Having a knack for these, I found these "lack" of hints (understanding goal, covered tiles, no precondition failed) to be part of the game, and making deduction/memory work for it. There was just enough for me to understand it.

Had these hints been there I'd have been bored rather quickly.

Only thing I didn't know at first was that I assumed multiple conditions were or instead of and. Also, people are talking about flashing lights? I get to the completion criteria with the dog on the bone and the rabbits on the carrot and the game doesn't end. I can keep playing, no lights. Is there more?

> I assumed multiple conditions were or instead of and

Same, so I tried, and it was very obvious that it didn't work, so, and. Discovering that was, to me, part of the whole experience that makes it rewarding.

You need to have both rabbits on carrots

It was not obvious to me until the very end that you can have overlapping animals, my gut instinct is to treat this similar to a "wolf/lamb/cabbage" kind of puzzle and keep the dog and rabbits separate.

Bah, was using darkreader, hurray flash lights!

There is only one carrot, they are both on it.

There are games where figuring out what to do is the goal, but this game has an good enough design that it really doesn’t have to be one of those. Many older games use that kind of obscure design as a crutch to appear more interesting and difficult than they really were.

If you have a knack for them, you can probably just avoid making illegal moves and not worry about it.

Reinforcing the rules of the puzzle when you try to violate one is a good idea.

I agree. It's similar to how Doom was initially whereas now every game is filled with explanations.

That might be because most modern games are much more complicated than Doom. It’s also possible that modern game designers don’t want people to abandon the game before having a chance to really get what the core of it is about.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still a place for games with mystery and obscure mechanics etc, but it doesn’t make sense for most games to be like that. It’s just an unnecessary way to keep away players that would otherwise love the game.

I think that it is also that there are more resources for in-game help on modern hardware.

But there is a difference between a subtle hint and the MegaMan/navi style "hey listen! Here are several paragraphs to read"

Play through portal with developer commentary, that's a masterpiece on how to use hints well without players even realizing.

Things like how hallways are structured, where light is shining, etc.

Wait, which MegaMan game has a verbose tutorial?