Today’s review is about a hex-crawling horror game called MIIRU or MIRU II, or MIRU 2. It’s a game with many names, alright? This is delightfully on-brand, we’ve barely started the review and I’m already floundering. Anyway, you might want to snag a copy so you can follow along!
It’s a solo title so you can even play it by yourself.

Edit: Miru, Miru II, Static Abyss (a music album written for the Miru series) and Hinokodo’s custom font pack are currently on sale!) https://itch.io/s/100346/birthday-adventure-pack

The Man Behind The Machine

The first MIRU was an adventure game where you set out on a quest to kill a god. The sequel is darker, more involved, and contains a secret puzzle. I know you nerds can’t resist a good puzzle.

Hinokodo is the man behind these twisted machinations, and he has plans for greater things. MIRU III is on the horizon, Mimic Publishing is getting ready to open the doors to their collective, and one day he’s going to open an orchard and a cidery. I’m proud to call this man a friend. The other day I sat down and asked him “How do you kill a god, anyway?” The answer is: “Just ask to see their master.”
Listen, that joke will be funny after you’ve read the interview, so let’s get to it:

The Hero’s Journey

Q)      MIRU's design has evolved between the original and the sequel. You've managed to keep both games visually consistent with one another-- the large blocky-headers and rounded edges are big hallmarks here-- but MIIRU is a slightly more sophisticated game with a lot of moving parts. Can you tell me anything about how you modernized your layouts without cluttering the page too much?

HINOKODO: The MIRU series has always had self imposed design limitations, but I really ramped them up with MIRU 2. Besides meeting the criteria of Zinequest as defined by Kickstarter (A5 or smaller, stapled bound, one-color, zine made in 2 weeks) I wanted to make a game that was approachable. And for me approachable meant, text needed to be clear as possible, my mom could read it and play it, it could be picked up by a veteran gamer or a newbie and hit the table right away. That was my goal at least. With these goals in mind, I felt like I needed to keep the layout simple. 2 columns, read everything left to right and up to down with very little graphic flairs. The more repeatable the pattern, the easier it is for folks to pick up on what they're supposed to be doing in the game. I used BN Cringe Sans throughout the series, for titles and body text. And I'm obsessed. But more importantly, I think its use of rounded shapes to form letters, gives it a more approachable reading experience, but it has some rough texture, so it gives a subtle 'worn' feel.

This is not a manuscript typed up on the first generation typewriter in a dark dungeon somewhere. I used big bold chapter headers so it was easy to find what you needed as you flipped back into the rules. I tried to give everything it's own space to be a little section. My aim was to give the player a natural start and stop area. I tried to cut out as much confusion as possible. And that's an impossible task, but I think the more we try and consider that our readers will find our games at all kinds of times in their lives, if we make it as easy as possible to approach our work, the more folks will give it a try.

JUSTIN: On the subject of "working within limitations," that BASICS OF PLAY spread is something that I keep coming back to as a designer. You have made it so easy to understand the core mechanisms of MIIRU on just two pages, and it's a total joy to look at. While we’re on the topic, your use of icons was especially interesting.

HINOKODO: This go around, especially so in MIRU 2, I really liked the idea of incorporating an achievement system. Icons kept the word count down and that area of the book slim with room for the page to breathe a little. I called them “consequence” badges instead of achievements.

By using small visual badges throughout the book rather than text, not only did it save precious space, as there's an entire book of content I had to cut to keep it under 60 pages and fit within the staple bound limitations, but as they're not given explanations up front, as players see the icons in their playthrough, I hoped it would perk some curiosity. "How could I get this badge? What is it? Do I even want a 'consequence' badge?" I think it's a great engagement mechanism

Q)      There is so much going on with the LET THE NIGHTMARE BEGIN spread that I adore. I mean, just LOOK at the header on the second page. You made a font for this, right? It blends so perfectly with BN Cringe, and the use of a button is so thematic. That custom font comes back to divide the spread and really pushes the transition from primer into gameplay. The rewards section on the first half of the spread takes advantage of the size constraints with the use of diagrams. You're the king of diagrams, HINOKODO. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you know how to make an arrow talk for days. How did you even start approaching this spread?

