When you first play The Wizard's Notebook, you're going to be a little nervous. We don't blame you. I mean, that title! We're not wizards! And you know what happened to Mickey Mouse when he messed around with the forces of magic! But then you realise that by harnessing the tremendous power of your brain, and your keyboard, you can be a wizard, too! All it takes is a little thought in this cute and clever little puzzle platform and you've got magic at your fingertips.
Your goal is to reach the lovely star at the end of each level. I mean, look at it! It's so... 2D! Who wouldn't want it? But to get there, you'll have to make use of your keyboard... excuse us, your magic keyboard. Similar to Scribblenauts for the DS, you can type in the yellow sections of the play area, and by typing different words in the appropriate spaces, you can conjure up different things to help reach your goal. "Platform", for example, will give you a surface to walk upon, while "water" will really float your boat... literally! Use the [arrow] keys to run and jump about the area and reach your goal.
Each level is a puzzle that you'll need to solve to reach your goal. Clues can be found in the level's title, or in thinking outside the box. Despite it's simple presentation, the first time you make a cat appear out of nowhere to menace as saucy mouse, The Wizard's Notebook will charm you.
Unfortunately, as it sprints for a picture-perfect finish, The Wizard's Notebook trips itself up in some places. The problem with a game where you conjure things by writing their names is that not everyone has the same vocabulary. Some words that are perfectly suited for the purpose at hand don't work because they weren't included in the game's dictionary. Another problem is intermittent but fierce lag, and typing too quickly can cause the game to miss letters. You also can't save your progress, so if you're not in it for the long haul, you'll have to restart the next time you come back to it.
Despite some issues, The Wizard's Notebook is a clever little gem that will titillate anyone who has ever wanted to make cheese appear out of thin air. Admittedly, the hero doesn't look much like a wizard. He doesn't even have a magnificent white beard! But, you know, this does remind us an awful lot of old-school Batman... pow! Blam! Zammo!... ohhhhhh my gosh you guys! You know what this means, don't you? Adam West is a wizard! And with the Wizard's Notebook, you can be one, too!
I'm stuck on the level called "The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Stick" X]. So far I'm a little dissapointed with the game, but I'll keep playing and see if it gets any better.
Lukex:
The word "cheese" might be called for.
Ahh, that's very clever. I didn't expect the game to be...*tries to think of word* like using words that aren't used very often...I was expecting a few words like that but I was expecting most to be like "Air", "Fire", "Plane" etc. :)
I did the intro level just by typing a row of letters to walk on...can't figure out the lever on the next one, and because the time delay is WAY too long, I've given up...shame, it looks interesting.
nng. I can't work out the balloon ride.
i'm stuck at balloon ride, any ideas?
must find something to make the switch.
walkthrough so far:;
1#
write anything to get to the switch them go back to the star
2#
Delete the "deleteme" phrase
3#
Type cat in the indicated place
4#
write water several time till the boat goes up to the switch
5#
write fire under the missile then run
6#
write cheese in front of the mouse (it'll make it go down so the cat will see it and switch the switch) then climb the stairs
7#
Jump on the rose then write sun, this will make the rose grow then jump up
8#
write water 6 times under and infront of the boat so it gets up then write wind in the upper space so the boat will float towards the switch
9#
write autumn so the dog will go up then write winter to freeze the lake so he can get to the switch
10#
i'm stuck here
I played this a bit before it showed up at JayIsGames and although I like the concept I ended up being frustrated with letters that were out of the window, unable to delete, and general slow response to typing. I'd like to see somebody take this and improve upon it.
I'm stuck on the balloon one as well. I would assume the balloon should burst at the top but it just keeps going.
For the balloon level:
Jump on the balloon and over to the switch so that the balloon is stopped by the ceiling. Type "PIN" in the right hand space, and "WIND" in the left hand space.
if you write wind the ballon will go to the right but i don't know what to write in the left to make it burst (sun didn't have much effect and can't find any other 3 letter word that works)
For the balloon ride:
jump on top of the balloon and over to the switch before it reaches the top of the screen.
write pin in the right box and wind in the left box.
Now i'm stuck on the princess level..
aah. completed the princess level and that's the end of the game. Liked it but could have been longer..
dog quest:
seasons modify the terrain: autumn, winter
balloon quest:
jump on the ballon to get to the trigger, use wind and pin
princess quest:
wind moves steam
steam comes from water
heat makes steam
nice game idea
OK...switch lever..
As soon as I turn to go back, the switch reverts to the starting position...aaargh!
11# (Final level)
write fire under the princess and water above the fire wood, and wind in the remaining places
#10
jump on balloon and quickly jump across to hit the switch. Then type "pin" on the right and type "wind" on the left.
