MEMEX is an ambient mystery puzzle game where you steal bits and pieces of someone's memory. You play as the thief, pushing your way through someone's mind in an attempt to take away pieces of treasured memories.
But why are you doing this? Who are "you" supposed to be?
Cake&Code welcomes you to try your hand at being the villain for once, and watch our little story unfold. Keep in mind, you don't have to collect all the pieces to move on, but it won't be without consequence.
WASD, Arrows: Move R, Backspace: Restart Level Esc: Home
Matias Giachino (Zeik): Code Monkey, Sound Magician Christina Pham (Cake): Art Guru, UI Design Ninja
Pretty good. I like how the story was told, and the art is lovely. The puzzle is interesting, and maybe too easy, which is not a bad thing I think. There was only one bug I found, that sometimes I moved 2 squares when I pressed a direction
The graphics are gorgeous. I love the extremely linear, iconic feel, and how it's carried through all the assets. Still not crazy about the music, and didn't feel like I was really the villain. Hardness just about right where you want for LD (which is to say, casual/easy.) Really dug the story though.
Best game I've played yet! The graphics for this are exquisite, and the little details in the way your character moves and the interface responds take up another notch.
There are two things I noticed that seemed a little off:
On the second stage, the first time memories collapse, you can get stuck on your first move. It might be better to position it so that you notice that blocks collapse but you can't get stuck right away.
On the last few (two?) levels, the character started moving a lot more quickly, and it made the game feel harder but not in a fair way - it was easy to accidentally push a block too far. Not sure if that was just my machine, though.
This is beautiful. The artwork is fantastic, and the sound works very well together with it. At first I didn't realize that you don't have to push all blocks to their destinations, but I don't think I missed anything because of that. Rather the contrary. Amazing job!
This game was a fun play. I was a little annoyed when I got to the last level and accidentally went into the exit. Apart from my little screw-up, great game! and quite an interesting story.
Very nice, consistent visual and aural style with a good yet disturbing story. Will try again to see what happens if I don't get the full memories. Puzzles are no challenge but I see them more as vehicles to drive the game forward then as obstacles in this game.
P
PIXEL^319 Dec 2012, 04:49
Beautiful. Both the art and story. It kinda reminds me a of a creepy pasta, but one of the well written ones. The puzzles were a little too easy though, I flew through all the levels with little challenge.
As always, your games are gorgeously beautiful! I loved the fonts, the level designs, the sounds.
The puzzle element is also nice. The idea of having to "open up" paths by choosing which block to collapse was quite novel.
As for the story, I must confess that I didn't quite follow what happened by the end of it. So who is the player controlling actually? Is it the "dark eyed girl" wiping out the narrator's memories? Or what? The story was a bit vague, and I was lost in the end.
Classical puzzle game with a interesting take on. Visually very good and with good music. I like the story that slowly unfolds between each level
M
Monxcleyr Productions19 Dec 2012, 09:42
Very, very well polished. The art and music were great! The gameplay is maybe too familiar, but the levels are well designed. I found the movement to be a little too sensitive sometimes, as well.
I had yo play this game 4 times to try and make my mind about everything... xD It's really nice being told the history according to how many fragments you gather... but I missed it changing the ending. Also, as I understood the game (you being the black-eyed girl, since the player's graphics flashes over her graphic, in the end) it doesn't make sense to me the guy dreaming of everything when you steal the memories... shouldn't it be the other way around? >_< I'm not sure I understood everything... xD Nonetheless, awesome game!
Maybe I just like you guys, but I loved this a looooot.
So, lemme get this straight: The dark-eyed girl was in a fight with the blond girl over the guy. So, the dark-eyed girl killed the blond girl, and then stole the guy's memories and made the whole thing like a dream to him, allowing him to think that the dark-eyed girl was the one he'd loved all along.
How incredibly dark. Beautiful, just beautiful.
Those path clearing puzzles were also very original, I've never seen anything like that. Same with the story being the incentive for a player to fully beat the level.
I'm trying to make it a habit to give my criticisms in these comments, but I can't think of anything. Perhaps it could use an "undo move" key?
C
Cake&Code20 Dec 2012, 01:48
Thanks for all the comments everyone! The controls being fiddly was a trade off we made for long-range movement with a single key press, it might not have been the best decision and we'll try and make the controls are more solid for next time! The feedback is always appreciated :D
@23: We tried our best with the level design but yeah that second level isn't the best of teachers, we'll try to keep that in mind for the future. As for the speed up, sorry to hear about that! I hope it didn't interfere too badly. Thanks again!~
@matthias_zarzecki: Sorry about that! We definitely weren't trying to make levels that punish players. Next time we'll try to make the levels more informative rather than simply evil :)
@zenmumbler: Puzzles were definitely just a vehicle to let the narrative unfold. Thanks!
@caranha: We're sorry about the story not being clear enough! Puzzlem00n has an excellent synopsis in his comment that we hope will clear things up :D
@GFM: The memories are in first person because they are his memories and you in his mind when experiencing them, but yes you are right about the player being the dark-haired girl. Sorry it wasn't more clear! It was a very experimental execution for both of us. We'll definitely learn from all of it. Thanks! :)
@Puzzlem00n: D'awww, you're too kind. We're so glad you enjoy it so much and you totally nailed the story! Thank you <3
Beautiful style and story! It would be great if you added more levels and more challenge when you continue to build on this! The mood and style are solid so just keep those puzzles coming! :D
Very nicely crafted puzzler. Graphics are fantastic, and the music is gorgeous. The story that ties it all together is short and the ending (intentionally?) vague but it was good enough to get me through to the end. Well done.
