Zen With A Pen
Step into the intense world of Zen With A Pen, where serenity collides head-on with a mind-bending arcade challenge! Get ready to take command of your virtual pen and embark on an enthralling journey through a variety of levels filled with obstacles to overcome.
What’s in Store for You?
In this offbeat indie game, your mission is crystal clear: guide the enso symbol, the Zen embodiment, to its serene destination. But beware! The path is riddled with ingeniously designed obstacles, engineered to test even the steeliest of nerves. It’s a tightrope walk between tranquility and rage as you sketch guiding lines on parchment to navigate the enso through intricate terrains.
Key Features:
🖌️ Craft guiding lines to maneuver the enso symbol through intricate maps
🎨 Immerse yourself in a visually pleasing minimalistic art style that soothes the soul
😂 Confront obstacles that will push not only your steady hand but also your sanity
🌟 Embark on a journey through multiple maps, each with varying levels of difficulty
⚡️ Experience the perfect blend of casual arcade gameplay and hair-tearing frustration
Experience the enchantment of minimalistic art as you journey through a captivating array of maps. Each map unveils a unique set of challenges, handcrafted to both sharpen your skills and keep you on the edge of your seat. To succeed at the challenge you need to use your wit, patience and calm inner self. This together with some special powers and you have all the tools neccessary, even for the more challenging difficulties!
Moreover, Zen With A Pen immerses you in an auditory experience with its collection of calming and mesmerizing music tracks. Dive into a realm of tranquility, as each stroke of your pen is accompanied by soothing melodies that effortlessly meld with the game’s serene atmosphere. Let these gentle tunes wash over you, elevating your gaming experience to new heights of relaxation (or perhaps a touch of frustration).
So, are you ready to unleash your inner Zen artist and conquer the enso? Zen With A Pen eagerly awaits your artistic touch! Brace yourself for a challenge that leaves you feeling both serene and victorious, and most certainly frustrated. Grab your pen, take a deep breath, and let the Zen flow through your fingertips!
Game Discussion
Steam User 8
Zen with a Pen is quite a misleading name for a game that becomes very challenging, very fast. I'm not easily frustrated after years of playing Super Hexagon, Boson X and other fail-or-finish games; however, this little fun right here made for a very infuriating Sunday morning, which I find very enjoyable.
The premise is easy to understand and execute: Guide a small ball through an increasingly difficult path of obstacles, with your mouse working as a fountain pen. Left click to apply ink, right click to remove it but be aware that the ink itself vanishes on its own. Physics are active and a constant stream of air pushes you forward, most of the time right into a spiky ending. I admit in all honesty that this is a pretty hard game, at least for me. I had to take a break in level 4 because I was stuck at the final checkpoint. In order to overcome a couple of corners, it was mandatory to apply the force of a certain power-up. Couple this with a slight degree of randomness, you'll always get when a ball hits a plane, and suddenly it feels like a game of chance rather than of skill.
Speaking of power-ups: there are four of them, with varying effects. One makes the ball very small, the other gives a shield to survive one spiky hit and the one I was talking about before gave a huge boost but only on the first contact with any object. Difficulties range from Easy to Zen but don't get fooled: Zen is by far the hardest, without even having any checkpoints in between. Easy provides more ink and power-ups and yet I still struggled.
If I had to suggest some minor improvements, especially for long-term replayability, two things come to my mind. Firstly, remove the need to finish a level to unlock the next. As of right now, every time I get back to Zen with a Pen, I either have the choice to replay a course in higher difficulty or that one level I'm currently stuck in. I rather enjoy playing level 5 until I hit a wall ─ or a spike, figuratively speaking ─ and move over to level 6 until I'm stuck again. Maybe unlock the next level after finishing 50% of the prior course, to give players something to look forward to, even if they fail. This might be personal preference though.
Secondly, the music. I think many tracks are very well done and kind of remove some of the frustration that's building up. However, to restart from a checkpoint, you have two choices: Wait until the camera has settled in again, which, like everything in game can be sped up via holding the space bar, or press a rewind button in the top right corner. The latter is much quicker but causes the music to restart, which can be annoying after repeated attempts. It would be great to have the option to instantly restart without the music resetting.
In summary, Zen with a Pen is great little time-killer that fits perfectly into a lunch-break, a morning routine or whenever you want something that's easy to pick up but hard to finish. It's not a big game, only offering 8 levels so far but I'm sure that it will take some time to finish these, even on lowest difficulties. If there was something I dislike it's the occasional randomness of the ball. This of course can't be avoided entirely but it's unnecessarily adding up on the already difficult game design.
If you still can't decide, give the free demo a try!
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