Account Mu

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

It's a puzzle game (demo).

Duration: 5-15 minutes.

(This is a piece of art drawn by Adellie. How nice of her.)

Download here (11.36 M.

Credits:

​

Spoiler

~Developer~
CashmereCat

~Scripts~
Yanfly
NeonBlack
Duncan Sommerville
Melkino
Tsukihime
modern algebra
Galv

~BGM (Background Music)~
erokia

~SE (Sound Effects)~
XPer
smartwentcody
panzertank15
qat
ehproductions
daatg
rutgermuller
tigersound

~Engine~
Enterbrain​

 

[??????]

are the pictures the puzzle, or are those real screnshots/mockups ?

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Those are screenshots.

 

[??????]

So its a scripted game like mine? Cool.

I expect there are various puzzles then, each with varying difficulties? I like puzzle games

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Well, it's not exactly a game that relies on a lot of scripts. Most of the mechanics are created using event logic and a couple of script calls, but that's about it. Not very script-heavy at all. That doesn't mean it won't have unique mechanics, though.

You are right to expect varying difficulties of puzzles. The puzzles are laid out in such a way that you will be taught a set of rules as you progress through the levels, and these lessons allow you to solve puzzles later down the line. The world is largely non-linear, so if you find yourself having trouble completing a certain puzzle because it's too difficult, then you have the ability to leave that puzzle and explore the world for some other puzzle in another area that you might find easier to solve. Not all puzzles are required to be solved to complete the game, only about 75% of them.

 

[??????]

Sounds cool. I will have to remember and try it out when your finished

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Changed the screenshots to the new version.

 

[Indrah]

Here's my very quick and sketchy take on the game (link for info on why it's so short and all that jazz)




 
+Presentation was intriguing in its simpleness.
+Get to the action right away!
+Music was oddly nice when it swelled up.
-Not the fault of the game, but I got stuck really early on (because I’m an idiot)
-No preface or context? (May be explained later as I stopped early).
 
To the developer: I am so sorry, I’m too dumb for this OTL The first “complex” puzzle did me in.
For what it’s worth, I liked the simplistic approach of the visuals! I’m just really bad at puzzle games.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Lol this game is a bit hard xD I should probably make the difficulty curve wayyyy more shallow in the future.


Also the idea is that that puzzle is optional so you can pass it and come back.


But yeah. Thanks so much for playing. Hope you liked it despite the frustration. Anyone else who wants to play this version (which btw is very short) then here's a link.


Download Account Mu (contest version)


Thanks!

 

[Housekeeping]

I completed this earlier today.  Account Mu was incredibly short, but the puzzle logic was sound and enjoyable.  Here's my detailed feedback:

Spoiler

-First, there was a glitch.  In the third subset of areas (the one with the stair case), you can walk to the left and get stuck on the next screen, which I imagine was a vestigial limb.-I liked the piano piece that played throughout the game, but the dynamics were a little too extreme.  I would have made it louder in the beginning and quieter after the crescendo.  You still could have that nice dynamic effect, but you'll be able to hear everything (or, in my case, not crank up your volume and then get the **** scared out of you when the loud part kicks in).

-The simplistic graphics worked and were eye-catching, which was a clever way to cover up a weakness (I hope my assumption that you're probably not much in the graphics department isn't overstepping any bounds--I'm certainly a terrible artist).

-You introduced puzzle mechanics in a natural way without tutorials--this is very much appreciated.

-I would have gotten rid of the save anywhere feature since it makes fudging puzzles too easy.  Save points in the little nexus areas would have been a better design decision.

-I liked your mechanics for the most part, but I wasn't a fan of the arrow-based puzzles.  At first they were trial and error, and then they were counting to six over and over again.  When you combine them with the circle blocks, though, they were cool, so I'll take that tradeoff.

-If you were conveying anything via the title, setting, and ending, it was lost on me, and I tend to be pretty good about that.  So, you either need to make your point a bit clearer if you have one or abandon red herrings (particularly the ending) if you don't.

-The balance of the puzzles was nice, so the gameplay worked for me.  However, I would have loved to see much more in terms of length, additional mechanics, and higher difficulty for final puzzles.

Overall, your game worked for me, but it needed a bit more meat on the bone.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Thanks very much, Housekeeping. I agree with very many of your sentiments. I appreciate your feedback and I thoroughly value it. Every single piece of advice I'll use to make my development process more efficient and produce better games. So thank you.


I agree that the dynamics of the piano piece are quite extreme. For some reason, I really liked it though, which was why I put it in. I put my personal preference above what's best for the game, but even then, toning down the dynamics like you said would be a good idea. Thanks for that feedback.


You're right - I'm terrible at art, so I decided to try to use math to create perspective. I think I invented my own theory of perspective in this game, because it probably doesn't make any sense in the real world. But I thought it looked cool. Another reason why I wanted simple graphics is because I wanted as little as possible to get in the way of the puzzle logic of the game. Also, it's easier to create simple graphics.


