Hi Can anyone explain what is this black cube I keep coming across. I guess I must be behind the times. Nearly very game I have checked out this black cube comes into effect. I have checked out Myha return to lost Island thinking oh! yes I remember this as a girl stranded on an island trying to find a lost friend I think. But I get this space astronaut and a black cube, Other games I have checked out and this black cube is in most of them I am at a loss.
Help
Regards
Maggsie

I'm not sure what you mean by the "black cube comes into effect?" Myha is about a crashed space ship on another planet. Black cube refers to a series of space adventures. This is from the Steam page.

"Myha: Return to the Lost Island is a first person scifi adventure game developed by Denis Martin with Unreal Engine 4, based on the Black Cube series created by Simon Mesnard. It was funded on Kickstarter in November 2017."

You can read about the Black Cube here.
It is exactly as Drac stated, with added descriptions.

Ana

Hi Thank you for the info. I as just curious as I have purchased ASA, Catyph . I thought they were independent of each other I didn't realise they were all part of the same genre till I came across Myha.
You have answered my question as you always do .
Thank you
Regards
Maggsie

If you want to purchase the other games and have ASA and Catyph from Steam, look at The Black Cube series bundle there for additional discounts.

Hey thanks everyone for answering to the question! Sorry I wasn't around during Summer

Hi maggsie I am the developer of the Black Cube series (see it like Myst or Monkey Island: a series of games with several episodes)
All the games are linked by a same mythology where mysterious Cubes appear here and there, but they are all quite independent from each others. I mean, you can play them individually in any order, you should be able to understand the story. And if you like an episode and play another one, you should be happy to discover subtle (or less subtle!) relations between them! You will learn new things about this world in each game, while playing a different adventure.

Yes you can have discounts on this page: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/617/The_Black_Cube_series/
They will also arrive soon on FireFlower Games hopefully.

I recently played Boinihi and I really liked it a lot! As I have mentioned before, all games I played which were developed by Simon (ASA, Catyph, Boinihi) are really good, I would recommend them to every Myst lover. Only downside is the navigation, but one gets used to it. If you are new to these kind of games, Boinihi is probably the easiest one, albeit a bit different as it is in 3rd person, normally Myst Clones have ego perspective.

@Simon: in case you are reading this: It is a shame that you don't make much money by creating these games. It makes me admire your passion
to create these games even more. I really hope sometime you will be in the mood again to create another Myst game. Please never forget
there are quite a few gamers who really like and admire your work!

@mike_bn
I'm very happy that you played Boinihi and liked it! It has always been for my fans and for people like you that I created the sequels to ASA. So it's always great to read messages like this!

Ah navigation, yes... It's complicated in Myst-like games. I'm curious to see how it will be in Neyyah and what Myst fans will think of it!
By the way have you played Myha? What did you think of the gameplay in full 3d?

In the future I plan to try a different game engine to make more games in full 3d. It's not what I prefer personally, but it usually makes the unanimity regarding the gameplay.
I'm really looking forward to be able to continue to develop the Black Cube series to enrich it, and to improve the next episodes, but yes it will take me some time, I can't continue for the moment. I need to find a way to consolidate my activity of indie dev before I can continue, else I can't have a normal life.

By the way this Summer I participated to 2 game jams (small contests for devs), and I created adventure games. It's very different from the Black Cube series but if you're curious about my other work, you can take a look here:
Francium chapter 1: https://the-icehouse.itch.io/francium
Francium chapter 2: https://the-icehouse.itch.io/the-king-returns-francium-chapter-2

Nothing out of the extraordinary, but I learned a lot of things, particularly when working on chapter 2. That makes me more confident regarding my next games.
I hope you have fun with this!

Hi Simon,

thanks for the long and informative post. I also liked the remake of Myha and overall, I definitely think it is a good game and I enjoyed it.
A few things bugged me, if you are interested in feedback, I can write you an email about them.

