did mention that weird formulation in the rules in the IRC channel, but nobody seems to have picked it up. I'm still not sure what the spirit is, but you did follow the letter.

MetallicFrog
 • 6 years ago • 

Nice game! The second level took me a little off guard,

I was reading '1' and 'F' and jumped on the lacking third letter trying to find the shape of it. Thus I was always wrong and began to curse your game lol, until I realize the first two letters were incomplete.

Nice one man, nice one!

Sílvia Cavadas
(@silviacavadas)  • 6 years ago • 

@MetallicFrog I'm happy you liked it! :)

Could I ask you to enclose the spoiler in a spoiler environment as explained here? Just to make sure nobody sees it accidentally. :)

MetallicFrog
 • 6 years ago • 

Done, sorry for the troubles ^^

Juutis
 • 6 years ago • 

A nice and original game. I played it with a projector so the monitor tilting puzzle didn't really work that well. :) As others already pointed out, the same applies for monitor with good viewing angles. Apart from that, good job.

DictorDro
 • 6 years ago • 

wow man, good job! It definitely one of the best entry. Original and challenging puzzles, it was really fun to play!

oparisy
 • 6 years ago • 

I was so proud when I solved the first levels! Like, super-meat-boy-level proud! Thanks for the experience. Also I liked your visual design a lot.

HuvaaKoodia
 • 6 years ago • 

Very jittery, un-playable, mouse movement in the Linux build using Linux Mint. Could be just my setup, though. Played the Windows build in the end.

Neat! I do like open-ended visual problems every once in a while. At times the thinking outside of the box aspect didn't work out that well.

The all white level failed to comply with my monitor and the corner dragging level was a bit too specific (all of the corners should have worked in my opinion).

The visuals are colorful and quirky in just the right way. Music is lacking, not a big deal.

Good job, what can I say.

Overall: 7 (Good)
Graphics: 7 (Good)
Gameplay: 6 (Above average)
Originality: 8 (Great)
Theme: 7 (Good)

euske
 • 6 years ago • 

Aargh, I couldn't figure out all the answers by myself! The puzzle was very original though. I liked how every level is using a different trick.

RodMolina
 • 6 years ago • 

Amazing! Definetly getting 10/10 in originality. Apart from the mouse issues, this is a pretty awesome game! Maybe you could work better the artistic-graphical part, yet it doesn't boder me the way it is, or affects the gameplay in any way.

Awesome work!

Login to comment

Links

download

Author

silviacavadas

Details