Thursday, January 10, 2019

Days of Van Meowogh

Days of Van Meowogh
     Are you a fan of classical art?  Famous painters?  Do you like cats and puzzle games and adorable stories?  This is a great app for you then.  Honestly, this is one of my favourite app games that I tried in 2018.

     First things first-- the title... Clearly it is a combination of Van Gogh and the sound a cat makes (Meow).  However, as some people have trouble pronouncing Van Gogh's name, the title of this app may be a bit complicated.  I have attached a link to an article that explains how to pronounce Van Gogh's name here.  Hopefully that shall help clear up any confusion.

     One of the immediate points of the game that a new user might find appealing is the art.  Upon opening the app you get an adorable claymation intro scene.  This scene was created by Lunch Box Studios.  The intro scene can be viewed in the video below. (Not my video)



     The art within the game is equally as charming.  The soft colours add to the calming and cozy nature of the game.


     You play as Van Meowogh, a cat living alone in his former master's home with his mouse friend.  The house is in disarray and has fallen apart since the loss of Van Meowogh's master.  The bills have come due and Van Meowogh has to make ends meet while also fixing up the home to match its former glory.  How does he do this?  By painting of course.  On his journey he will meet many friends and learn many new things.

     In order to create a new painting you have to perform several puzzle levels.  Each level will serve as a piece to the full painting concept.  Once all of the pieces are in place, the painting will be completed and sold to an art dealer.  This is how you earn money in the game.


     Each puzzle is different from the last.  There are many different strategies and puzzle types to play.  Though the idea is the same.  Matching three or more of the same type of gem will create a set and take them off the board.  Though some levels require you to break blocks by matching things near them or to move objects from the top to the bottom of the puzzle board by matching things below them.

     Before you begin a level you will be told if the level is particularly challenging.  You will also have the opportunity to use any items you have gained to help you in the puzzle.  Paintbrush items and Paint bottles help you clear large amounts of gems without matching.  The cheese gives you extra moves to complete the puzzle.  Each item serves a purpose.  You can choose to purchase items with real money but if you are trying to play for free like me, use these items sparingly because you don't accumulate them very quickly.

     There is a separate set of items you can acquire that automatically is available to you within every puzzle you play on the far right side of the screen.  However, these are harder to gain than the other items so be careful not to overuse them.


        At the end of each successfully completed puzzle level you get a chance to purchase an item set.  It will add one new item to the set, based on how well you did on the last puzzle.  The maximum item types is 3.  You can choose to spend money to purchase this set, wait until your set includes better items or just ignore it entirely, as I did.

     If you fail to complete a level you can either use a heart to retry or spend cat food to gain a few more moves and go back to where you left off to see if you can beat the level.  This can come in handy if you were very close to beating the level, however, don't use this tactic frivolously.  It is best to only do this is you are facing a challenging level you have been trying to beat for several attempts or if you are playing during a Splash competition where winning several puzzles in a row gives you special benefits that make the next level you play easier.  Losing your streak during this event will take you back to the beginning with no benefits at all.  While having a streak of 3 wins or more will give you a really nice boost and make levels much easier to manage.


     The app has many events and contests fairly regularly.  There is usually one going on at any particular time.  Sometimes there are more than one happening at once.  Finishing in the top during any of these contests can gain you some really nice rewards.  Usually the top three players get a special avatar, the top ten receive clothing for Van Meowogh that they can choose to put on him.  Everyone who participates gets something though.  It also often results in new story lines to follow.


     The characters and story are a really big part of this application.  I have found myself smiling and laughing along while I read the interactions that take place.  Plus any individual who has studied art history will find themselves especially interested as many artists (in cat form) appear in this story.  I find myself especially fond of Dali the cat.  Though the interactions between Van meowogh and his mouse companion also really amuse me.


     The story takes place in chapters and new chapters are being added over time.  Many of these chapters revolve around completely renovating a room in your house.  The rooms starts out all grey with rubbish and holes and dust everywhere.  Tapping on different things within the room is fun because Van Meowogh will comment on that item.  Purchasing new things for the room has the same affect.  The cat will comment on how much he likes certain items and what reminds him of his master.  Tapping the cat himself will result in other phrases.  These usually revolve around your current place in the story.  Friends coming to visit the room can be tapped as well.


     I will briefly go over the different areas of the main screen.  

     The top left is your heart count.  5 is the maximum amount of hearts.  You can play as many levels as you want.  hearts are only used when you lose a level and wish to replay it.

     Your cat food is next to the hearts and can be used to purchase goods  in the shop which is the icon next to the cat food.  taping the cat food itself will take you to a place to purchase more cat food with real money.  However, completing a level results in 50-100 cat food per level, so this should not be necessary.

     Top right is where your coins are displayed.  Coins are used to complete parts of the story line.  You can not purchase more coins.  You must gain them through playing the game.

     Beside the coins are the settings.  Tapping this opens the settings panel.  Here you can connect your Facebook or email, change your username, toggle the notifications or language settings or view the credits.  You can also turn the sound effects and music on or off from here.

     Within the settings panel one can also view the recent news feed, access the help section, or save the QR code to share.

     Below the settings button on the main page you will see 3 more buttons.  One has a mouse on it which allows you to purchase the three special items package I mentioned earlier.  The next has an envelope.  This is your mail section which includes friend requests, any items sent to you and hearts sent to you from friends.  if you run out of hearts you can come here to get more (Provided you have friends who send you hearts).


     The third button is your friends section.  It has the list of your current friends as well as a way to search for new friends, invite or request.  You can send hearts to all of your friends through this panel as well.  The second tab in this section has suggestions if you wish to add more friends.  Lastly the profile is located here where you can change your avatar, edit your name, copy your user ID or connect your Facebook account.

     Any currently active contests/events are on the left side of the main screen.  Tapping these will help you access them.  Different events have different rules.

     On the bottom of the main screen you can access the story.  You pay a fee for each section from the coins you earned through play.  From there you read through the interactions and the story progresses.  You can view past chapters, paintings you have completed, friends you have made and anything you collected from special events through the story panel.

     The only buttons left on the main screen are a hanger which you use to wear any new clothing you have gained.  You can change this up any time you like.  It has no affect on anything and is purely just aesthetic. And the far right bottom tab shows you what level you are on and allows you to play that level by clicking it.

     This game is adorable and can be quite addictive.  I found myself playing it a lot.  I loved reading the story, meeting new characters and doing the puzzles.  The competition aspect also really felt like a reason to keep playing as well.  Though I found during this that fewer people seem to be playing than I would have imagined.  This app has been out for a year and I found it very easy to get into the top 10 of any event.  This application needs more love!  I highly recommend it.  I honestly found absolutely no faults in it.

Rating: 5/5
  • Free
  • Seller: Cocone Corporation
  • Category: Games
  • Size: 181.5 MB
  • Languages: English, French, German, Japanese, korean, Simplified Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese
  • Copyright: © Cocone
Rated 4+

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