Stephen's Sausage Roll

Pure brilliance. I wasn't a fan of how linear the final two worlds became and the game is not for those who aren't willing to sometimes spend hours staring at one level, but it's hard to think of a more satisfying puzzle experience.

sosig

MY BRAIN CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE HELP!!!!!

Absolutely the hardest game I've played in my entire life. This game takes moving hotdogs (or sausages, I don't care) to its absolute logical conclusion. You would not believe how far you can take moving hotdogs in terms of puzzles. 10/10 would recommend.

it's been a while since i actually played this, but i feel like this has to be one of the most important puzzle games of the past decade, certainly one that is never far from my mind. the sense of discovery as the game teaches just what you're able to accomplish with your weird shitty fork thing is basically unsurpassed.

This is an incredible puzzle game I would recommend everyone to play. It is butt ugly but to fun for you to even care. It has an extremely simple premise which is explored in many clever levels that forces you to make the most of the games unique mechanics of which there is a surprising amount of. If there is one criticism I would give it's that not all mechanics are very obvious. You might get stuck on a level simply because you don't know the full extent of the interactions which the game doesn't do to well to explain. But when you figure it out it is an amazing experience unlike any other.

Keep playing. We can figure it out.

What an aggressively ugly game.

The difficulty jump from level to level was excellent. Whenever a new mechanic was introduced, the level design (for the most part) forced you to look for it. The one exception was the great tower, but that level was fun and interesting enough that I could let it pass.

I'll try to avoid spoilers.

Stephen's Sausage Roll is probably the greatest game I've ever played. The titular Stephen Lavelle is one of the most prolific and distinct developers out there, and this is his greatest work. There are no "freebie" puzzles. Each level requires that you have a lateral knowledge of the puzzle landscapes and mechanics to solve it, and are designed in such a way to make brute force fruitless. Also, they are ruthlessly elegant, no element goes unused. The puzzles feel truly impossible until you find out how they aren't, which sounds redundant, but that's truly how it feels to play this.

Each new mechanic is not NEW, per se. They are logical extensions of what you already know, you just never were in the exact circumstances to make it happen. Though they make logical sense, there are still so many nuances that I could have never guessed when I played. It's insanely dense.

Even beyond the gameplay, the aesthetics, while simple, are very clear, both visually and audibly, and have a very sweet, kind feel to them. This game makes me oddly happy.

Regardless, this is more than a "simple 3d puzzle game." This is my favorite game that I've ever played. Go in blind, don't google the solution to any puzzle, and know that it's normal to feel kinda dumb when you play this sometimes.

I'm officially to stupid for this game, the amount of out-of-the-box-thinking you have to do to learn new concepts is mental, but incredibly satisfying if you finally figure them out.

Certainly an all-timer in its genre.

i don't think a better puzzle game exists

I feel dumb

The greatest puzzle game of all time.

Too hard

If you like puzzles and games with no hand-holding or tutorials, this is the puzzle game for you. There's no rushing and you can take as long as you like. You really have to pay attention to the puzzle map and be good at trying every combination of movement. The game is super challenging but super rewarding when you figure it out. Whoever created these puzzles is very creative as they do such a great job making the puzzle solution seem obvious but you try it and get stuck immediately. You start to learn to never try the obvious route.

You scale ladders by standing on your side and then hitting 'up' which is not super intuitive but I guess dev ran out of key bindings and made it contextual. Found it out via trial and error. I got this game through its reputation alone and want to finish it without any guide whatsoever to see how hard it really is. Would recommend only playing it 1-2 hours at a time.

A simple 3d puzzle game, its good.

i may be stupid

Having just finished the Tower and world 2 (but not sure if I'll continue) I think SSR is an interesting puzzle experience, but as a full fledged game I'm not sure it fully works.

My troubles with SSR stem mostly that a lot of the time it feels less like a complete game and more like a proof of concept. For instance, there is literally 0 guiding you in the early section of the game to get used to the mechanics. You're dropped in a huge world where you're left to figure the puzzle order (and how to enter them) by yourself, and it creates the sense that you're more exposed to puzzles aplomb instead of being shown the tools on how to approach these creatively and solve them.

This also extends to the puzzles themselves. While I thought there were some great fun ones, a lot just seemed to rely on hard logic. Multiple times when I was stuck I found myself just resorting to abstract solutions instead of creative ones, and a decent number of the times these actually panned out. I think one of the fun things about puzzle game like this is having those moments of insight where you're exposed to a new point of view. However here a fair amount of the time I found myself chasing concepts until one of them panned, out which didn't really give me the satisfaction I was looking for.

Also, there is little to no story present. I know that's not a huge deal breaker to some, but it adds to the sense that this is more of a exercise in puzzle logic than a real game with a definable start, middle, and end.

