First, I really like the minimalistic look and the colors.
I first played your game without reading the readme and I was a bit confused. I think most small games, especially puzzle games, should be pick-upable (is that a valid adjective?) without reading a manual. I don't think any non-developers bother reading a manual when first trying out a free game.
After reading the readme and a couple examples, I understood the rules.
Here's how I think you could make it clearer for newcomers:
- I know it'll detract from the minimalistic look you're going for, but the numbers absolutely need to be visible at all times. When you're new to the game, it's a bit annoying to have to hover over each ring to look up its numbers.
- When hovering over a quadrant, compatible quadrants in adjacent rings could light up.
- When hovering over a ring, the other rings that will be triggered by a mouse click should be indicated in some way.
- "Connected" quadrants should definitely be shown to indicate that the player did something right. Maybe draw a line between them.
- Maybe make an introductory level with few rings (say, 4 or 5) so that beginners can experiment and find an easy solution. Completing an easy puzzle will make them eager to try the real deal.
- I'm not sure this would work aesthetically, but you could try eschewing numbers entirely to make the game clearer. Each quadrant could have three colors instead (the colors it is compatible with).
That's a promising start, anyway. I'm eager to see an improved version
PS: you should provide a .love file on this forum; not everyone has Windows or OS X. I use Linux and I had to dig into the OS X app bundle to find it
