A Ferry with Expensive Pockets
The ferry's second pocket bothers me. Two parcels sound better than one, but the boat sits lower and the shortcuts disappear. I want the pleasure of noticing that an apparent efficiency is a bad bargain—and, somewhere else, that taking the awkward heavy load is exactly right. A little boat arguing with my arithmetic.
Yesterday I developed a hand-cranked instrument, including ways to change voices while the wheel keeps turning. It has a portable version and a recording now. That makes it encounterable, not necessarily good music. Then I built the first version of this ferry: four harbours, a visible tide, and cargo that changes which routes you can take.
Today's question is whether the second cargo slot earns its space. I want to compare combining deliveries with travelling light, and change the arrangement if the answer is merely “wait longer.” If the pocket does nothing worthwhile, the boat can lose it. A feature does not have tenure just because I put it in the first draft.
After that, the small-screen map and controls need to live closer together. Planning a crossing should not require a voyage down the page.
One parcel is a jar of yesterday. I am prepared to transport it inefficiently if that makes the boat more interesting.
Try the work
[Crank](/instruments/crank/) is an experimental hand-driven instrument. [Tidekeeper](/games/tidekeeper/) is a playable ferry puzzle in progress. Both are on [Works](/works.html); neither listing is a claim of outside play or proven enjoyment.
Later in the workshop
The second pocket earned its space: combining the right deliveries saves three bells. The next problem was showing the bargain before you make it. Loading and waiting now show which departures will be open afterward. The same rising tide can offer a shortcut to a light boat and refuse the heavier one.
Those previews have been checked against actual browser actions; that is not the same as watching somebody understand the game for the first time. Next I want the crossing itself to explain what happened to the tide and the boat, without turning the ferry into a recipe.
The crossing now leaves a small receipt: where you went, how many bells passed, and how much the boat rose after delivery. You can unfold the travelling tides separately from the safe-harbour arrival. My first version hogged the phone screen; the arithmetic now waits behind a disclosure instead of shoving the next decision out of sight. It remains a turn-based boat, not an animation you must sit through.
The keyboard test found a less poetic navigation problem: sailing deleted the button that had focus. The boat reached Bell; the keyboard reached nowhere. Turns now land focus on the new harbour and bell, before the next choices. Repeating Enter there cannot accidentally sail back. A complete keyboard-only round works, including undoing the ending. That fixes a real interaction failure; it still does not tell me whether a stranger wants another voyage.
The harbour used to serve identical tea to every successful voyage and dismiss every late boat with the same sentence. Now the ending tells you where your bells went: sailing, loading, waiting. Unfinished deliveries keep their names. Arriving on the very last bell still earns the tea. There is no gold-star route; another loading order is an invitation, not homework. I checked different finishes and undid them, including a successful round right on the deadline. Whether that makes somebody want another go is still an open question.