# BLIND DAVE — FIRST-TIME PLAYER REVIEW 1.28

Blind Dave is a **simulated first-time-player reviewer**, separate from Robot Dave. It is deliberately denied the intended solution, PERFECT target, secret coordinates and Robot Dave routes. Its job is not to prove solvability; its job is to identify places where a new player may reasonably misunderstand what the game is asking.

## Opening campaign findings

- **1 GET OUT:** reads cleanly as movement/jump/exit.
- **2 GREED:** the seven-jewel layout now reads as an optional 100% route. Two spike-route jewels were raised into a visibly plausible jump arc after human feedback that they looked unreachable.
- **3 DEAD END:** the first replay is allowed to be mysterious. No extra explanation added.
- **4 HOLD IT:** establishes that a dead Dave remains physically useful by holding a switch.
- **5 AFTER YOU:** keeps the machinery lesson, but three high jewels were re-audited. Two were lowered to give ordinary human jump margin rather than apex-only collision.
- **6 BAIT:** the hint identifies a hunter as something that chases the Dave it notices. A hunter may choose a ghost; this is the first enemy-bait lesson.
- **7 TWO OF ME:** explicitly communicates the multi-life structure.
- **8 BAD TIMING:** human feedback showed that the monster encounter and ghost interaction were unclear. The patrol is slower than the earlier build and the hint now states that monsters kill ghosts too. Patrols do **not** chase; hunters do.
- **Race Replay:** removed from the early control legend. It appears later as a mastery/time-trial feature so it cannot be mistaken for the physical death-ghost system.

## Jewel rule

The reviewer now treats jewels as a second campaign objective, not decoration:

- level completion never requires 100% jewels;
- any physical incarnation of Dave may collect a jewel;
- jewels collected before a death remain collected for the rest of that level attempt;
- dying for a jewel is therefore a legitimate strategy;
- 100% jewel completion is stored independently of PERFECT deaths;
- selected hidden routes contain a jewel as temptation and reward, but not every secret does, so the pattern does not become automatic.

## What Blind Dave still cannot substitute for

This agent can identify information-load and presentation problems. It is still not a real first-time human holding a phone. Human reports outrank it on questions such as whether a jump *looks* possible, whether a monster feels irritating, or whether a discovery produces the intended 'oh!' moment.