Melon Head; a fantastical adventure in a delirious imaginary world

[MIGGO]

Melon Head is Released and Unleashed!

ITCH PAGE
AGS DATABASE

Story:

In the hedonistic capital of His Majesty's Realm a faceless king commissions a local sculptor, Melon Head, our protagonist whose head is shaped like a melon, to craft an extension to His royal staff.

An extraordinary vision reveals an object of rare composition: A Crystal Iris Distillate. Pursuing the parts needed to craft the object essential in fulfilling the royal request, Melon Head precipitates to a strange adventure across His Majesty's Realm. He must use cunning, questionable morals and sharpness of intellect to succeed in his task and, ultimately, to choose between allegiance to his perceived benefactor and the rising forces of dissidence seeking to overthrow the balance of power.

PHOTOSENSITIVITY WARNING:

This game contains flashing lights that may not be suitable for people with photosensitive epilepsy.

Player discretion is advised.



Features:

-Strange characters of undefined species.
-Puzzles to intrigue the mind (item puzzles, dialog trees and other stuff).
-A built in hint system if you get stuck.
-Exploration of different areas of His Majesty's Realm.
-Three endings depending on choices.
-Colorful and highly saturated pixel art on a 16-color palette (an original art style using the EGA palette).
-Psychedelic visions.
-An out there jazzy original soundtrack.

Here's a picture of Melon Head himself:

[lapsking]

Congratulations! I'm currently on the phone, will download it later today from laptop. 

[MIGGO]

Yay! Thank you!

[lapsking]

Oh no, I don't have PayPal account, I mean, I can't have one. Isn't there any other options like paying with card for terrorists under Uncle Sam's sanctions? 

[MIGGO]

Those rotten imperialists! I'll try to fix my payment settings, I think the problem is there. Thanks for noting someone else might have the same issue.

[MIGGO]

@lapsking Okay! Card payment should work now. Tell me if you run into any issues. 

[lapsking]

@MIGGO
Thanks, all good, purchased it! Will download from laptop tonight.

[MIGGO]

Lovely! Thank you for the buy!

[MIGGO]

Melon Head got an awesome REVIEW by our very own The Last To Know!

If your german is rusty you can use an automatic translator in the upper right corner of the page. 

[Rik_Vargard]

Wow congratulations! 

[GooseKult]

Awesome, I've been waiting for this one! Will be picking up soon!

[MIGGO]

@Rik Vargard Thank you!

@GooseKult That's great to hear! 

[heltenjon]

I've played a fair bit of this game, and the verdict so far is "wonderfully weird". As with all the games coming from this dev, the characters are off-center, strange-looking and inhabiting strange worlds. What pulls it off, is that everyone behaves like this is totally normal. (Which, to them, it is.) The characters may well look like something out of a surrealist painting, but they still have their own hopes and dreams, which the player character has to exploit in order to get somewhere.

Given that the tech and society is alien, the best is just to roll with it and pick up the plot as it unfolds. The game is first person, and the puzzles are solved through a combo of inventory puzzles, dialogue and investigation. Helpfully, Melon Head (that's me), understands this world even if the player does not, and examining stuff gives helpful descriptions that points the player in the right direction. (There is also a hint button, which I haven't needed yet.)

I also like that as Melon Head discovers something new, locations become lit up on the world map, allowing travel to new places. This gives a clear sense of progression that is very motivating. The writing is funny without trying too hard - the humour laregely lies in the personalities and descriptions we encounter while getting to know this world.

[heltenjon]

Oh, I couldn't resist it...I've played through the game and found the three endings. I haven't changed my mind about the game since the last post. However, I'll add some praise for the brilliant music and sound design. I think it compliments the weirdness of the graphics. It just fits. Also kudos for including an autocomplete for a code after the player has discovered how to do it. There are loads of such seemingly small design choices that makes the game easier to play. Not in difficulty, but in how user friendly it is.

As almost always, the places I got stuck was in hindsight trivial.

Spoiler

I missed the exit to the alley for a while. And I ran around town with the contents of a package instead of mailing it straight away.

[close]

Oddly enough, the game this one reminded me of immediately, was Rebel Planet from Adventuresoft from 1985. It's got to be something about the graphics, as the story and gameplay are vastly different.

[MIGGO]

@heltenjon Thanks for the keen review!

Rebel Planet is an interesting comparison. I looked at some pictures and I bet the perspective and how characters are displayed is somehow reminiscent of that game.