[vincent_richter]

Here's a thought, though I'll admit I'm just spitballing here.

Every puzzler game these days seems to fall squarely into Idea 1 or Idea 2 territory, so - and I'm well aware that this will be a pain in the ass on the programming side - what's the really compelling reason not to fuse the two? Something like having the player figure out which transformation will best fit a certain puzzle, or even more unique - tailoring the puzzles to the player's current transformation. Even the order could be dynamic, based on which transformation is chosen at which time; rewards could then be used individually, or combined to solve progressively more difficult puzzles, or at least drastically cut down the solving time (a la Mega Man).

IMO, anything that makes the game more unique could only be a good thing for the project in terms of talent draw.