On a literal level, I can’t play “a level I haven’t played before”, which is what the instructions call for.
On a practical level, I’ve already spent multiple hours beating my head against this wall, and when I stopped I had no remotely promising ideas for how to make further progress. (And most of that time was spent staring at the puzzle and thinking hard without interacting with it, so it was already kind of similar to this exercise.)
Admittedly, this was years ago, so maybe it’s time to revisit the puzzle anyway.
I will note that a level editor for this game seems to exist, so in theory you could craft custom levels for this exercise. Though insofar as the point is being potentially-surprised by the rules, maybe that doesn’t help if you aren’t inventing new rules as well.
One note: custom levels now exist and you can go browse them directly even if you’ve beaten the game.
I do agree that this exercise, as-worded, probably nudges towards a flavor of “explicit thinking”, which I don’t think is even necessarily the best strategy for Baba is You overall.
I don’t think this exercise necessarily says “think explicitly” – the section on metacognitive brainstorming is meant to fuzzy/experiential/”go-take-a-shower”/”meditate” style options.
On a literal level, I can’t play “a level I haven’t played before”, which is what the instructions call for.
On a practical level, I’ve already spent multiple hours beating my head against this wall, and when I stopped I had no remotely promising ideas for how to make further progress. (And most of that time was spent staring at the puzzle and thinking hard without interacting with it, so it was already kind of similar to this exercise.)
Admittedly, this was years ago, so maybe it’s time to revisit the puzzle anyway.
I will note that a level editor for this game seems to exist, so in theory you could craft custom levels for this exercise. Though insofar as the point is being potentially-surprised by the rules, maybe that doesn’t help if you aren’t inventing new rules as well.
One note: custom levels now exist and you can go browse them directly even if you’ve beaten the game.
I do agree that this exercise, as-worded, probably nudges towards a flavor of “explicit thinking”, which I don’t think is even necessarily the best strategy for Baba is You overall.
I don’t think this exercise necessarily says “think explicitly” – the section on metacognitive brainstorming is meant to fuzzy/experiential/”go-take-a-shower”/”meditate” style options.
To clarify slightly more: I think it’s fine to a do a hard level you haven’t beaten before, even if you’ve played it.