Ultimately, I think there's some really cool ideas here, and I see this being of appeal to a select specific demographic of puzzle gamers. But having spent a couple of hours, I'm left to wonder that there's another game here that could extend a little more means to the player before letting them delve into the deep murky depths of its puzzle mechanics. Whether that's a good thing that it didn't I'll leave up to others to decide.

(Also, my thumbs up reflects that this isn't inherently a bad game at all and the construction is solid, just a very specific one that while well-executed is probably not going to appeal to a great many people.)

:edit: well, since my first two hours I decided to finish the game. My opinion is still largely relevant, though I feel in the later hours (world 4+) the game really does come into its own more, probably since the rhythm of the game settles in more. I still wish that the game would've juuust presented its content more piecemeal, but can't deny there's some stunning puzzles. Also, there IS a story, though it doesn't take center stage there's a lot of 'meat' to its bones (sorry) once you settle in.

I think this game is special, and despite its flaws it does present something really unique. Recommended if you can stomach the harsh initial learning curve.

Truly excellent puzzle game. Was so amazed with how much depth in game design could be extracted from a few very simple movement mechanics. If you are stuck, stick with it and it will lead to some really cool breakthroughs in understanding of the game.

I never want to see another sausage in an open field. They are evil things.

I don't say this lightly: as good as it gets

Sublime brain nourishment

i consider myself a smart boy, not my first puzzle game, Ms.EE.
and i think this game is to hard for me... 10/10. will update if i menage to finish it!

*****REAL ROLLERZ ONLY*****

اللعبة هذي ممتعة مره، وتستحق بكل جدارة لقب أفضل لعبة ألغاز، وأفضل لعبة شوي، وأفضل لعبة سجق في الوجود! الألغاز فيها عبقرية وتشدك بشكل مو طبيعي، ومع كل مرحلة تصير أصعب وأصعب، وكل مره تتعلم حركات جديدة كانت عندك من البداية بس ما أدركتها. الألغاز كثيرة مره، وكل لغز بفكرة مختلفة عن اللي قبله. بصراحة، تحفة فنية في عالم ألعاب الألغاز!

وما أنسى أقول إن اللعبة حرفياً تخليك تحس إن خلايا مخك تتكاثر وتشتغل بكل طاقتها!

yes

I take objection to the word "simple" in this game's description. It is only "simple" in the sense that the controls are solely the four cardinal directions (and undo, restart, and exit). As a result, the player movement is annoying and unintuitive, but that is by design; the levels are built around both these movement restrictions and how the game resolves your moves. Despite having a full understanding of the game mechanics by the end, my muscle memory never adjusted to the controls.

The art is good, although a couple levels in the final World 6 could have had clearer height markings. The opening & closing songs are nice, but the "music" in-game is just random ambient synth pulses and very boring; I muted it after the first world and unmuted right before completing the game. I was much happier with the SFX. The story isn't worth remarking upon. I don't think I encountered a single bug; the closest thing to a technical problem was a semi-reproduceable hitch for 2 seconds while playing Folklore in World 6, and needing to return to the main menu to adjust any settings. Remarkable, especially for a Unity game!

The puzzles themselves, on an individual level-to-level basis, are very smart and high-quality. They do an excellent job of using the mechanics and controls to put you in an "impossible" situation, and solving the puzzles is very satisfying. Some I might claim are too smart, but I don't think I can assess that honestly. The problem is that the level placement sucks, in many ways:

1) The levels within a world (with the exception of W6) are completely unordered. This means there are no tutorial levels or in fact any way to intuit level difficulty. Proximity to the world entrance would be the obvious choice, but Stephen doesn't do that and it's very annoying.
2) The next world doesn't unlock until EVERY level in the world is completed. This means if you're stuck, sucks to suck. The final world is even more obstructionist, only unlocking 1-2 levels at a time and still not letting you skip any. (You would think this would mean the final world would have a steadily increasing difficulty, but no. For example, Folklore is the second W6 level and brutally difficult, but near the end there's Lovers' Sadness, which is an easier version of Folklore.) This is why I can't honestly assess level difficulty; I used hints for a dozen levels in W1-5 and nearly half the levels in W6. (I am quite proud of myself for solving the infamous Tower by myself though.)
3) No replaying levels. They're all one and done. If you want to refresh yourself or confirm your understanding (which is generally what I do when I'm stuck), start a new save and play all the way through to the level you want to retry.
4) There are three levels which are placed before the world which introduces their mechanic. They are the infamous Great Tower in World 2, Cold Finger in World 3, and Dead End in World 5. This would ordinarily not be worth remarking upon, but (a) that's half the worlds, and (b) it makes (2) above way worse, because you're stuck on a level and can't learn the mechanic from other levels.

While the level placement is incredibly frustrating, I don't think it's bad enough to justify not recommending SSR. After all, you could just be smarter or more patient than I am, or you can do what I did and look up hints. The levels themselves are very good, especially if you can say you did it all yourself.

Overall, SSR has interesting gameplay and explores it in depth, although sometimes that exploration is just throwing you off the deep end.