Princess
type "wind" into the 3 left boxes.
type "water" into the box behind the princess.
type "fire" into the box below the princess.
princess level
Write fire under the princess. Write water over the twigs. Write wind in the three white bits on the left. The flamed twigs over water creates steam which is blown to the propeller. Then walk onto the princess and win.
To save the princess!
Firstly, use WIND for the 3 spaces in the turret. Then use WATER above the logs and FIRE next to them, to set them alight and create steam.
for the balloon level:
jump on the balloon. Hit the switch. Type wind to push the balloon and pin to have it popped
Never mind...worked it out
once he has switched the switch, put a few letters so that they "hold" the switch in position...
I though you had to do all the typing first, but you don't have to.Silly me.
Still annoyingly slow.
Help! I can't get past the flower level!
Walkthrough! Hah! Lurker for years, I finally get to do the first complete walkthrough! Yay!
I'll leave it to you to figure out just where to put what. Really, what you need to do is obvious in every level, it's just the words in question that are puzzling.
Stage 1:
"Platform" (or anything, really.)
Switches are good:
"Platform" again. (Or anything, really. (Again.))
Do as it asks:
Do as it asks.
Some words can come to life:
Again, read the screen. ("Cat", of course.)
Water water everywhere:
"Water".
Lift off!:
"Fire"! Woo! Fire! (Mind the gap.)
The best laid plans of mice and stick-men:
Attract the mouse with "cheese"!
Shine some light on the matter:
Jump first, THEN "sun".
Sail away:
"Water" and "wind" make a sailboat go.
A dog for all seasons:
Leaves pile up in the corners in "autumn", and water freezes in "winter". (But all seasons are possible.) Just make sure you provide the dog a walking surface before he goes swimming.
Balloon ride:
Go for a ride first, then you'll need a "pin" to stop the balloon in the "wind".
Save the princess!:
This windmill looks like it needs lots of "wind". But if that doesn't work, you might try adding some weight to the air with "steam". But you can't make "steam"! Well, you CAN make "fire" and "water", right?
I liked this.
It was a bit irritating trying to get the cursor in the place but a great concept.
Not sure if it's my computer, but the stickman is just doing his own thing, running and jumping without any help from me and the letters I type are not the ones produced on the screen.
Any ideas anyone as to why this doesn't work for me?
Debilitating lag makes the game completely unplayable for me.
Princess level
You need STEAM to power the wind turbine to raise the gate.
You need WIND to blow the STEAM over.
You need WIND 3x to blow it far enough
You need WATER to make STEAM
You need FIRE to make STEAM as well
The red line on the bottom leading to the wood can catch on FIRE
[Edit: Your spoiler have been placed well :), just use these > instead of those [ ] ~ Kayleigh]
This game had a very fun concept but poor execution. I've always liked the idea of "sandbox" type games, so a sandbox platformer struck me as awesome. However, there were too major problems in the way the game plays. First of all, the need to place the cursor at the beginning of a textbox makes it annoyingly hard to play. On top of this, the fact that it doesn't register every letter if you type too fast made me restart quite often. I found these too things very frustrating and IMHO they took away greatly from the experience that a game like this provides.
Alright game; kinda short, but interesting. Poor execution with both the text lag and having to click on the exact spot to type a word, though. Nice way to kill a few minutes, I guess.
@ Cursor: "Not sure if it's my computer, but the stickman is just doing his own thing, running and jumping without any help from me and the letters I type are not the ones produced on the screen.
Any ideas anyone as to why this doesn't work for me?"
Your house is horribly haunted. I'd suggest calling a priest while you pack up and get the heck out of there.
That was a very cool game!
Interface needs work but still... happy bunny!
I actually really enjoyed it. If you used logic, then it always worked out. The level names give you a hint too. Didn't take me too long, as it's only a short game, but good if you're wanting something to do in a break. A few frustrating moments, like the text cursor won't go where you want it to sometimes, and I found that if I made a mistake in a word it was very hard to undo (especially if I wanted to backspace the last letter for some reason). But those are just cosmetic things that can be changed. Nice game!
Brilliant concept, horrible execution. That it is often unresponsive to keystrokes and that you have to switch between cursors and mouse are severely hurting its playability.
The cheese/mouse/cat and rockets are carbon copies of those from The Incredible Machines.
What a cute game. I did need help on the balloon level but the others I got through no problem. I do wish it was longer.
It's fun but there are a few big problems:
No clear way to type just from the beginning of the box, leading to problems with word placement.
No pause button. I hit quit and it did just that. Faced with the prospect of starting over I stopped playing.
The execution is really cute, the concept is really awesome...but the lag pretty much killed it for me. I can't get past the balloon level because of it. If they improve on the game and eliminate the lag, I'm all there--but for now, I give it 3 'shrooms and a *headdesk* warning.
