The first playable of the first puzzle

I finally got my first puzzle to a playable condition. I have planned to use average 1 day per puzzle for programming and about 2 days for graphics. And at least for the first one this seems to be the pace. The code is horrible, since I just want to go forward without too much thinking, I can refactor later if needed. Graphics are also quite amateurish, but they do their job and I am still practicing the tools and stuff. And of course, there are some placeholders.

But what next? I am pretty sure the puzzle is currently way too hard - especially because I have not added the hint button yet. Actually, I have not made the root, or hosting or main or whatever program yet. The puzzle is only the part that is loaded inside the hosting program. And the root will include all the UI/HUD stuff, networking code etc.

Back to the difficulty. I have a couple of volunteers doing the testing. They are pretty hardcore gamers, so let's see if they can figure it out. For us mortals I have plenty of hints hiding in backstage. The hard thing is to provide a good challenge for those willing to use plenty of brain power and time, but still help other players through the hard parts, using hints. I would say it is not a sin to use the hints in this game. I would also say not everyone can solve the whole game even if they used all possible hints. Well, I can not beat Ikaruga, Street Fighters or Super Mario Bros...