Remaking The Infinite Ocean is an interesting challenge; a lot of it has been very easy, but some parts of the process have had me badly stumped. The numeric puzzles are the biggest obstacle – while I had a basic idea of how to make them more accessible, translating that to something even remotely elegant while also preserving some gameplay has been quite difficult. Finding passwords is central to my understanding of the story, so I can’t remove that aspect, but experience shows that the old implementation was just too frustrating for most people.
The new version takes a slightly different approach, treating passwords almost like inventory items, and allowing you to combine passwords via drag & drop. Finding them is also easier: the game plays a sound to let you know when you’ve found one, and when reading journals etc. there’s a scanner option which highlights them in the text.
This way, the puzzles are more visual and more accessible, while still fitting with the setting and plot.