I also don't prefer full 3d. But it seems most people do and it seems if you want to sell games, you need to consider this preference, unfortunatley.
I, personally, prefer either slideshow like Riven or what I really liked was the hybrid navigation used in Schizm I.

I had not heard of the game Neyyah before. Looks interesting. Are you involved? I put it in my Steam wishlist.
I will check out your 2 game jam games for sure, might take a few weeks, though. The queue of what i want to play next is long ;-)

Simon, one more question : could you maybe post a complete list of ALL games you created and are finished/released and also all
games you are still working on (or plan to work on in the future). I know about the two websites cube and simon says play
but even the sum of all games found on these pages does not look complete to me. For example the Jam games you created
are not listed there (at least not on the sections I searched for them). I even seem to remember that once I found one of your games
in some sub-page of the cube-website, that was not listed on top of the root page.

That would be great - I would love to have a full list of your work and maybe others as well....

Last but not least, as you worked together with the creator of RoonSehv do you know by any chance in which stage the development
of RoonSehv 2 is? Will it be finished soon? To be honest, RoonSehv 1 was not so much my cup of tea because it had some major weaknesses, in my
opinion, but I still highly respect being able to develop such a game as a single indie person. So I plan to check out RoonSehv2 once it is released.

Hey mike,
Yes of course feedback about Myha would be interesting! It won't change the game itself but I will learn from it and if I ever make a new episode in full 3d I'll try to take care of what you say. It doesn't mean I will be able to fix everything (there might be issues related to the fact that I work alone or with only a few creators such as Denis on Myha). But I'll do my best, and if players don't share with me their feelings (bad but also good to motivate me ^^), then it's difficult to know what you'd like me to do! But it is not urgent at all, so if you want to send me an email it will be welcome -but just take your time!

Yeah I see what they did in Schizm 1, it's somehow what I attempted to do with Catyph in the first place, but it proved more complicated than I thought and I tried something different with the video transitions. That kind of thing is easier in full3d...

I'm not involved in Neyyah but I love the look of it and I contacted Aaron, the developer, as soon as he announced his game 2 years ago. He's a very nice guy, very talented, and we talked a lot and shared some ideas. At some point I gave him some help with the Visionaire game engine that we both use, and now I'm even more excited to play his game because there is for me an interest in the technical side of his game. He's doing great! But I don't know how people will receive it in 2020, as you know it's a Myst-like game in 2d (prerendered 3d) and they're not popular anymore. I really wish him good luck and will try to support his game when it is possible. I'm very happy to see developers like Aaron trying to keep alive the genre with the 2d feel, with a high level of quality (HD, beatiful graphics, etc., but still the core gameplay of Myst).

Oh it's difficult for me to post a full list of my games.

- My main series is The Black Cube series of course, since 2012 now (already!):
ASA (Original and Remastered), Catyph (Original and Light Edition), Myha original, Myha: Return to the Lost Island, Kitrinos, and Boinihi (Steam, itchio)
- In the same series there were a few game jams but I don't share too much about them because these games are not complete, or I think that the quality is not good enough:
ATOS (gamejolt), Kel Leda (itchio)
- There has been a few cooperations with other creators:
The Ruins of Riddoh (gamejolt)
- And finally an aborted project of J-RPG with my brother in 2013, but the crowdfunding failed and we couldn't continue it (but I would like to bring this ambitious project to life someday -probably as an adventure game- because I wrote a long story that, I think, is interesting for the fans of the Black Cube world):
TBT: The Black Tower (itchio)

Next to this I have another series called My Village is Magical (Mon Village est Magique, aka MVEM): it's more for kids. I wrote a series of books and worked on comics wtih friends. Even though I'm not the main character it talks of my childhood and my real village in France, Burgundy. It was also inspired by my love for Ghibli movies. I never really had the opportunity to work on games in this world, not as much as I want to I mean. It's a fantasy series based on reality, I'd like to try to expand it in the future.
- MVEM: The Forgotten Crypt (itchio)
- MVEM: The Whale of the Infinite Ocean (gamejolt)