Artistically fantastic. The music was a little irritating unfortunately, and it got really frustrating how often you would move 2 squares instead of one, and fail near the end of a puzzle and have to do it over. This is why these type of games generally have an undo last action button. Sadly I think it was a rather uninspired genre to choose as well as block pushers are pretty dull, and adding a narrative doesn't really change the gameplay. The only thing that kept me going till the end was the story, which was damn creepy. Not really sure what it all means, or how you were a villain, but yeah.
Same here, did not really get the connection to the theme, apart from that its a really well done puzzler.
M
Martin Vilcans20 Dec 2012, 22:04
Great mood! At first I didn't understand that you get more of the story the better you finish the level, and I thought the level design was just bad as you could finish a level without pushing all the blocks to their targets. I still think that the puzzles should have been a little bit harder to complete. The connection to the theme is weak in my opinion, even though I understand that it can be explained in the story. The story is intriguing by the way, possibly owing to the music and art direction.
Really well polished and emotive. The puzzles were quite easy.Maybe I just lucked upon the right solutions but there seemed like there were a lot of them. Really fantastic design.
I love how story and puzzles flow in and out of another. Music is great. The choice of words creates a special mood. Great work.. for personal taste.. I would have liked the puzzles to be harder towards the end. :)
A real piece of art and story telling. I came for the looks but stayed for the conclusion! I can't see the connection to the theme but i still get the feeling that i should. Amazing work!
Real artsy, but you also managed to tie some gameplay into it, which has some gimmicks instead of being just a repackaged Sokoban. I love that the way you complete levels affects how you experience the story.
Very well done. I love that not only do you have to push pieces around, but the method you use to open up more paths is adds another dimension. I would play more levels, definitely.
Well done as always, C&C! I love both the story and how it is revealed. Also, interesting way of representing memories! I like the idea of weak memory blocks that you can collapse.
Beautifully executed - the player's role in the narrative is unclear even at the finale though, unless you're paying very careful attention. Great concept though.
I love the graphical style. To be honest the story driven by puzzle didn't do it for me, I just lost interest. I think mainly because they felt a little too disconnected. If it was grounded just a little more I think it would of tipped the scale of engagement for me. That said, it is a very well executed game overall!
Comments64
There are two things I noticed that seemed a little off:
On the second stage, the first time memories collapse, you can get stuck on your first move. It might be better to position it so that you notice that blocks collapse but you can't get stuck right away.
On the last few (two?) levels, the character started moving a lot more quickly, and it made the game feel harder but not in a fair way - it was easy to accidentally push a block too far. Not sure if that was just my machine, though.
Thanks for the beautiful game!
I was worried I'd not be able to beat this one (as I am typically poor at puzzle games) but I found it not at all difficult, actually.
~AlucardX60
The puzzle element is also nice. The idea of having to "open up" paths by choosing which block to collapse was quite novel.
As for the story, I must confess that I didn't quite follow what happened by the end of it. So who is the player controlling actually? Is it the "dark eyed girl" wiping out the narrator's memories? Or what? The story was a bit vague, and I was lost in the end.
Thanks for the game!
The gameplay is maybe too familiar, but the levels are well designed. I found the movement to be a little too sensitive sometimes, as well.
It's really nice being told the history according to how many fragments you gather... but I missed it changing the ending.
Also, as I understood the game (you being the black-eyed girl, since the player's graphics flashes over her graphic, in the end) it doesn't make sense to me the guy dreaming of everything when you steal the memories... shouldn't it be the other way around? >_<
I'm not sure I understood everything... xD
Nonetheless, awesome game!
Maybe I just like you guys, but I loved this a looooot.
So, lemme get this straight: The dark-eyed girl was in a fight with the blond girl over the guy. So, the dark-eyed girl killed the blond girl, and then stole the guy's memories and made the whole thing like a dream to him, allowing him to think that the dark-eyed girl was the one he'd loved all along.
How incredibly dark. Beautiful, just beautiful.
Those path clearing puzzles were also very original, I've never seen anything like that. Same with the story being the incentive for a player to fully beat the level.
I'm trying to make it a habit to give my criticisms in these comments, but I can't think of anything. Perhaps it could use an "undo move" key?
@23: We tried our best with the level design but yeah that second level isn't the best of teachers, we'll try to keep that in mind for the future. As for the speed up, sorry to hear about that! I hope it didn't interfere too badly. Thanks again!~
@matthias_zarzecki: Sorry about that! We definitely weren't trying to make levels that punish players. Next time we'll try to make the levels more informative rather than simply evil :)
@zenmumbler: Puzzles were definitely just a vehicle to let the narrative unfold. Thanks!
@caranha: We're sorry about the story not being clear enough! Puzzlem00n has an excellent synopsis in his comment that we hope will clear things up :D
@GFM: The memories are in first person because they are his memories and you in his mind when experiencing them, but yes you are right about the player being the dark-haired girl. Sorry it wasn't more clear! It was a very experimental execution for both of us. We'll definitely learn from all of it. Thanks! :)
@Puzzlem00n: D'awww, you're too kind. We're so glad you enjoy it so much and you totally nailed the story! Thank you <3
The story that ties it all together is short and the ending (intentionally?) vague but it was good enough to get me through to the end. Well done.
The only thing that kept me going till the end was the story, which was damn creepy. Not really sure what it all means, or how you were a villain, but yeah.
Music is great. The choice of words creates a special mood.
Great work.. for personal taste.. I would have liked the puzzles to be harder towards the end. :)
Nevermind, I really enjoyed it.
Improve: I missed the rough edges of a 72 hour game.
loved the puzzle, now I want more!
and the graphics and music really gave the mood
sorry my bad english XD
Nice graphics, music, story. I also liked how not clearing all the puzzles makes the text during story parts unreadable. brilliant!