Nothing worth having comes easy

Earlier this month, Kickstarter backers got access to the early release of Selini, a week before it went into general early access. I've been playing a lot since then, on what the dev refers to as the "great bug hunt." I still recommend the game and I'm excited about it but I'm done with the EA version for now.

I've been playing pretty obsessively. The game has no written language and no dialogue. It does have a visual hint system that will show you, often, what your next objective ought to be. But since this is EA and full release is something like eight to twelve months in the future, it's still kind of rough. What's got me to the point of being "done" is running up against a wall where it feels like whatever I need to do to keep going is either not in the game yet, or I'm somehow misreading the symbols. I've done several things that it looks like I ought to do, but nothing happens. There are some other elements that I know I ought to do, but which are actually impossible at the stage I'm at.

For example, there's a puzzle, with four symbols arranged on four posts. There's a hint screen elsewhere in the room, showing the symbols arranged a certain way. Moving the symbols into that order does nothing. In fact they were already in that order when I found them. There's a lamp you need to light, but no way to actually carry the spark to it, as there are no ways to recharge the spark midway and you run out of time before getting anywhere near it. There's a boss somewhere, I think. A series of red paths appeared on my map, but following them did nothing.

I've played much earlier builds of this game and run into a similar problem. One early build had a puzzle like the four symbols that I spent a long time trying to figure out, only for the dev to admit that wasn't really set up and there was no solution. He is, however, very responsive and on top of things, and every single day there's been an update to the game. One day, there were two updates. I have no doubt he's doing his best here.

I'm just going to step away for a while and go play something where I don't feel like I'm beating my head against a wall. I get the feeling I'm not alone in this, since the final achievements are still showing that less than .01% of players have them, and the fact that I somehow already triggered the credits to roll by defeating a boss ... that respawned? What.

Anyway, good game. Wait for the full release. I'm dropping it for now and hopefully getting some of that time and brain power back, LOL.

I have bagels to make today, along with a pot of chicken chili. I've been writing every day but I need to start putting the fragments into a more coherent story.