I also worked on short games or demos during other game jams, or as experiments. Most of them are unfinished, so I don't talk too much about them. But some are quite complete however, like the first one:
- Eoin's Quest (itchio)
- Squib For Dragonflies (itchio)
- ASA 3d remake (itchio) (it's just the first room with no puzzle)
- Francium chapter 1 (itchio)
- Francium chapter 2 (itchio)

And I think that is all? This was between 2011 and 2020.
Most of those games are on simonmesnard.fr
If they're not on my site, then I consider they're not worth being played in their current state or that I await further cooperation with another creator, but it doesn't mean I don't like them, just that it's difficult for the player to understand what I (or we) had in mind. I mean it's probably not very representative of the original idea, so I would prefer to work on them more someday in the future, rather than listing unfinished projects.

Regarding my future games there is nothing exciting to say so far...
- I can talk of a project called Blue Moon, which is in a more dark style (in the Black Cube series) made with Juanjo Barcelo Molina (https://gamejolt.com/@BlurredGames/games). We officially announced Blue Moon quite a long time ago but it hasn't progressed a lot.
- Next to this, I've been talking of a reboot of ATOS with Yazorius (who worked with me on Kitrinos and Boinihi's music).
- I'd like to work on a game in the world of My Village is Magical. It could be my big project for 2021 but I've not decided.
- I hesitate with another project: a first-person adventure in an egyptian/mystic style, but I'm not sure I should work on a first-person game now, if the Black Cube series didn't have more success. Maybe later.
And next to all of this if I ever participate to another game jam then I'll try to create a 3rd chapter of Francium for the fun.

Finally regarding RoonSehv, the best would be that you ask to Denis, as he will probably be happy to reply himself. You might even get fresh news that I don't have! I know it's a bit complicated for him to work with his original team of RoonSehv 1, they are having a few issues (lack of free time mostly), and as they're not being paid it's not easy of course. I'm, like you, very curious about RoonSehv 2! I played a demo of it almost 2 years ago. Since then, Denis learned a lot with Unreal Engine 4 (RoonSehv 1 was made with UDK, that is to say the previous version of the Epic engine). He's also learning a lot about VR. I'm sure that they want their game to be better and more impressive! We can probably hope to get some news in 2021 You can try to contact him directly on the RoonSehv blog: https://roonsehv.blogspot.com/
However Denis just had a new baby, so it keeps him quite busy Happy event, but not very compatible with the life of game developer haha!

Thanks for your questions mike. Cheers!

Interesting info Simon!

Thanks for reading oldbroad!

Everyone: just let me know if you have questions regarding one of my games, or if you really enjoyed one of my unfinished projects and would like me to continue it more seriously. That would really help too, thanks!

Some of these games/prototypes are not scifi, so they might not please those of you who liked the Black Cube series, but it could also open new ways with different worlds and stories, other graphic styles, etc. It's very hard to know the potential of a game and it makes it complicated to decide to continue to work (or not) on a specific project. So usually I prefer to not take risks and not continue if I see that there hasn't been a lot of comments/feedback about a game. That's how potentially good games never come to life

Hi Simon,

thanks for your long and informative post. Really appreciated. I am a bit in a hurry right now, I will try to respond in the next 1-2 days!

Wow Im wishing you all my Best ....Sounds really Great,.... God Bless in all you do

Hi everyone!
I have listened to the request of some of you
The Black Cube series is now available on FireFlower Games (DRM-free)

All the games are quite cheap now, and also benefit of -15% off for the launch on this store during a week.

ASA:
https://fireflowergames.com/products/asa-a-space-adventure-remastered-edition

Catyph:
https://fireflowergames.com/products/catyph-the-kunci-experiment

Myha:
https://fireflowergames.com/products/myha-return-to-the-lost-island

Boinihi:
https://fireflowergames.com/products/boinihi-the-ki-codex

You can also find the prequel Kitrinos (short game available for free). It's quite different of the other episodes but if you're curious...
https://fireflowergames.com/products/kitrinos-inside-the-cube

Thanks for your kind words all the time! Cheers

Good to know Simon! Thanks!

