Catyph: The Kunci Experiment

This is a truly remarkable game with all the elements of a first class adventure. Beautiful and diverse scenery, pleasing musical score, complex story, and very challenging puzzles. This is a stand alone game. If you have played other Black Cube games by Simon Mesnard, you will have the added bonus of returning to familiar themes, objects, and characters. The backstory is told through logs and video ransmissions. There is an incredible amount of creative detail woven into the story of the Black Cube universe, the adventures of Philip Forte, and the ARK. There are languages to decipher, numbering systems, machinery, energy sources, and teleportation... all laid out for you to explore at your own pace. The game is built around a 'hub' from which you travel to 5 satellite moons, each with a unique environment and artistic style. The 2018 "Light" version of Catyph has improved point and click navigation and some additional hints for the more complex puzzles. This was the version I played. The Steam timer is not implemented in this game so my actual time playing is not the .3 hours shown, but around 12 hours total. One caveat - this game is not for those who like easy games. Black C…

Catyph is the second game in the Black Cube series (it is a sequel to ASA), which can be described as a sci-fi puzzle adventure. You are an astronaut, sent to one of the moons of Catyph (a large gas giant that resembles Saturn) where you discover a mysterious black cube. Entering the cube transports you to one of the other moons, Tytaah, where most of the story takes place. You travel to different regions of Tytaah in order to unlock the mysteries of the cube, while Terra (your home planet) is under the threat of a strange spacecraft. There are two editions of the game, “Original” and “Light”, and you get to select which version you want to play at the beginning of the game. After experimenting a little bit, I opted for the original version, which features transition cutscenes between scenes. Light edition is supposed to improve the design of some puzzles, I wasn’t able to test that. Positive - I was pleasantly surprised by both the amount and quality of the puzzles in Catyph. ASA was fine, it was actually better than average, but it is this game where the designer Simon Mesnard unleashes his true puzzle design skills. Catyph is full of interesting and complex puzzles, and m…

A fun and interesting puzzle game set in space. Most reminiscent of Myst, except in space...like moonmyst? Mostly a point and click adventure with a lot of story and then puzzles to solve. https://youtu.be/dbI9m4qJAi4

I love a good 90's style point-and-click, but this one was tedious. While some of the puzzles were reasonably fun, most seemed to require a degree in math or linguistics. It would take hours to solve each puzzle (one, for example, involved a lengthy translation from an alien language). The voice-acting was terrible, and the graphics were very very old-school. The "point and click" style made getting around a chore, and it was very easy to miss rooms/areas because of the awkward movement dynamics and the way a lot of areas looked identical. The story didn't make much sense (too convoluted, too many things going on), and the characters presented were caricatures--it was hard to care about what was happening on "Terra" and the "bad guy" was so bad he could have been The Master in a 60's episode of Doctor Who (see: mustache-twirling, maniacal laugh). With most Myst-style games, the puzzles are so cool and interesting you genuinely want to solve them on your own. There is always some kind of narrative payoff for solving a puzzle as well (a secret revealed!). Here, you'd slog through six worlds, solving puzzles, and your only reward would be more mustache-twirling dialogue (in a very b…

The game is amazing with great puzzles and story!

Catyph: The Kunci Experiment is an ambitious, cerebral science-fiction adventure that firmly positions itself in the lineage of classic exploration-driven puzzle games. Developed and published by Simon Says: Play!, the game invites players into a dense, mysterious universe where understanding the environment is just as important as solving the puzzles embedded within it. Set within the broader Black Cube universe, the story unfolds on the alien moon Tytaah, a place that feels ancient, hostile, and deliberately inscrutable, encouraging curiosity and patience rather than quick reactions or constant guidance. The narrative premise establishes a slow-burn sense of intrigue. Humanity’s discovery of a powerful alien artifact has propelled it into deeper space exploration, but this progress comes at a cost when the player’s mission goes awry, leaving them isolated on Tytaah. Rather than delivering its story through frequent exposition, Catyph relies on environmental clues, sparse dialogue, and fragments of information uncovered through exploration. This restrained storytelling approach enhances the feeling of being a lone investigator piecing together the remnants of an advanced but long…