This blog series walks through some of the mechanics featured in the game. Be warned: mild spoilers ahead! This post covers The End Game.
For many players, the biomes up until this point will be sufficiently challenging, and some players may be happy to solve most of those puzzles and stop.
However for avid puzzlers, everything we've seen so far is just set up for the real challenge: the end game.
The end game combines everything we've learned so far into 4 levels of very challenging puzzles.
Snow Crab + Circuits
This area combines Snow Crab style puzzles with circuit puzzles. It's the easiest of the end game levels.
Staves + Circuits
The next area combines staves and circuits. Since both staves and circuits are very stateful, these can get very tricky.
Snow Crab + Staves
The penultimate level combines Snow Crab style puzzles with staff puzzles. The Snow Crab will now interact with staves just as he would any other object, and you can take staves from him just as you could take an orb from him, resulting in him being colorless.
Snow Crab + Staves + Circuits
The final level combines *all* of the above mechanics, for a final challenge requiring mastery over everything in the game.
Other Features
Once you've beat all the puzzles, you can use the speedrunning features to try to improve your time. There are also some achievements to collect.
And that's it!
...or is it?
Don't forget to wishlist Way of Rhea on Steam, I can't wait to get it in people's hands tomorrow. :)
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea releases in 2 days!
Way of Rhea is releasing in 2 days!
This blog series walks through some of the mechanics featured in the game. Be warned: mild spoilers ahead! This post covers The Professor's Biome.
The professor is kind of a jerk.
This area introduces The Professor, and a new way to change colors using staves.
Staves
Normally, to change color, you'd need an orb and a lamp.
In this biome you can *instantly* change color by dropping your staff, and picking up a staff that's a different color. Unlike orbs, staves are infinitely reusable, so you can switch back and forth as much as you like--provided you're able to return to where you left the original staff!
Colorless
You can also drop your staff without picking up a new one, and as a result have no color. This couldn't possibly be useful...or could it?
With great power...
Staves are, in a sense, more powerful than orbs:
They can be reused
You can change color at any location you're able to get a staff to, not just at lamps
As a result of all this power, puzzles have a lot more possible solutions to explore--but typically still only one solution that works, making these puzzles a bit more difficult.
Don't forget to wishlist Way of Rhea on Steam! I'll see you tomorrow in *The End Game*, where the real challenge begins...
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea releases in 3 days!
Way of Rhea is releasing in 3 days!
This blog series walks through some of the mechanics featured in the game. Be warned: mild spoilers ahead! This post covers Rhea's Biome.
This area introduces Rhea, and color circuits.
Color Circuits
Circuits introduce a new way to open gates.
Normally, you need to be the same color as a gate to open it. However, if a gate has a circuit attached to it, you can alternatively place an orb of matching color onto the circuit to open the gate.
This will not change your color, and you can retrieve the orb later (if you don't mind the gate re-closing.)
Multi Gate Circuits
If a circuit has multiple gates on it, color flows through the circuit from the place the orb was placed. Only gates of matching color will open.
Color Conflicts
Color flows through the circuit segment by segment from each placed orb simultaneously.
If multiple orbs of differing colors are placed on a circuit, the color stops flowing at the point at which the non matching colors meet. This can prevent you from progressing, but it can also be used to your advantage.
Progression
These puzzles are not as difficult as the end game puzzles, but they start to get more difficult than most of what we saw in the intro.
Don't forge to wishlist Way of Rhea! I'll see you tomorrow in The Professor's Biome...
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea releases in 4 days!
Way of Rhea is releasing in 4 days!
This blog series walks through some of the mechanics featured in the game. Be warned: mild spoilers ahead! This post covers The Overworld.
Skill Gates
Each level in Way of Rhea focuses on a unique skill or idea. Beating a level unlocks other levels that depend on that skill.
Checkpoints
Once you complete the first biome, Way of Rhea becomes nonlinear: if you're stuck, you can always return to the hub world to try a different level--no progress will be lost.
In fact, you can revisit all completed puzzles at any time via the checkpoint selector in each level.
Jukebox
There's also a jukebox in the hub world that can play any song you've unlocked! When you beat a level, that level's song is unlocked.
Don't forget to wishlist Way of Rhea! I'll see you tomorrow in Rhea's Biome...
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea releases in 5 days!
Way of Rhea releasing in 5 days!
This blog series walks through some of the mechanics featured in the game. Be warned: mild spoilers ahead! This post covers the second area in the game, Snow Crab's Biome.
Hermie got lost in the Ice Caves trying to help his dad, you need to save him!
This area introduces Snow Crab, and how you can use his behavior patterns to solve puzzles.
Working With Snow Crab
Snow Crab will walk until he hits an obstacle, and then turn around. Repeat. Along the way, if he finds any interactive items--orbs, lamps, elevators, teleporters, etc--he will interact with them.
Additionally, he can cross paths covered by ice crystals and you cannot.
While he's not clever enough to follow instructions, you can toss him objects, or take objects back from him by interacting with them, using his motion to your advantage.
As always, undo/redo is available if you make a mistake.
Time Controls
To avoid requiring overly precise real time control--and to avoid requiring waiting--you can pause or fastforward time whenever you want, which is especially useful when working with Snow Crab.
Teleporters
Snow Crab will interact with any objects that cross his path--including teleporters. If a teleporter is enabled, he'll turn it off. If it's not, he'll set it as his destination.
A teleporter only has one user at a time. This means that you'll need to coordinate teleporter use with Snow Crab.
Progression
We're still in the introductory area of the game, but this biome has a couple of puzzles near the end that are quite difficult. The interaction between you, Snow Crab, and the teleporters has a lot of interesting edge cases for puzzles to exploit, the state space starts to blow up here.
