Spell Book

A phenomenal adventure!!!!!
A fantastic concept of forum use.
The quest of using multiple cards to tie the exploration together is well thought out… Even including a few without a “win” goal to add dimension to the vast world.
Each card is beautifully designed with many deserving high praise (a 5 star rating) on their own merit!
By the way, is “Helix Double” the mechanism you mention? It is visually stunning!
Thanks!!!, for the time and effort you put into this entire themed adventure.

Thank you very much for your comment @Chris Hester
I'm so pleased you liked the levels. My purpose was not at all to put any shame on the one-levels cards like you said . One thing I like in Mekorama is - like everyone here - the huge and let's say, infinite possibilities given in a relatively small space. And main point : many of the levels in Spell Book are not fascinating in a gameplay point of view... They are just landscapes to offer a journey to the player. The low difficulty of many comes from the idea to offer an easy experience to everyone.

It didn't took me ages to create the whole thing ... but I had the idea since a long time. In a way, I gathered some levels that I had never finished and remained as "draft", adapted them to the general medieval design. But of course, I also created new levels to "fill in the gaps".

... Thinking about the map and making the spoiler-numbers-architecture took me some time though !

I didn't think of Monument Valley, which I played a few yers ago, while designing. My influences would rather be Myst (Riven, Exile...) because I'm more than 40 and of course Zelda !

See you soon in a one card level !

@97 NinetySeven Thank you so much. Such a comment coming from someone who regularly amazes everyone is very cool to read. I must admit, like you said, that some levels are just landscapes to extend the map. I'm happy if you didn't suffer from it. And even liked ! I was a little afraid of that aspect... Reason why I called it "a demo"
But I knew that the principle of the forum-oriented-quest was good.

I was also afraid to "flood" the level section with 18 levels+bonus ! But technically, Spell Book occupies only one card . And our administrator (and his son) took the thing really well! So ...

Yes, of course "Double Helix" is the mech I mentionned in comments ... I was not sure that I wanted to "hide" it in a multi-levels level. But after all, I'm happy to give something more interesting than just landscapes. So there is some challenge for everyone, in the end ?!

Thank you also for the comment about the card design. I must say ( and you must have guessed) that I had to customize/rotate some levels in mekostudio and then to modify them after that, to make the general map.

Bye !

With this new approach of multi-card levels anything is surely possible. Many games, especially in the 8-bit era of the Commodore 64, were on separate screens due to memory constraints. A good example is Spindizzy. (Someone has actually made a 3D version for the PC where all the screens are joined together!) Now we can make such games in the app.

Your method also allows the use of 'scenery' cards, where there are no stars to collect, but you can enjoy the architecture. I think this could be the greatest addition to the Mekorama universe as they can be as simple or complex as you wish, like your sea levels were. This could free the author to experiment with cool ideas too. Though I know such cards have been created before, but without a real reason to play them. (Very clever of you to add numbers to the cards that must be found to progress. Plus it allows B to move in different directions if there are 2 sets of numbers!)

Wow! what you have done is brilliant ... after so many years playing the best app I thought that surprising me would be impossible ... at least such a shocking nice surprise ... I can't imagine the work behind this thanks for sharing @Valentin
btw, I needed a bit of help due to my inefficiency interpreting numbers

Good afternoon. Just took a look at all the levels - looking forward to playing them! Thanks for creating such an expansive world with unique designs, special mechs and that choose-your-own-adventure feel. I would certainly like to see an expanded version, or a new story! Thanks for sharing, @Valentin!

Haha what are the chances @delator77 and I were typing up a comment at nearly the same time!!!

I had the same problem as @delator77 but managed to find them all.

Spoiler: Interpretations of numbers

If you get stuck, reference "Spoiler: COMPLETE LIST OF LEVELS" within "Spoiler: SOLUTION"

Spoiler: Interpretations of numbers 2

Also use "Spoiler: BONUS : 0 to 9 digits (design)"

@Chris Hester You made me think of what must be the 1st video game I saw and played in my life, as a kid: L'aigle d'or, a french game developped for the Thomson MO5 (a French company. Same period as Commodore 64) which is clearly an influence, but unconsciously as I just remember it now

Spoiler: --Don't read if you'd like to go through the adventure on your own--

Also @Valentin cool design for the levels map, looks great!!

@delator77 Thank you !!! For the numbers, I am surprised : I especially took care of not using red bricks .
For the work behind this : I wrote a little ( or a lot, I don't know) about it in some previous comments.
I'm very happy if I could surprise you ! The question being : will it be possible do do that again ?

@Cullins Thank you ! I can't wait for you tell me what you thought of the levels. (I'm afraid not so many are really interesting individually, I must say - but there is one new (?) mech in the game ?! ).

For the expanded version ... I'm a little tired now !
BUT I will try to relaunch my FIRST idea which was to involve several designers and to create a collaborative quest ( Then, I figured out that the best way to expose the concept was to create a one, or a demo let's say).

The map took me some extra time, too. But I had Zelda in mind ... so ... I took the time. To learn again from scratch to use a picture editor (Gimp)

@Cullins I'm happy you mention the "choose-your-own-adventure feel". My first goal in doing this.