Thanks Simon.

That is great, Simon! Thank you!

Thanks for your messages!!
Boinihi is finally available too. I have updated my previous message with the link if you're interested.
A bientot!

Thanks!

@Simon: As I am not sure if you know about the feature of this website and you might miss it, I just wanted to tell you that I send you a private message

Yes I just saw it and responded
I often visit GameBoomers but don't often connect with my account, so if you want to be sure that I receive a message, it is better to send me an email (you can use the contact form on the theblackcube.fr or simonmesnard.fr -I've also added my personal email in my reply)
Cheers!

@Simon: Thanks for your long and nice response :-) I will email you in a couple of days!

Hi! In France we are in quarantine for the 2nd time, during the whole month of November (and maybe more). When it already happened before during Spring, I gave ASA and Catyph for free during a few days on itch.io to support people at home.
This time I am preparing another similar offer so, in case you're curious and still don't have the Black Cube games, please keep an eye on them on FireFlower during the week between Monday 2 and Sunday 8 of November...
Boinihi more specifically could be at an interesting price for the first time - this is an effort for me as this game is new. If you apreciate it, I would be more than happy if more of you could play it before the end of the year and write a bit of feedback, and of course I hope that this offer will entertain some of the people who are stuck at home and who love adventure games.

Simon!

Thanks for letting us know about this, Simon.

Thank you so much, Simon! What a kind gesture.

Thanks Simon.

Thanks, Simon!

Simon, just want to say thanks for your continued game development and contributions to the adventure genre (not to mention hosting adventure jams to foster new interest!). I'm glad you made a complete list of your games as I had missed a few somehow. Well technically you call them demos, but they are unique experiences all their own!

Thanks lakerz, that means a lot! I usually call them demos because they are short, and most of the time I have many more ideas in my head to expand those games further, so the resulting games are just a very small part of my view. Maybe someday they could become real games for some of them... That would be cool! Even if it was made by other creators based on my work, who knows? I'm very opened to all kinds of cooperations.

Sometimes I want to expand these short experiences by adding chapters when I see that people seem to like a specific "demo". It's what I did for My Village is Magical which has 2 short games already (if you look at my previous list). And also with Francium: A Museum for Robots, for which I created a 2nd chapter during another game jam. Chapter 2 has been even more successful in terms of views and number of downloads, so it's really motivating. It's more likely that there will be a chapter 3 made in November during AdventureX if I succeed to do it (2 weeks are short to create a game!). But game jams are intense and also make me very tired, so it's really more for the fun and to learn new things.

Back to the Black Cube series!

As promised there is a special sale event this week during the French quarantine. It might not look as great as the first quarantine where ASA and Catyph where completely free, but this time more of my games are impacted together, and it's quite an effort in my situation and compared to the usual Steam sales. This is also a way for me to engage in supporting furthermore indie adventure games in general with FireFlower Games (DRM-Free). I hope you like it and that you'll find it interesting!
https://fireflowergames.com/news/black-cube-lockdown-sale

Thanks everyone for your interest in my games! I think I had not read so much support for a long while and it does me good!

Thanks so much for the link, Simon! We appreciate it.

That's what I mean Simon, it is cool that even now you still participate in game jams (as well as foster new ones) and stay so connected to the community. Big thumbs up! Your sale is great, as was your generous gift to community when lockdowns first started. Adventure genre remains strong and in good hands...

Thanks lakerz! Well I'm doing my best in those difficult times...