HINOKODO: Are you talking about the barcode like symbols? That is a font I made! Aloraglyphs is a very stylized version of braille. When spaced in the right way, it looks like a QR code or cryptic robot speak. I used it a lot in the MIRU series, as I wanted something visually striking, cryptic, but readable for the detectives out there.

For page 1, I want a continue screen that evoked more of a video game feel. I'm presenting you with 2 potential paths. Choose one to begin, all you have to do is follow the lines. The same goes for the BASICS OF PLAY spread. It took several weeks to figure out the 'steps in a turn' diagram. I documented much of that work in progress in the MIRU channel of the discord. How did I even start to approach these? 1 area at a time, like starting with a block of clay, I just carved away until something usable remained.

Mostly with MIRU 2 in particular, my biggest constraints were page sizes. I would give myself an area and say 'this subject has to fit here'. and I wouldn't budge on that. I tried to simplify the potential options a player may take as they traverse their map, plopped it all into a list, and played around with the order of operations until I got something that works as best as it's going to. Once you start introducing the idea of backtracking to a map exploration game, you have to consider all possible options that could occur in the game, assume they occurred, and how does your wording help or confuse the player that flips back to this section of the rules to figure out what to do next. It's never as easy as just saying “go to the next tile”. If there's something there, 1 of x things happens, depending on what's there. If nothing is there, you do y, like 'normal'. Fitting all the options the game provides into a 5x5 square was quite the mental workout.

A great example of whittling down until I got something usable, is the choice of words I ended up with. If you're playing the game and run into something confusing, you'll probably flip back into the rules to see if I had addressed your situation somewhere. Without writing a book for all 100+ potential situations, I have to create a ruleset that kind of teaches you how to problem solve all these potential situations.

It could have just been a list of letters and actions like on the left, and questions with answers like on the right, but I felt like a visual pathway could really help someone figure out, what the next step could be and that's why the mini map is there. No words at all. Just letters and lines.

With the questions and answers portion, I figured most folks would flip back with a question. "Oh shoot, I've only been stepping on blank tiles this whole game. What do I do if I step on an 'old' tile?" There's only 4 questions, so you'll probably quickly read them all and see that WHAT IS ON YOUR OLD TILE? section matters to find the answer you're looking for. The idea is that you'll probably filter down to your situation on your own. "I'm not on just an old tile, I'm on an old tile with an enemy on it," and just follow the letters and the path above on the mini map on what to do next.

I really just wanted to use "Step on a new tile?" as the top question but folks seemed to think every tile was new to them this turn and so to cut as much confusion as possible I added “Blank new tile?”

Language is hard and you won't get it perfect for everyone, but now if folks think of a tile as blank or as new, in context of the other questions and answers, they'll have some guidance on whether or not they’re in the right place. I heavily believe that writing the rules is the biggest part of the game. It's not enough to just create the mechanics or cool theme, if no one can figure out how to play, your idea may become lost in time.

Q)      Can I razz you a bit? As a member of your ATOPIA server, I heard that you arrange all of your tables and their contents by hand. This granular attention to detail went so far that someone questioned if you actually use the table tool at all, or if your outlines are all just rectangular shape tools. I don't think it goes that far, but I have to ask: what do your page masters look like, man?

HINOKODO: I have no idea what I'm doing. I have 1 master page and it has a space for the QR header image, the page title, and the page numbers. Let's see if I can get you a good screenshot:

JUSTIN: Oh my god you're just like me, for real.

HINOKODO: I tried to select as many individual elements as possible [on this table]. the blue lines are unique shapes. Text is in huge columns and I had to space things out using the line-height character options. Every time I change something, I have to triple check the spacing.

JUSTIN: That’s just wild. Looking at this makes me feel pain and euphoria simultaneously. Those ARE shape tools making up the borders of your tables! You’re a free-range designer, Hinokodo. I’m sure there are drawbacks and advantages to this method, but I think the takeaway is that every time you approach a page, you are giving it the “this is a unique challenge” treatment.