Don't forget to wishlist Way of Rhea! I'll see you tomorrow in The Overworld...
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea releases in 6 days!
In celebration of Way of Rhea releasing on Steam in 6 days, I'm making a post a day about a different aspect of the game.
Let's look at the first area of the game: Shrew's Biome.
Be warned--this blog series features mild spoilers!
Shrew is your excitable friend who's very invested in you solving the forest puzzles tonight for some reason.
Color Changing
From left to right: gate, lamp, orb, & you.
Way of Rhea's main mechanic is the ability to change colors. You can enter gates and elevators when you match their color, otherwise you cannot.
To change color, you place a colored orb into a lamp. Upon doing this, you become the color of the orb and the orb is destroyed.
Teleportation
Teleportation in Way of Rhea requires two steps:
Set a teleporter as your destination by interacting with it
Interact with any other teleporter in the map to be sent back to this destination
As a result, you can only teleport to locations that you've already been.
Undo/Redo
This clip also shows off the undo/redo mechanic that is taught in this biome. As you progress through the game the puzzles become difficult to solve, but you're always free to explore different options without committing to them through use of undo/redo.
Orb/Tele Fields
As the puzzles increase in difficulty, orb and tele fields are introduced. Orb fields (right) prevent you from carrying orbs across them, whereas tele fields (left) disable the active teleport destination when they are crossed.
Difficulty
As you progress through the biome, the puzzles increase in difficulty as you're increasingly required to take advantage of edge cases of the mechanics to progress. That being said, this is still the intro area, and seasoned puzzle gamers likely won't have much trouble with it.
I'll see you tomorrow in Snow Crabs's Biome...
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea releases in 7 days!
Way of Rhea releases in 7 days! In celebration, starting tomorrow I'm making a post a day, each about a new aspect of the game starting tomorrow.
In the mean time, if you want to support me the best thing you can do is mark May 20th, 2024 on your calendar, and share the game with others who you think would enjoy it!
Cheers, Mason
Closed Beta v0.9.0
Hey everyone! This is likely the last closed beta release, unless we find any major issues.
This release better mixes the audio, fixes a number of alternate solutions, greatly increases the difficulty of the last two crab + circuit puzzles, and more...
Full Release Notes
Increases difficulty of the last staff+circuit puzzle
Improves redundant sounding voice effects
Removes in game "view log" button (no longer necessary), and mitigates related crash
Tutorializes the fact that you can leave a level if you're stuck without losing progress
Better tutorializes undo/redo/reset if not used
Fixes annoying alternate solution for difficult crab puzzle
Adds zones above some large professor puzzles where camera zooms out to reveal the entire area
Fixed bug that affected the mouse cursor when the game is in the background on some setups
Improved usability of the secret area, especially on Steam Deck. Added a m*****p, increased spacing, and zoomed in slightly.
Made it clearer how to close the console
Hides the fastforward icon when the save icon is present
Improves audio mix, including turning down the select and elevator and Snow Crab voice sounds
Fixed gate skill icons vanishing near edge of screen
Improved visual cues in last puzzle in the game
Fixed alternate solution in end game puzzle
Fixed stars in the skybox looking repetitive when too far from origin
Fixed an end game puzzle that had an extra orb leading to a slightly less interesting than intended solution
Greatly increased difficulty of the last two crab + circuit puzzles in the end game
Fixed red herring where it looked like the crab could enter an area that was not relevant
Made navigable areas clearer in an end game puzzle
Discovered that there is *not* a bug where the interact doublet triggers--my keyboard is just broken (:
Improves fiddlyness on some of the ice puzzles
Stops showing speed icons over cut scenes they don't affect
Fixed a bug where under very specific setups, gates could press orbs through the floor
Fixed an area where scenery was slightly blocking a puzzle element
The UI showing the current song now stays around for a second after you start moving so you have time to read it
Removes unnecessary logs
Gives remaining untitled songs names
Fixed toggle UI button not hiding dialogue controls
Fixed alt solution to a puzzle in the last level
Improved calculation of per-level completion percents, fixed bug where they'd be slightly off on some ice levels
Adds UI explaining the various video options, and making clear what the recommended settings for most players are
Fixed bug where saves from older versions of the game would load into the wrong checkpoint at launch
Cheers, Mason
Way of Rhea - Release Date Announcement
Today I'm excited to announce: Way of Rhea is coming to Steam on May 20th, 2024!
I want to thank everyone who've been patiently waiting for the game to come out--your support means a lot. If you're excited for the game, the best way to help is:
Wishlist Way of Rhea
Share the release date trailer with people, communities, or influencers that enjoy puzzle games
I can't wait for everyone to get their hands on the game. :)
Cheers, Mason
Closed Beta v0.8.0
New beta release!
We've gotten a lot of positive feedback about the music, so we added an in-game Jukebox so you can listen to the tracks without having to change to hunt down the level each track is from.
We also finished the dialogue sounds for The Professor, and the player.
Full Release Notes
Added professor and player dialogue sounds
Added a jukebox to the hub world
Fixed a bug that resulted in circuit gates staying open even after the orb powering them was removed under specific circumstances
Switched speed controls back to toggling on every press
Fixed minor scenery/item/collider placement issues
Increased size/visibility of elevator levers
Removed rank from stats screen, but added indicator when you beat the dev time (rank is a bit odd since you may have just left the game running, been in menus, or revisited an old save and "hurt" your rank by spending more time in it)
Added a stats screen tab that doesn't count time spent in menus
Dialogue polish
Added "close" button to various full screen menus that previously could only be exited via escape/B/etc
Fixed issue where staff would pop in/out of view near edges of screen
Fixed bug that resulted in stats screen layout being misaligned on old save files
Fixed character names vanishing when speech bubble near edge of screen
