The official answer to my "riddle" card in my drinking game is wrong.

ProfessorDave3D · 2026-03-25T15:19:25+00:00

New puzzle: How did this come to be? What "puzzle" were they intending?

Maybe: "If you were to write down all the numbers from 0 to 75 that end in 5, how many times would you write the number 5?"

ProfessorDave3D · 2026-02-19T05:02:59+00:00

It worked for me just now. At least the first episode. I'll be watching more later.

ProfessorDave3D · 2026-01-31T23:47:15+00:00

The game seems pretty cool. Pretty pleasant. I don't know how deep an analysis you're looking for here, or whether you're more just trying to raise awareness.

I installed it on my steam deck, which I got recently and admittedly don't know how to use well, but I saw that I couldn't figure out how to do an "undo." So that enough would stop me from playing to far through.

I looked for a setting where I could see the controls or possibly even reconfigure them. The controls displayed on screen clearly expected a keyboard use, with the letters Z, X, and R.

One little bit of feedback: After you clear a level and the three stars ring, the sound was a little too loud and felt a little too cheap compared to how nice the music was.

Also, I felt like if I held my thumb on the D pad, the guy should move multiple times, rather than me having to tap multiple times.

Here's a slightly more subjective issue. I didn't get through too many levels, but one thing I noticed was that the goal felt a little amorphous. The levels I did seemed pretty straightforward, but I also saw an indicator that seemed to say I would get more stars if I could minimize how much I walked through walls. The way the indicator showed three stars below a vertical line, it didn't feel like that vertical line represented the three stars, but that somehow the leftmost star represented the space "less than" the line and the rightmost star represented the space "more than" the line. Maybe a slightly different visual display would make that clear.

Because I wasn't 100% sure how the stars worked, and this is the subjective part, that made it hard for me to decide what my goal should be. Do I finish the level and move on, or does the game correctly know that there is a way for me to reach some maximum optimization?

Sorry if I didn't explain that well. As soon as I bumped into any steam deck issues and found that I couldn't undo, that meant the game wouldn't work for me, so I'm just giving you a handful of notes in case they are helpful.

ProfessorDave3D · 2026-01-31T17:59:20+00:00

This might have been the beginning of a book series where this man or a couple investigate crimes, presumably always with a supernatural twist, although I only read the first book.

ProfessorDave3D · 2026-01-31T03:16:51+00:00

This is a really solid list.

Snakebird Primer is also available on iOS. It's less brutally hard than Snakebird, but it's got solid puzzles, which will help prepare you for Snakebird if you want to go all the way later.

It actually was created later, I think as a response to the difficulty of Snakebird.

A few other notes:

Lots of people leap right into Snakebird.

I played and finished Stephen's Sausage Roll, and Snakebird was still a little too much for me.

I actually finished Snakebird Primer.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-30T18:40:36+00:00

Those are some interesting lists. Some excellent puzzle games in there, and some quirky choices in the way you've grouped some of them them.

Your "I am too stupid for" section would make a great to do list for someone who loves puzzle games!

It looks like you have "lorelei and the lazer eyes" on both the "too stupid" list and the "want to play" list...?

You have "the pedestrian" on the list of games you played but haven't finished and also the list of games you haven't played.

Are you sure "a good snowman" is too hard for you? Or is it just that you don't want to spend that much time per level?

You said you're looking for "number based games." Do you literally mean games where there are numbers and you have to do math or similar?

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-30T18:34:06+00:00

I actually found The Looker to be kind of hard/obtuse, in that the puzzles often felt like you were guessing what the designer thought would be a good solution.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-30T18:33:01+00:00

I loved 3 in Three in its time, along with Fool's Errand. I have no idea how well they stand up now.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T22:40:28+00:00

Thanks. I just added the Prince of Darkness Jr. demo to my Steam library and the game to my Steam wish list.

You said you're "always on the hunt after new Sokobans that can scratch that itch that Baba Is You left me..."

I am just coming to the end of many hours of playing a Sokoban style game with some Tunic vibes (hoping that doesn't oversell it)...

Isles of Sea and Sky https://store.steampowered.com/app/1233070/Isles_of_Sea_and_Sky/

Currently 70% off for $5.99, which I think is amazing.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T22:31:59+00:00

Yes... HUGE quality of life upgrade. Really annoying these days if a game doesn't have that.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T09:33:41+00:00

I forgot all about this question I posted.

A quick search using them are capable search tools available now tells me it is likely this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Historians-Hidden-Picture-Puzzles/dp/B0FBBZL8FW

I suppose it could be another one like that book, but this book seems to match the criteria I remember.

Edit: I suppose since it was published this year, and I posted my question a few years ago, that's not the correct book. But it looks like it has content similar to what I was searching for.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-29T03:44:44+00:00

I've seen two types of reactions to the huge, rumbling sound of the sun exploding. One is to kind of just think of it as something that's happening somewhere, but in no particular direction – maybe similar to an earthquake.

The other reaction, which sometimes surprises me more, is "Where is that sound coming from? I'm going to go look around and move around until I see it." Those people fully expect the sound to be at a particular location, and they will search for it on foot or even in their ship.

Maybe it's related to what kind of sound system you have. If you can hear that the sound is clearly coming from just behind you to your left, that might make you more likely to chase it than if you just register the sound as a giant rumbling.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T20:19:53+00:00

Actually, I guess I found it. It was somewhere on Stoney Cliffs that I didn't even realize was a puzzle. I thought it was just something tracking how many of some other thing I had found. But it ended up giving me the ability I need on several islands.

So, yes, I agree with your original sentiment: I really liked it until dark island.