One of the best games I have ever played, and by far the best puzzle game I have ever played. No other game does so much with so little. One of the problems I have with other puzzle games like "Baba is You" is that they never really flesh out certain mechanics, usually adding too many new mechanics to the pile before anything of note is done with what is already established. Its truly incredible that you have every tool you need from start to finish, and just how creative the solutions to some of the puzzles are.

Highly recommend this game if you love puzzles. It's absurdly difficult, but man it feels so good to complete

It's a masterpiece.

Either I'm dumb, or this is really hard.

I'm probably really dumb.

But that said, I really wish there were more gradual levels that taught you the buildup to more complex puzzles. My experience with this game was thinking, "Ah, okay, so the sausage rolls like this," and then stepping on a few rakes I couldn't beat and being unable to proceed, and not compelled enough to want to plow through it.

The best puzzle game I've ever played.

you are stephen (unverified) there are sausages (allegedly) and you roll them (TRUE) [With a Fork or with yourSelf]

Stephen's Sausage Roll is deceptively simple, but fiendishly difficult. Roll Sausage with your Fork and cook every side evenly - that's pretty much it, but behind these simple rules lies a very difficult journey through six worlds. It's one of the most well designed puzzle games I ever played, taking it's very simple ruleset and stretching it to the extreme without overcooking. This is what a puzzle game should be!

Now, this game is hard. I challenged myself to keep playing until I feel like I am no longer smart enough to continue without continuously looking up a walkthrough. Proud to say, I made it until World 5 of 6 only looking up two levels, but I am stuck for good now and most of the puzzles have become too difficult for me to solve, so I am bowing out gracefully. Who knows, perhaps I will one day pick it back up again if I ever randomly get struck by lightning that gives me an additional 50 IQ points, but until then, I will leave it here.

The game is excellently designed, though, so if you love puzzle games, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. As hard as the game is, the level design is more than fair, everything can be solved logically and some of the mechanics are really ingenious and clever. It's one of those games where it feels good to say "I am too dumb for this", so I can only recommend Stephen's Sausage Roll for every puzzle lover looking for a bit of spice in their sausage. Good luck trying to make it to the end!

Nice

I burned my f*cking wiener

i love rolling sausages

Stephen's Sausage Roll is among the best puzzle games ever made. Up there with The Witness and Portal 1/2. The way it take a simple mechanic and extrapolates it outward is brilliant. Each puzzle I first approach has me thinking to myself "This one is genuinely impossible, I'll never be able to solve that one". Slowly but surely a puzzle starts to give way through trial and error and a willingness to think outside the box. The Dark Souls of the puzzle genre is a pretty apt comparison. This is a very difficult game but the feeling it gives you upon completing a puzzle is something that is rare to come by in video games. A similar feeling to getting just a little bit further up the mountain in Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. Foddy is the man who actually came up with the name for this game. This is a very difficult game that also happens to be very easy to recommend especially if you have any interest whatsoever in puzzle games.

Flawless masterpiece. Exceptional puzzle design.

If you enjoy fiendishly difficult and clever puzzle games, this is one of the best ones out there. The puzzles in this game will feel impossible until something turns in your brain, you realize the solution is straightforward, and you don't know why you couldn't see it before. The flashes of insight and delight that comes with those aha moments have come multiple times for me in this game and is incredibly satisfying.

The game does a great job overall of introducing you to mechanics through experimentation and discovery, and stays fresh by surprising you with new mechanics or by incorporating several existing mechanics in new ways. The only caveat I would give is that it can be quite difficult at times, so go into it expecting to get stuck sometimes and try to find the joy in cracking it after not knowing how to progress for a bit.

my sausages on fire :((

Incredible puzzle game

So like, if you're into puzzle games (which I am), this is probably a 10/10
otherwise...

Probably the best puzzle game I have ever played. Every new mechanic emerges totally naturally but still surprises you. Dont let the minimalistic graphics fool you, this is a masterpiece

sosigggg

One of the best puzzle games I have ever played. Relatively simple mechanics gain more depth than you could imagine at the start of the game. Puzzles deliver a rush of dopamine when solved that is hardly matched in any of the other games I have ever played. The game makes you celebrate after completing puzzles and discovering new mechanics. If you like puzzle games, do yourself a favor and pick this game up.

great puzzles.

delicious

The game is simply genius in its puzzles and the way it introduces new mechanics to the player, making every level feel ominous and scary at first, yet once you finish it, it’s like you’ve tamed a wild beast—giving you a thorough sense of satisfaction and making you feel like a prodigy. Moreover, the subtle storytelling enhances the experience tenfold, because it’s not really a puzzle game if it doesn’t give you an existential crisis, now is it? Anyway, to sum it all up, Stephen's Sausage Roll is a landmark in the puzzle game genre. Even with its complex controls and high difficulty, it manages to perfectly embody what puzzle games should be.

in short play the game cuz its good af (that is if you like puzzle games)

A masterpiece.