If some of you have some time and are interested to read a long message from me: I was asked last night on Adventure Gamers forums if the site Steamspy is right when they say that I sold 6 games for a total of 37,000 copies at an average price of $12.39 (which would mean that I earned $500,000 from my games).
I have to admit that it made me a little angry and here is my reply: https://adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/2683/P135/#167836

Simon, I just read that reply and I am in shock. I would have thought steamspy was over calculating your sales revenue as your games are good enough to deserve a lot of support! Honestly, even an overinflated $500,000 is a decent number but divide by 7 years + pay other contributors and licensing, etc and money goes away quick. As you so adroitly put it, if it is a lot less then life gets complicated rather quick. I apologize, I did not know that you were having to make so many sacrifices to continue on as a game developer. I was one (of the few I guess) to support you on Desura ha ha until it folded. I definitely have Boinihi on my xmas wish list. I wish you a newfound burst of success that can lift your spirits and put you on a stronger path of game development success!

You know, you now make me think more about all the devs that have a passion to succeed, but it is such a tough industry to succeed in! Steam is great ... except for the fees they charge plus the insane over saturation of games that have hit the site these past years. Adventure genre alone seen a TON of new entrees on Steam with a somewhat limited audience. I imagine a great many studios are keeping fingers crossed they can find success.

Yeah, well it is difficult for me to expose my situation and personal life like this, so I didn't share all of this explicitely before (I seem to remember that we talked about this in another thread on GameBoomers?), but when I see how it is easy to be fooled by these stats, I thought I shouldn't remain silent.

With every new game released and hard work achieved, there is the hope that things will get better. But the market in general is too saturated and oriented to specific kinds of games (the most entertaining ones - not those that require a real brain lol - just kidding).
Even in the indie adventure genre there are much more games that release all the time compared than before when I started as an indie dev with ASA. It's difficult to convince people that my games are good enough to be purchased, and the sites who make good reviews of them are usually not viewed by a lot of people, compared to AAA games who can be seen everywhere on the internet. In top of that there is the challenge of dealing with steam curators, streamers and youtube influencers today, and most of them love to ask free copies of my games but they almost never talk of them, because they are too difficult for them and not fun enough for their community (I'm not saying all of them are like that, but a vast majority).

Today I take it more with philosophy and see that as long as I can put a foot before the other to progress on my path, and as long as I am rewarded by all the great people (like you) that I cross along the way and who enjoy my work and encourage me, then even if not for money, I am still happy to continue to build my work year after year and to enrich my world of new creations (it's a little useless and they will be completely forgotten in a few years, so I also do it for me because I love telling stories).
Of course it remains very hard day after day, as explained in the other thread, and sometimes I want to give up (which I did for the Black Cube series this Summer - at least temporarily), and many times I see my energy and motivation drop down as if I was facing a too high wall. But everytime something happens or someone comes to tell me how they loved my games and I decide to continue with all my passion. I don't have a depressed mind, I don't want to become famous or rich, and I always say myself that I am lucky to have my current house and a place to live in.

It would be more comfortable however if I could earn more, also for the day I will retire because I will not have enough energy anymore. But for the moment I am confident and am taking care of my health as much as I can, and I hope I will be able to continue to create games for a long time! Thanks for each copy of my games that you purchase, it is a great way to help, and if in return you enjoy the game then I'm happy!

Simon, I also read your post on adventuregamers. As we don't know each other and only exchanged 4-5 messages on GB so far, I of course
did not know all these details about your financial situation, but based on a few comments I read here and there in the last 1-2 years, for some
reason I 'knew' that you are struggling financially. Which I think is a shame, considering how much you contribute to the myst-like genre.
That is exactly the reason why I encouraged everybody here to buy your games a few weeks/months ago. Something I would normally not do for many reasons. But I am really thankful for the great joy you brought me and my gaming buddy with your games. It is a shame the financial output is so low for you, considering the amount of skill, dedication and work it takes to create games like this alone/in a small team. So, whenever you are down and have doubts, please never forget you do have a fanbase out there and your work is appreciated and admired,. Granted, that does not help you financially, but hopefully at least a little bit emotionally/psychologically.