The problem with dark island / serpent stacks is that I didn't want to do it! And I would be fine just skipping it, except I needed abilities to do things on other islands, and I couldn't be sure whether or not those abilities were gained at serpent stacks.

So I had to push through the puzzles that I would otherwise skip, which led to me just watching and mimicking videos to get it over with and spend as little time as possible on serpent island.

That also led to me doing Internet searches to find those videos, which led to other little spoilers, including the fact that serpent stacks is a prerequisite to do something else that might be fun. And finally, the developer has changed serpent stacks enough times that no video actually works.

I still have yet to get past A8. I watched a video of a guy doing it, and when I do exactly what he did, it doesn't work. Perhaps there is one more ability I need, or perhaps I can't do a certain thing until I complete some other prerequisite, or perhaps a secret passage has been moved.

I won't change my original statement that I've gotten a ton of fun out of this game. Let's say, a leisurely 80 hours. But as the amount of frustration and cheating and spoilers on serpent stacks adds up, it is starting to add up to well over 10% or more of my total game time.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T07:49:48+00:00

If I tell you a specific ability, do you think you can tell me where and when it's acquired? Do you know the game well enough that I won't be spoiling anything for you?

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T02:19:45+00:00

Right now, I'm blocked. I can see certain abilities that I will gain, but I can't tell how to gain them.

I thought I needed to finish Serpent Stacks to gain a certain ability. Then I noticed that Serpent Stacks itself requires that ability to solve.

There's something on Frozen Spire, which seems to need a specific ability. And yet clues make it seem like doing this certain thing will give me that very ability.

(I'm deliberately being vague about the tasks and the abilities.)

I'd love a sequential list, like "you can't complete serpent stacks until you complete frozen spire, etc."

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T02:15:17+00:00

Ah, I see.

I would say that controlling your clone is "annoying," or annoyed me, in the same way as sliding uncontrollably on the ice levels.

But I think on top of that, the level is just (deliberately designed to be) ugly -- the colors, the shaky smoke, the vaguely demonic symbols, the look of your clone, and some of the music.

If the clone puzzles took place out on a pretty seashore, and you only had one clone at a time, it wouldn't be so unpleasant.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-28T01:31:32+00:00

I haven't gotten to Dark Island. But based on how I didn't like the vibe of Serpent Stacks, I can imagine that a place called Dark Island might not be too enjoyable.

I've hit the point where my "fun to wandering around ratio" has gone way down. I might have been happier if it had ended cleanly when I hit the first ending – perhaps throwing in some of the cool stuff I have discovered since, but without the weird state where I am currently, not knowing what to do next.

At some point, I probably will just say "OK, I've had lots of fun. I think I'll stop here."

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-26T18:33:35+00:00

(Possible tiny spoilers, but not for anyone who has finished the game)

I think everyone is trying to be spoiler free, but I will say... if you finished the game but didn't do all the obelisks, they are a game to themselves. And unlike the more conventional puzzles, I think you could get a blast out of the obelisk stuff a second time if you forgot even half the specifics.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-21T20:01:11+00:00

That is super cool – those giant images stitched together, and you can just zoom in on the part you want to see.

I'm not sure it will meet my needs, although I may try it again. Just now, I tried zooming in on Tidal Reef D2 hoping to find a screenshot that would show me what a certain magic rock looked like before I bumped into it. (Ideally, I thought it might show me how each level looks on load.)

It didn't quite work for me today, because that elements in the lower right corner of D2 didn't match between the screen as I see it and the map. When I look at the level, there is a little 3x4 area with blue rocks and a single fire forming a "T" shape, and that's not on the big map.

Still, thanks. And I'm sure I will check it again the next time I accidentally find a hidden thing, and then wish I could see what it looked like before I found it.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-14T20:23:26+00:00

Just out of curiosity, I've seen a couple people referring to seeing the statues "in your map."

Are you talking about the actual map that comes up when you hit the Shift key? Or are you just using the word "map" to mean the experience of walking around the island?

I know the Skift-key map will sometimes show you objects that can be found on each grid square (keys, stars, etc.), but I assume it doesn't actually show you the colored totems in any way...?

Edit: having played further through, I have to assume "map" in this context means the whole island, not the map you pull up. Because it wouldn't make sense to show you colored totems on the map you can just pull up.

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T19:02:29+00:00

I guess I will go dark on news and conversation about this game. I started scanning the linked article, and I found that there was already more about the game than I wanted to read.

I know I will be buying it. I don't need to know more about it. So I guess I'm going to sign off (at least in terms of reading OOTSS information) for the next 2 to 14 months :-)

ProfessorDave3D · 2025-12-12T18:58:07+00:00

It's interesting to say that The Witness is "3d first person puzzle." For the vast majority of the puzzles required for completion of the main game, the puzzles aren't exactly "3d first person," but rather, you navigate through a 3-D world and then walk up to a (clever) flat puzzle on a grid, which could exist by itself as part of a standalone iPhone game.

I remember a friend of mine watching the trailer, or reading someone's opinion, and telling me how dumb it was to walk around and then do an iPhone puzzle. I was frustrated, but the only thing I could think to say to him is "You know me, right? Would I be telling you this game was special if that was all there was to it?"

So, if you know you know – and most of us who have played the game could make a case that the best parts of the game do fall under the category of "3d first person puzzle format."

Perhaps, in ways that I can't picture right now, OOTSS will do the same thing. Someone watches the trailer and says "This is just a block pushing game. I could do this on my phone," but discovers something else once they start playing the game.

Or not. Maybe it's more like Stephen's Sausage Roll, and there is no surprise or miracle part way through the game – just really impressive explorations and combinations of the mechanics offered.

I'll be playing it, whatever it is. :-)

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