I admit, I rushed the game to completion.


I wanted to try to build a natural puzzle arc if you will, like building a castle out of logic blocks. But I didn't have enough time to build half the amount of puzzles required to make that arc satisfying, so it ended up feeling a little short and a little unsatisfying. I hope I'm interpreting your review correctly when you say there should be a greater number of puzzles for it to seem more fleshed out, because I'd agree. I think I'll create a full version, when the yucky feelings I have for this game subside and when the passion returns.


I didn't want there to be any dialogue in the game, and I didn't really want it to have any real meaning either. It's just a disembodied conceptual series of puzzles. I guess this represents my dissatisfaction with my own abilities. I feel like I can't create a good story, so I completely scissored it out of the game.


The original ending I had in mind was much more epic. I think I'll include that in the finished game. In my mind, the game will have no dialogue, but the story will be told visually. So there will be small areas with cutscenes that are delivered silently. I don't know, it might be crap.


Thanks for the review.


Edit: Oh, and that glitch you found - that was a part of the game that I axed. Oops.

 

[Housekeeping]

Yeah, it's fine to tell a story through visuals, and I think, for a puzzle game, there is plenty of precedent for that.  You just want to make sure that the imagery clearly conveys your meaning.  I can see that you might end up intentionally obscuring the meaning for something like this, so, as a word of caution, make sure to only do that if obscuring the meaning works with the story itself.  If I'm reading you right, it looks like you might have just ended it due to exasperation/time constraints, though, so I could just be fretting over nothing.

Also, yep, I just wanted there to be more of it.  I think the logical arc that you made worked; you introduced the concepts one by one, and then you built on those concepts.  I never felt stuck because the game was poorly designed (well, except after that glitch), but I would have appreciated being stuck because I couldn't figure something out more often; I tended to solve the puzzles pretty quickly, which could be a plus or minus depending on your audience.

 

[Adellie]

Played your game. Caught my eye because i like puzzles.

Liked:

* Self explanatory puzzles and mechanics. I think there was only one puzzle that stumped me for a few minutes, and it didn't stop me from trying other ones in the meantime.

* You're never waiting on dialogue or character movement. The game progresses as fast as you can solve puzzles.

* The game is finished very quickly. (A big relief among these contest entries, but if it weren't, the game could have more stages with more difficult puzzles)

* Personally, i really dig the backing visuals, with the exception of the stairs and the actor. I think you could use a top-view perspective for the stairs instead and the guy would be less... round if it were up to me.

Disliked:

* Perhaps some further simplification of the save/load scene.

Issues: none encountered.

Nothing amazing or memorable, but it was totally complete and enjoyable for me. (Honestly i doubt there'll be another game in this contest where i have to think a few minutes to figure out something I disliked. ... actually, maybe the worst thing about it is the loading time but it's rpgmaker lol. ¯\(°_o)/¯)

 

[seita]

Great game, it's the only one I tried so far from the contest. It's too bad there's no media on the contest page, I'm sure you would have gotten a lot more votes. At least you got mine! Let me know if you're looking for some work.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Updated to Demo v1.0.


Changes

• Added story.
• Changed music.
• Added sound effects.
• Added backgrounds.
• Title stayed the same.

 

[Susan]

Hi, I downloaded your game a few days ago to try out. It looks like a nice puzzle game, but I'm wondering if the maps are really supposed be lacking visuals since your screenshots indicated otherwise. I find it really hard to navigate and complete the puzzles.

Thanks in advance for your response!

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Thanks Susan. I updated the download very recently which includes the visuals. If you're talking about what I think you're talking about. Is your version only in black and white? Because if so, that is the old version. I updated it only recently. Cheers


Edit: But the game should be functionally very similar, so how did you find it very hard to navigate the puzzles? Was it the controls, or was it just that the puzzles were too difficult?

 

[Susan]

Thanks for updating the demo! The one I downloaded a few days ago was mostly black with only a few white blocks here and there. I couldn't see where I was going or why I couldn't move.

The latest update fixed that, thanks! The animated background is a nice touch. I kind of miss the piano music from the contest version (maybe I'm playing too fast?)

The puzzles are short and fun. I was struggling a little in the last puzzle map, but it worked well.

All in all it's a nice, relaxing, and entertaining game.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Thanks Susan for your kind words. I'm working on including a lot of new and exciting stuff. The next version will include:

• Membranes,
• Ink blocks,
• Rotation blocks,
• Order-specific switches,
• Springs,
• and more to come!

Hopefully it will be epic. We'll see.

 

[Stoic]

Hey CashmereCat. My review of your game finally went up on the blog: http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/games/account-mu-review/

The review is of the contest version of the game so I hope that's ok. Glad to see you're still working on it!