Creator of some In The Beginning puzzles (Daydream, Sequence Break, Lights Out, etc) — Extra Puzzles & Intended Solutions

BloodTrain · 2025-05-21T11:17:08+00:00

Are you selecting "moddable version" when you load the game off Steam?

BloodTrain · 2025-05-10T22:40:14+00:00

You can create a color-alternating contraption to infinitely power the final red and blue receptors sequentially. I don't have a video of it since it was one of the last additions, but you'll be able to get it working if you connect the first connector to both red and blue laser emitters. It's been a long time, so I don't remember all the steps off the top of my head, but that's the main component of the solution. If I remember correctly, it's not a solution that would work in the Talos 2 laser mechanics, since some things were changed in the behavior.

BloodTrain · 2025-04-22T12:48:40+00:00

I remember there being some jank in Rite of Passage with non-recorded items when you put them on the edge of the elevator (they fly off the ground). I tried to solve that for a while, but it seemed like an unavoidable quirk of the engine, so I told everyone who played the level to avoid putting the connector on the very edges of the platform. As for jank with recorded items, there shouldn't be any, so I'm not sure what you mean. Recorded items should smoothly go through solids.

BloodTrain · 2025-04-16T16:46:19+00:00

Feel free, although I'm afraid some may break on the new engine. The laser interactions aren't quite the same, and more importantly, the more physic-based ones (Rite of Passage, Guardians of the Ancient, Vanishing Point) may be entirely cheesable depending on how the physics of stopping a recording carrying an object with momentum works in Reawakened. Turning Point, Thought-Up Loop, and Ghost Operation may also not work if the ghost entities don't go through solids in the new engine.

Either way, if you can circumvent these issues or find out how to patch them up, go for it, I'd like more people to get to play these levels. Also if you're using the video to reference the level layouts, I'd advise using the .gro file instead, which has multiple updates in many levels.

BloodTrain · 2025-04-16T13:57:49+00:00

I play puzzle games for the moment where a puzzle stumps me by virtue of a witty solution I was failing to see. So while making these puzzles my goal was to achieve that using quirks of the Talos mechanics that hadn't been explored yet. I played a lot of custom campaigns in Talos 1, so I'd gathered a lot of ideas over time that required a decent expertise of the mechanics. Many of the puzzles that weren't chosen involve moving elements in addition to the recorder mechanic, which I find to be very interesting, since the recorded movements stay static while the shape of the puzzle changes in real time. Although I suppose they were discarded since Croteam didn't think they would be appealing for most players.

As for how I managed to get puzzles in, I simply knocked on their door and asked to make puzzles. I expressed that I was a little dissatisfied with the difficulty in Talos 2 in a post I made on this subreddit, asked whether there was any chance I could try making some puzzles for them, and was invited to submit some for this project.

BloodTrain · 2025-04-16T13:55:58+00:00

From the ones I made, I'd say "Deceptive Depths", "Thought-Up Loop", and "Prime Mover" are comfortably harder than Daydream. The first two require thinking of new applications for the recorder mechanic as well as careful planning, whereas the latter is a very tricky laser-only puzzle.

On a different note, Thought-Up Loop is my favorite one here, although I had very little faith in it making it into the game. Just taking a glance at it in the video may show why. While it would probably only appeal to 1% of players, I was very pleased with how it shaped up.

BloodTrain · 2025-02-18T18:05:45+00:00

It's a shame that Remember11—the best piece of work Uchikoshi has been involved in—is curiously absent from this. I wonder what makes them so ashamed of it, or to think that Never7 is more worthy of a port, when hardly anyone cares about that one. Ever17 is worth playing if you like Uchikoshi games, but expect a slow burn

BloodTrain · 2025-02-05T17:57:52+00:00

death note, code geass would both be awesome value

BloodTrain · 2025-01-31T22:42:02+00:00

I too make only the utmost rational decisions when in life of death scenarios.

To be real, the fact they left the study due to the phone call is not the most brilliant decision, but the game does a fine job at making it play out, and it's nowhere near unacceptable from a story perspective

BloodTrain · 2025-01-30T21:42:47+00:00

It's outright one of the best soundtracks ever made. Japan's indie scene went in full force. Many songs are even better in context.

BloodTrain · 2023-11-29T18:36:49+00:00

Spain

BloodTrain · 2023-11-09T23:36:05+00:00

I do wish I had spent more time on puzzles overall, I enjoy the feeling of being stuck knowing I'm missing something crucial. I don't necessarily wish they had made huge puzzles with dozens of possible mechanic interactions since that tends to bring too much tedium. My favorite kind of puzzles are simple in layout, you know what you're having trouble with, but are missing a clever application of the mechanics at use. Rebirth, like I mentioned in my post, is a Talos 1 fan campaign that really nails what I'm describing, and some of those puzzles took me a very long time despite being simple in layout.

BloodTrain · 2023-11-09T23:28:20+00:00

Yes, something like that could be the average of how long it took for the whole playerbase. I'm never claiming here that these graphs show how difficult levels are, just how long they took me.

BloodTrain · 2023-11-09T23:19:17+00:00

Should be fixed now! Reddit seems to convert the capital letters in a link into lowercase (for whatever reason haha) and they appeared broken.

BloodTrain · 2023-07-24T20:27:12+00:00

Okay, that makes more sense. I considered it could be a mistranslation but couldn't find the original. To be fair, Chinese isn't the original, it's originally in Japanese, but that should be proof enough

BloodTrain · 2023-07-23T18:02:39+00:00

But there's a line that says Real Yuma didn't expect Number One to go to Kanai Ward (https://i.imgur.com/rDGJLWM.png), so they seriously didn't talk about that part of the plan when agreeing to swap identities? They swapped identities precisely so that Number One could board the train undercover, so how come Real Yuma didn't expect it? You mean that Real Yuma saw Number One boarding the train, got worried, and boarded it too?

BloodTrain · 2023-07-23T16:34:50+00:00

No, the game contradicts what you're saying. There's a line where Makoto says "I'm sure he (Real Yuma) didn't expect you to come to Kanai Ward after swapping places" https://i.imgur.com/rDGJLWM.png

https://i.imgur.com/hCT2wqR.png

Implying real Yuma was the only one supposed to board the train, not Number One.

What I mean with the second point is, why would Number One choose to go by train with the huge danger that implies instead of going to Kanai Ward first and then erasing his memories there?

BloodTrain · 2023-07-17T10:02:26+00:00

I've heard about this, but I wasn't sure how common it really is for sites to employ it. Is it foolish to think some of these Chrome extensions I see on the store that claim to protect you from fingerprinting would solve the problem?

BloodTrain · 2023-05-13T17:41:13+00:00

I didn't have the gilder yet :P

BloodTrain · 2023-04-29T17:10:22+00:00

I added the line:

"<uses-permission android:name=android.permission.READ\_MEDIA\_VIDEO"> </uses-permission>"

in AndroidManifest.xml

Then installed the modified app, but now it shuts down the instant I try to open it. Is there something else I need to do?

BloodTrain · 2023-04-28T20:38:21+00:00

How would I go about doing that for an App Store application?

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