I got stuck on the third one.

i think you should only skip the phrases after pressing SPACE. i couldn't read the last message so i can't solve the last cipher.

@debugman18 If you're still stuck, press 1 to consult your mentor and have a think about what he might be trying to tell you.

@rbgondim I wondered whether that might be a problem, and considered adding a feature that would let you see the previous messages you'd deciphered, but ran out of time to implement it before the Compo deadline. I might add it in later but since this is a Compo entry it won't be in the version here on the site.

I got stuck on level two .. but then I found the xz key and that made it :D; good entry; love them puzzles/hacking things.

@f1krazy i went full hacker, downloaded the files, tic80, opened the file, read the last phrase through the editor and solved the last one! very good game nonetheless!

@rbgondim I mean, the fact you went out of your way to do that is enough to tell me how much you enjoyed the game, if you ask me. Thanks for the review!

I got past a couple of the Vigenere ciphers, but I got stumped on the last(?) one. Pretty neat idea! I like the UI design.

@alchemic You're not the first to get stuck on the Vigenere ciphers, so I'm going to have to have a think about how better to clue them. I *will* say that they're all spelled out in the messages you crack. I'm glad you like the UI design, though, I'm quite happy with it myself.

Ok cool! I got stuck on the marine mammal one, I did not note down any of the last decrypted messages :sweat_smile: But I had a blast playing yours! Very well explained also, I can imagine some people actually learned some skills from your game :sunflower:

@wouter52 Thanks! I thought it was important to make sure the ciphers were explained well enough without it being too wordy and boring the player. I've received a lot of feedback about not being able to review the previous messages so I'll see what I can do about that.

Pretty cool - definitely being able to pull up previous ones, if there were clues would be cool .

For the each level, it'd be cool to see the signal waveform change depending on how close you were ( or some form of subtle clue , perhaps like wordle ) where colour or shape of the wave changes.


@johnnysix I didn't think of the waveform idea, that's actually pretty cool. I'll have a think and see if I can come up with something for that.

This is a fun little puzzler! Ciphers were a good pick for this theme, and you did a great job wrapping it into a game - the UI is super clean. I'm a sucker for anything with this kind of language decoding angle, so I had a lot of fun! I like the little story developing through the messages too, it adds some depth beyond just decoding Caesar ciphers and the like. And the title reveal at the end was a nice touch.

I think the gameplay could use a bit of work. The real game in my opinion is the Vigenere ciphers - Caesar and Affine just don't provide a lot of gameplay, especially with the neat decoding tools you've built. I know there are strategies to do ciphers like that faster, but it takes like 30 seconds to cycle through all the Affine combos, so there's no point really. The Viginere ciphers, however, are fun - hiding the keys in the messages is a pretty cool way of turning them into puzzles. In order for that to work, though, the messages need to be on screen for more than two seconds! Look away for one second and you've missed them, and there's no way to go back. (That's especially easy to do because when spamming through Affine combinations there's no way to predict when that message will pop up.) I had to replay the whole game twice because I missed a message both times - partially my fault, but it was really frustrating.

This is a very impressive solo project, though! Ciphers are always a lot of fun. With some QoL changes this would be a smoother experience, and I think if you delve further into the story and puzzle aspects (there are some other cool ciphers out there) there's potential for a more involved game here. Great work!

Good thing I didn't have to crack AES! 😂 Jokes aside, it would be more fun if the messages were longer so the player could analyze them and find more clues inside. Brute-forcing isn't very fun but looking for clues is. I completed the game but I had to ask my boss for hints several times.

I think he best feature to improve the game right now would be to add a log with all previous messages from the enemy and all the hints from your boss.

Almost perfect game. I will score you based on the Compo version, but the fact that you can't review previously decoded messages is what killed my experience. I got to the last puzzle on my own. I was lucky that I saw Narwhal and I think I saw Narwhal before related to some military history. What I did for the last puzzle was download the source code to review the previously decoded messages. I didn't have a program to open a `.tic` so I opened it as-is in a text editor. I found the messages but also the password next to the last message. Oh bugger. Well, good job anyways.

P.S.: You could say I decrypted your game but the unencrypted and encrypted messages and their keys weren't encrypted inside the binary.

@andriybyelikov I still haven't actually updated the non-Compo versions of the game to include the ability to view previously-decoded messages, and this deep into the jam I'm honestly kinda on the fence about whether to even bother. The damage is already done. Again, though, the fact that you cared enough about the game to hack into its source code so you can see the ending is something I consider a compliment, even if the fact that you had to do so in the first place is an obvious problem.

A little frustrated that I couldn't read the messages because they stayed for so little time on the screen after deciphering them. Even worse, the save system was actually a detriment, because I couldn't see them again after refreshing the page...

The deciphering gameplay was very bruteforcey for rot/affine, I kind of wish the game would teach some pattern recognition that could help with that! I DID find something to help me with the final vigenere, because

!> I noticed the single "O" was probably an I so it helped me find the first letter.

The puzzles were kind of cute and the vibe of deciphering messages was cool, I kind of wish the atmosphere was a little darker, maybe a bit less cheerful/bubbly/jokey, maybe a bit denser to feel more in-line with the theming of the game.

Nevertheless, great effort, great work, great jam! Wishing you all the best!

enjoyed it. Last one took a while but i still managed to get it. Had to replay a couple times to screen shot that last message though.

Hello fellow fantasy console enthusiast! I really enjoyed your entry, I think it fits the theme quite well, and had a lot of fun playing - though I do agree with some previous points made in the comments, and will add my own:

- the main problem is the speed at which the screen changes to the next message after the current one is decoded
- Caesar and Affine and are less fun than the Vigenere one in terms of the mechanics
- when going backwards, there's no sound feedback the Affine cipher (minor, but it's easy to miss the next message whenever the code was matched via brute force)

Either way, there's a good idea here which needs just some minor refinements. Thanks and congrats!

@marudziik Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into that bug with the Affine cipher.

After solving one cipher, it moves onto the next before I have time to read the message. And then for the vigenere cipher it seems that the previous message was suppose to give you a clue but I didn't have time to read it :(

I think it might have been nice to give some partial decodings and let the player try to tweak the cipher to match, for example say that 'the message starts with hello' or 'that three letter word is probably the'.

Interesting game! It could benefit from subtle hints on the third level; similar to how Wordle indicates if a character is in the right position or exists elsewhere in the cipher. I couldn't quite crack the last level, but I learned a lot about making ciphers engaging through gameplay.

@lloydlobo So have I! This was a learning experience for sure.

Thanks all for the feedback! I was a bit worried but I've just managed to scrape past the 20-rating mark in time.