So desirous was I to be ‘in on’ this one that I went as far as to decode the hints above – and I’m still having trouble on some of them. The clue in Note 32 above – ‘(bccbfvgr gur ynfg) zbir njnl jvgubhg jnirevat’ – what do I ‘zbir njnl’ from? The central column of the previous sun?

I also agree that the last of the night puzzles – concerning sound – is far too difficult. The sound is almost inaudible!

On a more general note – and this is not intended as a criticism – do you think that games, as released to the public, need to be ‘connective’ in any ‘ordinary’ way to the players? For example, I was playing ‘Tape Dream’ by Gargonherd, and saw a comment someone had left about how to ‘interpret’ the game. In a certain sense, I think that game is uninterpretable. A better example might be really obscure poetry. Being dropped into a world like that in ‘Cities of Day and Night’, one has no kind of idea what kind of thinking needs to be employed. Do you think that a game made ‘for the developer’, as it were, is just as valid as a game made ‘for other people’?

(Also, was there any logic behind your means of encoding of other people’s hints, or did you just pick letters at random?)

Well, I almost gave up and turned it off after the first 20 minutes, I wasn’t even sure if anything was interactive in this world, and since it was so large, it took a long time to try any ideas that popped into my head.

But, near the time I would have quit from boredom, I happened to bump into one of the puzzles. Once I noticed a way I could effect something, I found the next conclusion, and the next.

I still got stuck a few times after that, but I never felt like quitting, because I was all wrapped up in the mystery. Reaching the end was a long series of those perfect “aha” moments. It was a beautiful process.

I definitely wouldn’t include hints. Of course, I know YOU wouldn’t include hints. But I do think the game could use something at the very beginning to give the player an encouraging nudge. Something to hint at the nature of this world, and let the player know for sure that there is indeed something to be done here. It wouldn’t have to be unsubtle, just some part of the world that more obviously responds to the player, before she/he sets out into the landscape.