Stephen[Lavelle]'s Sausage Roll

Thanks for the rec.

Indeed it is a game about figuring out the rules.

Without the occasional camera fiasco (the Tower was the worst culcript, but I have ran into another couple of times where anything, even a slight zoom out, would have been welcome), it may be the puzzle game of my dreams here. I thought I valued my time: I find it intriguing I am so willing to spend half an hour of it at a time, staring at a screen and thinking for most for it “b-but… that’s impossible!”.

For me it was like, “oh so I guess I need to be able to move this sausage off of this other sausage… hmm… (10 minutes later) Oh, so sausages that are sitting on top of me half way on my head are somehow better glued to me than two sausages on top of each other fully… That’s dumb. I guess I’ll awkwardly move around this level for the next 10 minutes actually getting the sausages in place now that I know that.” After that sort of thing for some hours, I was so done.

After being pretty close to uninstalling this game because it didn’t seem like I was ever going to make sense of it, I ended up solving 5 or 6 puzzles within 30 minutes or so. Got stuck on my current one and figured it was time to put it down for tonight.

I’m liking the game (took 1 hour and a half for the first island and I enjoyed the process of learning), but the first puzzle I went for in the second island was the tower and it is indeed bs.

I got really close to solving it, but never really figured out all the rules, because the camera kept making it really hard to visualize.

I think the game would benefit of a puzzle rearrangement. Something this fuzzy (not difficult, fuzzy) shouldn’t come so early on.

I also have doubts the control system is the best. It does make movement a puzzle in of itself, but I find myself pressing the wrong key plus undo way too many times.

This. I started getting more used to it and reduced my mistakes, but I still flub the basics of moving sometimes.

I just want to say that some of you folks should definitely check out Induction, which I linked to in the Puzzle Games Thread. It’s not nearly as popular as I think it deserves to be unfortunately.

@Misguided, I’ve also added your Cosmic Express post there!

I am 107 sausages in. My mind is blown.
This is the single best puzzle game I have ever played.
It is so stimulating, so difficult… yet so human. It asks you not to predict a precise chain movements like Sokokan and other so-called puzzle games: it asks you instead to consider the whole situation, and try to think against it on a more global scale. It is teaching you a simple language, whose grammatical nuances you keep on learning as your comprehension of their rules develops.
I can’t even attempt to consider the amount of work designing those puzzles required.
@geggis, you asked how it compared to Snakebird. I liked Snakebird, but this game… this game is something special. It hurts early as much as Snakebird hurts later on, but once that part is said and done, it is simply amazing.
So many new, innovative experiences this last couple of years: despite the Steam flood, I think we are living a gaming golden age.

Just remember none of this would even be possible without sausages.

I’ve rolled a few sausages thanks to @Left_Empty It is fun but I think I am too impatient for puzzle games generally. I like the instant reward you get from more action orientated games.

I find this game to be one of the most rewarding I’ve ever played. And since each puzzle is so small, you do get fairly instant gratification, if you solve it!

It keeps coming up with new ways to challenging you using the same basic set of rules, really impressive. Although I’ll admit that at 169 sausages I’ve hit a couple of puzzles I didn’t totally love. Also, the unexpected plot twist is worth playing the game for. [Really, I’m not joking!]

Thanks to @tylertoo’s generosity I started playing this game. I can see why people gush about it. I’m past the first island and the game clearly has “aha!” moments of discovery. I’m not going to survive going through the whole thing, though, but I have lots of respect for the people in this thread able to soldier through and to figure it out!

The game could certainly do with looking less like shit, but the music has a quality that puts you into a trance perfect for staring at sausages.

The rewind feature is spectacular. You can undo for turns and turns and go exactly where you want. Even if you “reset” the puzzle by mistake, you can even undo that!

I’ll echo what some of the first players in the thread said: if you can get past the 2nd part of the game, you probably will make somewhat constant progress after. In my opinion, getting through the first few puzzles was one of the toughest hurdle (I thought that figuring out the basic movement was so hard!).

I spent 3 hours over 2 days to solve Crater. What a puzzle.

Yes! I’ve never been more convinced that a puzzle was just logically impossible to solve than with Crater. That and Skeleton from the same island are probably my two favorite ones in the game.

Almost 180 sausages in, and I must say the previous part (I think the 4th part?) of the game was the best to me so far. The shock of Crater is still vivid, while I feel like I am breezing through the new mechanics (maybe that’s a spoiler, sorry) introduced in that latest part. The game is weird: I am demanding to be stumped. That’s not something I ever asked for in any puzzle game before!

I haven’t touched this since May. There were 2 puzzles I had banged my head on for a while and I just couldn’t figure it out, so I wasn’t motivated to return - knowing I had to confront these puzzles.

I was looking for something to play for 45 minutes before I went to bed tonight and had totally forgotten about the puzzles I left off at, until I saw their names again. I finish both of them in around 15 minutes. I’m finally onto the second island. It’s funny how taking some time away can make solving a tough puzzle come so quickly.

I’ve got 4-5 hours into this game so far.

I am pretty confident you can get the same result by playing the game every other day, instead of every’other month!
Kidding aside, this is what makes the game unique and brilliant in my opinion. No overthinking required, the player just needs to force a new perspective onto herself.

I gave this game a solid 10 minutes over the weekend and its just not for me.

:)

Many sausages were burnt.

I think it’s kind of harsh to judge a game with puzzles as brilliant as Stephen’s Sausage Roll off the first few, which are deceptively rudimentary. It certainly doesn’t get easier, though. Each island introduces a new trick or technique required to solve the puzzles and it’s amazing how they do it without giving you a single power-up or upgrade. The only game I’ve played that’s anything like it is Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, which is a serious contender for my favourite game ever, and other Increpare games I suppose, but I quickly hit my wit’s end with English Country Tune.