Going further

Four rooms. One key. Everything from this series working together as a designed sequence.

Four rooms, each asking something different of you:

• Room 1 — empty. Just a door to find.
• Room 2 — a hub with three doors. One takes you back, one is open, one is locked. The locked one is the goal.
• Room 3 — a push-block puzzle. Get the orange block onto the blue square to unlock the right-hand door. The block can only move along its row and a wall stops it from overshooting.
• Room 4 — a maze with two purple enemies patrolling different corridors. Navigate to the gold key at the far end, then backtrack to the hub and use the locked door.

The sequence is designed, not just assembled. Room 2 shows you all three doors up front, so you understand the structure before you’ve solved anything. Room 3 teaches the puzzle mechanic in a constrained space where you can’t get permanently stuck. Room 4 puts the key behind both a maze and enemy timing — you need to read the patrol pattern before committing.

That’s the point of tile-based design: the same small set of rules, arranged deliberately, produces something that feels authored.

This series covered the essentials. For side-scrolling mechanics — jumping, gravity, moving platforms, slopes — continue with The Keep.