A short found artifact mystery in a mermaid palace · By
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! for making this game. It' s so freaking cute and magical. I'm gonna babble to all my friend about it : 333333
I specifically took time while playing to write my own little merthropologist journal: drawing clues, findings, the fishes, using up my mermaid and sea sticker... I'm gonna have so much fun looking at it again, while missing the game : DDD Gonna finish the journal now properly by adding a report of the discoveries to the museum, hihi
I am in love with this game! the bg and environment were soooo gorgeous. I get frustrated with puzzle games easily (not always the fault of the game tbh I am just impatient) but the the castle was just so fun to be in that I never minded just wandering around looking at details as I thought about the puzzles. The story was also really fun- I love how every sister had a distinct voice, personality, and interests. I would love to learn more about this world in future games, if you're planning on any!
i just finished the game and i played it on and off for the last 2 days!! i was quite busy but i couldn't wait until i could play your game again, i ADORE the pixel graphics, the music and the whole whimsical vibe, it really scratched the nostalgia in me <3 thank you for developing such a cool game, now i can't stop thinking about it c:
I feel bad but it took like 8+ hours to get through this with hints, guessing and help from 2 people. I must not have a lot of ridgies up there! I ABSOLUTELY love mermaids, though and was happy to play this.
I feel like I should break all my thoughts down into categories:
Difficultly: I thought it was quite difficult. My love for mermaids kept me going, but there are a lot of things I wouldn't have gotten to on my own. Like the labels for the fish, or Colderme without hints. If it wasn't for my boyfriend pointing out that the clams are different colors on his screen vs what I was seeing, I would have stayed stuck for a long time. If you save the game the clams all turn yellow which made the pink kaska hint impossible for figure out. I was able to finish but would have to keep my browser open the entire time just in case.
Ending: I was able to open the Tower without getting all the clams open. I still don't know what the garden panes name was. I only got that far from figuring out what letter was missing from my spell. I figured I could swing back to solve that later, but the game sort of ended. I also wish I could have seen what the globes did. The ending was quite sad and left open to interpretation. Was Sin so powerful that her mother made sure she couldn't learn magic due to some prophecy that she would become greater than her one day? Or maybe wasn't mature enough to give up the kingdom so fast. Therefore, made sure she didn't get a steward and didn't reign out of fear of losing power, but then softened later when she offered the crown? Why couldn't Sin leave? Was she born differently? Wouldn't the queen have to die before her daughters took over anyway? Also, who was the statue that said "La" and didn't say 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th child? Was that a love child? Soooo many mysteries!
Artwork: GORGEOUS! So GORGEOUS! No notes. I absolutely loved it!
Gameplay: I felt like she moved very smoothly and I enjoyed the particle system and the fish moving!
Feedback: Would have been nice to have different music for the different rooms and maybe something else to do outside. I had the freedom to go down one side but I kind of wish I could have gone around the exterior of the whole thing, even if there weren't many hints or clues there. Primarily because for half the game I was wondering when I could unlock the righthand side.
Overall: EXCELLENT JOB! Like I am crazzzzzyyyy impressed especially with how much you got done in such a short amount of time! I hope you make more mermaid games. Might have to check out your patreon because I definintely want dev logs.
<3 Thank you for everything you did!
whoah! Thank you for pointing out that the clams turn yellow after saving!!! That's not good haha , I'll have to look and see if I can fix that on my end. Sorry that error caused you to struggle so much! Yes, were it not for the time limit I gave myself to make this, I would have happily made the game and story more detailed. I have a few pages of notes for things I really wanted to implement but couldn't get to in time. But I'm glad in spite of everything, you found some enjoyment here. thank u so much for playing!
I just finished the game, and my goodness, I am so in love. It was so beautiful and well-thought out, and challenged me in a really refreshing way. The added aspect of having a little notebook to take notes and figure out the puzzles made the whole experience feel much more tangible and fun. Thank you for making this, and thank you for sharing it with all of us mermaid-starved gamers (love your YouTube videos as well) <33
I loved playing through this!! I've always been a mystery story fan, and of course this was no murder mystery (maybe I should consider making a "merder mystery" game...), but it had the same feeling of discovery and piecing together what happened. For some reason it took me so long to figure out I had to call out Jellia to the jellyfish in the background - I kept trying it at Bel's portrait instead haha. Once I got that (from checking the hints posts), I was able to figure out the rest of the game. At first, I thought it said "Lani" Sincorel, and that we'd discover Lani was named after an ancestor and that she was secretly royalty, but quickly realized it had to be "Lady". I also spent the longest time thinking Sincorel was an illegitimate child and thus ineligible for the crown (she even has "sin" in her name). I thought this was also the reason she couldn't do magic, or at least the same kind of magic as her sisters, and I also thought this explained why she was hidden, so that people wouldn't find out. Funnily enough, with only about half the letters I was able to put together the final door code, so I only saw the references to her "deformity" after I got to the end and went back to see what I'd missed. I also thought at one point that she'd accidentally caused an apocalypse and that's why this place was in ruins waiting to be discovered. I really thought we might run into some kind of magical monster at the top of the tower (I hadn't yet unlocked the note that says the potion she got was the queenmaker potion). But it was nice to read that Sinnie got her freedom.
The character I was most curious about was Milvarian/Milmora though. From the beginning I was keen on learning more about the mysterious person writing all these notes, and then at the end when I got hit with the note about her criminal record, I was at peak intrigue. I don't think I missed anything in the game, was there any elaboration on Milmora's criminal record? I'm also curious why she was given a chance to be the librarian, or why she was trusted to take care of the princesses, or even why all the princesses were sent to her.
Regardless, I love this concept so much, and I actually liked that the actual lore of the place had nothing to do with Lani directly.
i literally just made an itch account to write this comment about how much i adored this game!!! i saw your video about the lack of mermaid games and ive been keeping up with your yt channel for a while and im honestly blown away by this game - i dont even usually like puzzle games but this was so good, i was genuinely riveted throughout. the art was gorgeous and i loved the story and got goosebumps at the end, thank you for letting me be a mermaid <3
loved loved loved this!! i love stories told in diary entries because each person is biased and you piece it together to understand the full story. the art is gorgeous. MAN some of those puzzles took me a while. by the end i had 6 pages of notes! i adore the worldbuilding and will be super excited if you ever decide to return to this world :) i'd love to see some more of Lani's adventures. thank you for this, i am curious about attempting my own now :)
Finished the game, thank you for making it! I've been a subscriber on your YouTube channel for a while, so been looking forward to your various games for 2026 :)
I love the aesthetic and the story, I got a bit of Pride & Prejudice vibes with the many sisters. Halfway through I started to suspect that Sinny might have been an illegitimate child, hence her original statue's plate saying "Lady" instead of "Princess". I'm happy she found a way to escape, but it's also sad that her relationship with Ara suffered for it. I hope we can find out more about what happened to her, but I would also like to see more stories of Lani!
I'm going to share your game with my 10yo, I think she'll like it too! Since I've completed it, I'll be able to help her when she gets stuck. Some of the puzzles were a bit harder to solve, but that's normal – different puzzles for different folks. I'll also share it in my work's video games channel :)
I took my notes in a Google Doc, in case you are interested in taking a peek: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19X8_KgsTi76ss_NVx-mOa6sGOCHryS7fo-RT9ckt1gk/...
