TimeTrain

This is a really fun and challenging puzzle game that I've found rewarding. The game doesn't hold your hand too much, the tutorial is quite simple and introduces the basic concepts, and then you're into the real puzzles, some of which have me completely stumped, which I view as the mark of a good puzzle game. It also has trains. I like trains.

Ultimately I liked it the puzzle mechanics enough to enjoy it, but there are some pretty serious deficiencies in QoL. There are some great puzzles that really stretch your reasoning skills in the brave new timey-wimey train world and the basic premise of synchronizing multiple space-time thread intersections plays really well with the overall theme. There are plenty of "aha!" moments to be had. On the flip side, many of these moments are spoiled by overly-constrained puzzle setups. For example, there might only be one way to logistically connect everything which will, evidently, solve the puzzle without really forcing you to understand why all the surrounding time/synchronization works. This is to be expected for tutorial-type levels, but it should probably not happen deep into the mix. On the UI/controls side, I think there is still some work to be done. In 2025, it's pretty standard fare to be able to view and set controls. This game uses the mouse exclusively. This would normally be fine for laying down and erasing tracks, but many levels require special crossing pieces which require an explicit toggle in the UI. Further, when it comes time to press play, it is cumbers…