One thing to note on your doggie:
The author is british!
That was very cool
Interface needs work but ... Im a happy bunny!
This was a fun little game.
An interesting concept, and none of the puzzles were very unintuitive.
I also liked the Orisinal reference.
On the princess level, does it bother anyone else that the flags are obviously blowing in the breeze, but the windmill isn't turning?
Improvements to the gameplay aspect are needed, but a wonderful concept.
Quite often I would type a word but not all my letters would show up. I guess this is just lag.
I think it's going to be impossible to resolve the use of the arrow keys to move the hero and the natural tendency to use arrow keys to move the cursor around. I died a bunch of times this way...
A little more clue would be nice. I never would have guessed what to do with the dog.
Other than that it's a creative game and I hope to see more from this author.
Serious issues abound here. The biggest one is that I can't get past the very first screen because every time I try to use the arrow keys, the guy suddenly starts jumping in place while the letter "w" keeps typing over and over every time I hit either the right or left arrows.
Point of fact, the only letter that types is "w", no matter what letter I'm trying to type.
The concept sounds good, but the game itself is loaded with bugs. For the record, this is the only Kongregate game I haven't been able to play due to such issues. Anybody know a work-around?
It is an excellent idea, though the execution does leave something to be desired...not all that good, to be honest, but at least they came up with a completely original idea t-OH WAIT
Yeah, I'm guessing we're about to see a whole slew of copycat games with this concept, hopefully most of them will run smoother than this one.
[Edit: Link removed. -Pam]
GREAT GAME... if only it wasn't for the lagging, difficulty deleting and all... great idea... i hope they work on it more
My first walkthrough for the AWESOME JIG. Enjoy.
---
Walkthrough
1.
Put anything in the spot so you can get to the star.
2.
Same as 1, type anything. Flip the switch and get the star.
3.
use delete the letters "deleteme" underneath you.
4.
Type "cat" into the box.
5.
Put "water" above the boat until it is high enough to flip the switch.
6.
Put "water" under the rocket.
7.
Put "cheese" in the box to get the mouse to go down, so the cat runs at it and flips the switch.
8.
Put "sun" in the box. Jump on the plant to get the star.
9.
On the middle and right, put "water". On the FAR left, put "wind" at the top where 4 letters fit, and type it again underneath it so they are stacked up. It should fill the whole space.
10.
Jump on the balloon. flip the switch. Put "pin" on the right side. Put "wind" on the left side.
11.
Put "wind" in the 3 side spots. put "water" to the left of the princess. Put "fire" underneath the princess.
Couldn't play this at all. I couldn't type a word in the field to save my life. Even using the cursor keys to move the stickman was difficult. Most (but not all) of my keyboard entry was ignored. Extremely unresponsive. I'm disappointed; I really wanted to play this one.
Great game. Now I want more levels! (Tabbing between writable areas would be helpful, too, so I don't have to keep going from mouse to keyboard)
I've got to say, I don't like this game, mostly because of superior lag, no quality adjustment available, and every button on my keyboard I push leaves a "w" with about 2 tabs in between it and the next "w". Also my charecter isn't controlable, he just runs left and jumps sometimes
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the lag really ruins what could be a lovely game. It doesn't help that it's awfully picky with where you're writing/erasing.
In the princess level, put wind in the three boxes to the left. Write fire in the bottom right one, and water in the one above the wood.
im stuck on "sail away" i dont get what to do on this one,, i thought they where all easy untill i reached this level. help me!
My character keeps moving by itself and in cant seem to type the correct letters sometimes. If anyone here has this problem and solved it please tell me how.
Tom, I also have this problem and it happens by pressing the same letter twice quickly/holding it down. Press the button again to cancel this self-typing thing but it wastes lots of time.
Experienced no lag, and the game was sadly short and simplistic. More work and I could see some amazing things happen with it :D
Again, would have enjoyed it if not for the fact that it types the wrong letters.
For the balloon 1, write wind in the big box and pin in the small, but now stuck on save princess, anybody know
princess lvl:
Spoiler
fire+water = steam + wind = energy^^
princess(also last lvl)
1. on the far sides type wind
2. type water above wood
3. write fire under princess
the balloon level is done by jumping on the balloon to reach the lever, then typing "pin" into the right hand side box, then typing "wind" into the left hand side box. Hilarity ensues...
In the balloon level you can type "pin" and it will pop.
easy but just wish it had sanbox mode and a level creator mode.sigh
Problem with the Sail Away lvl. It only lets me type waterwaterwate the last part doesn't make water and the boat just falls through.
BRILLIANT concept, such a shame about the sticky keys and movement.
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