Melon Head; a fantastical adventure in a delirious imaginary world RELEASED!

[Jubal]

Oh wow! I can see how that would have taken ages for a bigger game, but it's a very nice style: it could be fun to make like a super mini bonus game with that isometric bit you did do sometime, a slice of life Melon Head puzzle Or a slice of melon life head puzzle. Or something like that.

[Miggo]

Yeah, there's definitely potential for something on a smaller scale, such as a slice of melon life head puzzle. 

[Miggo]

Verily, Melon Head is now released and available HERE!

There's a launch sale too until Oct 15th!

[Jubal]

I finally got to playing Melon Head! And have now tootled through all five chapters of it I think it took me ca 3hrs start to finish, maybe?

Choices I made:

Spoiler

• Peaceful option against the Overseer
• Sided with rebels in their base
• Did put the bomb in the sceptre at the end

I'm not sure if there were other pathing choices I didn't realise I was making.

Things I especially liked:

Spoiler

• It was all suitably very weird.
• I liked the station-master throughout, his going and picking up botany made me think very strongly of the hemulens from the Moomins.
• I think the second area was probably my favourite: it took me a while to see the furthest & most hidden of the forest symbols, but in general I liked it and the characters felt very characterful there.
• The cipher puzzle was kinda enjoyable for me.
• The benevolent spirit was nice.

Frustrations:

Spoiler

• The desert bit was annoying. Just the extra clicking from having to check the compass at every point got a bit tiresome, and indeed it was a couple of runs before I realised the game turned you around at every single spot rather than it being "I check the compass then subsequent screens will have me logically going forwards". I did like the goat though. Good goat.
• The conversation with the giant. There didn't seem to be an obvious way to work out exactly what would persuade the giant so I found I was just brute forcing the conversation and I watched that slashy-slash at the giant's inside animation a few more times than a human should have to.

Anyway, generally I really enjoyed it, very good and very zany and well worth the time spent tootling through it

[Miggo]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the pros and cons you experienced.

You must be the fastest player I've encountered so far. Mostly I've seen players spend about 2 hours per chapter!

About choices:

Spoiler

The main branching happens when you either join the Rebel Boss or escape the facility. There's a slightly different puzzle chain if you choose blood with the Overseer. But yes, you didn't miss any branching moments in the story.

Hemulens! The Station Master does have a bit of a Hemuli vibe, now that you mention. Nice to hear you mention Bene too. I hope people will share me their favorite characters in the future.

The symbols in the forest have been a source of frustration for many players now, I might need to update the hint system at that point. I'm interested see what sort of feedback the desert maze and The Giants dialog tree puzzle will get.

And, by the way,

Spoiler

encountering the goat is random. So you may consider yourself lucky!

I'm glad you found it enjoyable in the end!

[Jubal]

You must be the fastest player I've encountered so far.

I had played the demo so that meant I could knock through Ch. 1 very fast - my biggest speed-bump there was working out how to empty the jar again at the crime scene. And other than that... I guess it's a style of game I know well enough to design as well as well enough to play, so my brain probably follows puzzle-making logic fairly well? I tend to do "sweeps" of all the places I can get to fairly early and then I can usually start figuring out what my options are and how they fit together, especially in a game like this where there aren't many red herrings. I did use the meditation option about 2-3 times I think.

Also

Spoiler

I met the goat twice! So double luck then! And the goat is pretty useful - its bird flight direction hint definitely helped me work out how to resolve the desert maze.

And a curiosity question:

Spoiler

If you go rebel path but don't put the bomb into the staff at the end, does the game let you do that and does it change the ending?

[Miggo]

Indeed, the demo! That brings me consolation.   I figured you must be familiar with the genre.

For the curiosity question:

Spoiler

Yes to both; you can leave the bomb in your inventory and get a third (secret?) ending.

[Jubal]

Right, at some point I'll try and see if I can carve out a few hours to knock through the game fast and see the other two endings then

[Miggo]

I do recommend it! And you may try to choose the different path in Chapter 2 if you like.

[Miggo]

• The cipher puzzle was kinda enjoyable for me.

I only now realized:

Spoiler

You must've meant the code cipher in Chapter 3, right?

Did you in fact do it the "pen and paper" -way?

[Jubal]

Yep! I did spend a while trying to puzzle it out when I first found it before I had the thing explaining the logic, but I eventually decided it'd probably be made clearer later and indeed it was.

[Miggo]

That's lovely to hear, actually! I was wondering if anybody will do it like that, but now it's off the checklist

That code was inspired by Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth where there's a code with similar logic in the beginning of the novel.  Although, it's possible I've totally misunderstood how it works in the novel and created an original one, which would be quite funny.

[Jubal]

...I think I'm now confused, how do you do it without a pen and paper?

[Miggo]

Well,

Spoiler

once you have the rest of the diary pages a button that reads 'break it down' becomes visible under the code. At first it will encourage the player to break the code on their own but if you press it again it will break down the code for you.

It seems you've missed it, then? Maybe you had your own notes already that you referred to?

[Jubal]

Yeah I'd already noted down the code as soon as I got it so I never needed to look back at it once I had the instructions!