PS: Sorry for not having emailed you as I promised, just like you, it sometimes takes time for me until I respond, but I will respond.

Thank you mike_bn!
Following everything we said previously, it took me a while to get ready but this is my way to thank you all for your support!

7 Years of the Black Cube series, Artbook

You can easily download it in PDF version with this link:
https://bit.ly/35bIfH3
(directly from my server simonmesnard.fr, just click and download, no registration, no scam)

Or for those who prefer I have prepared a paper version on the self-publishing book Lulu.com:
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/sim...-artbook/hardcover/product-1vgm9jep.html

Available in English and French (both in the same book).
I hope you enjoy!


https://zupimages.net/up/20/45/i6yn.jpg

https://zupimages.net/up/20/45/ho6b.jpg

https://zupimages.net/up/20/45/8otu.jpg

Hi! Forgive me if I am very active on this thread lately, I hope it doesn't look like spam, but there has been some news again that I would like to share:

First of all it's the last hours to get ASA, Catyph, Boinihi and Myha at the best possible price for this year on FireFlower Games:
https://fireflowergames.com/news/black-cube-lockdown-sale

Then my friend Klemens Koehring (voice actor of Boinihi) made me the surprise of posting 2 video clips that summarize his work on Boinihi, and I think they're great. If you have not played the game it might help you decide if you want to get it or not?

Video 1: Hero Astronaut scenes
https://vimeo.com/428239613

Video 2: Boinihi Hermit scenes
https://vimeo.com/427384516

Klemens is a true professional actor and has been working on several games, including Catyph in the past, and more recently Dark Nights with Poe & Munro (you can see him on the game cover, on the left)


Finally, don't miss the free digital artbook in my previous post, I don't know for how long it will remain online (probably for months however, don't worry. It's just if I clean my website someday that I could remove it but it is a high possibility that the link won't work in a few years)
It's not just a PDF with screenshots from the game, I really took the time to pick the best views and sort them in several themes/chapters, write original texts and descriptions, include new and bonus content... 130 pages of space adventure!

I really hope that you like it, and don't hesitate to let me know if it helped you to have a better understanding of the whole Black Cube series! Thanks!

I caught this thread in time and bought all 4 games. Thank you so much for this deal.
I am doubly excited because I finally upgraded my gaming computer, and have a high end system and monitor to enjoy the games on.

Thanks a lot colpet for your purchase, it really helps! I hope you will like them and will be happy to discover the series! Don't stop at your first play if you don't like it, as each game is different (and they can be played in any order).
ASA and Catyph work on "small" computers and Boinihi needs a little higher specs, but it is mostly for Myha that a "more modern" computer is required (as it is in full 3d).
Have fun!

Thanks for all the recent info you've shared Simon!

No worries on "spamming" the forum or thread. Your posts are more than welcomed!

I am playing the Black Cube games now. I have just finished ASA Remastered, and am fully into Catyph. I love how there is a wider story arc connecting them. I am blown away by the details in all the datalogs and the little 'winks' and SF/F references. Just incredible imagination and dedication.
I highly recommend these games for anyone who enjoys a puzzle and exploration type game. My only quibble is the navigation system takes some getting used to, just a matter of paying attention to where the on screen arrows are. Other than that, there is a good amount of challenge, lots of clues to think about and some great 'Aha' moments to be had.

Thank you Colpet for sharing this here! I'm glad you could finish ASA and are fully into Catyph!
Oh yes the navigation... This is something other people told me and that's why it was changed in Myha and Boinihi. I hope you'll find it better in these two games.
Have fun then, and don't hesitate to ask if you're stuck (for any reason)!

Hello! I recently posted this on twitter and thought that you don't have all an account there, and might want to be notified:

"Better late than never, I have written a FAQ about the Black Cube series!"
It is on the official site: https://theblackcube.fr/faq.html

I think you already know the answers! ahah

Nice!