Making Good Choices

There are a half-dozen videos of people playing MIRU. Ya’ll don’t need me to tell you how to play this game. I do want to turn my metaphorical chair backwards and perch in it like a cool teacher while we talk about what Hinokodo is doing to be an eco-conscious designer. Y’know, this is one of those “real talk” kind of situations. The thing that stands out to me right away is the paper MIRU is printed on.

HINOKODO: It's all the same paper weight [100lb text]. Recycled uncoated. [Printed by] US Mixam.

JUSTIN: 100 lb text is roughly equivalent to 150 gsm paper, if I’m not mistaken.

No lamination on the cover, so there’s functionally little to no plastic involved. No coating means it’s fully recyclable— it’s been recycled already! 100lb paper is thick enough that even without a coating the text isn’t ghosting through the pages. Of course the trade-off is that it’s delicate. The corners get roughed up easy, and if you’re hard on your books uncoated paper is easier to tear. Some people love the way a well-loved book looks, some think low durability is a dealbreaker. I say it’s worth it because I really like the way this feels in my hands. It has a little bit of a tooth, you know? There’s just the most subtle texture and it takes ink really well. Is this a soy-based ink?

HINOKODO: I think it might be corn? I’ll message ‘em and see what they say:

JUSTIN: Honestly I kind of figured-- about half the time when I order from mixam.ca, it ships from the US, and the last time I ordered from the US site so that I could send something directly to a distributor, I think it actually shipped from Canada. The two countries probably use different inks (we're not as big on corn up here) so there's no real way to guarantee what ink ends up on what. They do confirm it’s vegetable based ink at least.

HINOKODO: Yeah, wish they'd ship it with info like that though. Where and what kind of ink was used. If I know where I can properly offset the delivery. And, yes, I carbon offset! I double the estimated amount of emissions of our products at Mimic.

I do it at the end of the year as one big donation. Last December I just offset our physical orders. This year I'm adding digital orders as well. Fingers crossed, next year I can add the Mimic teams’ emissions to the offset. (If the rest of the year goes great, I might start this year!)

JUSTIN: You use Cool Effect for that, yeah?

HINOKODO: I do! For 3 reasons:

1) They claim to use 90% of funds towards projects. Charities have a rep of using more and more funds towards 'admin' costs, which I like to avoid as much as possible.
2) They fund 'local' projects, which is nice because you know it's not going to some general fund paying out American farmers trying to avoid some taxes by not cutting down a forest on their property they were never going to cut down.
3) because they're a 501(c)3 non-profit, which means it's tax deductible. At our size, that kind of stuff matters.

Also, what’s nice about the non-profit aspect is that they are forced to post their numbers. Places like WREN are not nonprofit and they don't have to share their numbers. (Though they might anyways, I haven't checked) I like that a company is forced to post numbers, holds some accountability and you know it's accurate.

According to this, they bring in about $20mil, and pay 2 people in the admin group about $100k each. Most non-profits are paying their CEOs half a million or more.

JUSTIN: Oh heck, I never would have even THOUGHT of that! Where do I even start figuring this stuff out?

HINOKODO: It's hard to measure the footprint of different products, especially niche ones like zines, but here's where I've landed using sites like Commercial Waste and Book Riot which link to studies. There's 1 Swedish one that makes the rounds a lot that they did in 2012, so some of that info is likely out of date, but hopefully things have gotten better.

For hardback: 5kg
For softback: 3kg (my estimate)
For a vegetable ink, uncoated-recycled, 2 staples zine: 3kg
For 'e-books': 1kg (it's actually like 0.008kg or so, but i rounded up)
For shipping by trucks: 1kg per direction (obviously this varies by weight, distance, and bulk items in the truck, it's closer to like 0.40kg or so per book, but I round up)
My personal footprint according to WREN (which is a for-profit and is motivated to give me a higher number): 4400kg annually.

So for each physical copy of MIRU, we say it 'costs' 3kg to make and exist. We tack on 1kg to get to us for shipping and 1kg to get to you for shipping. That’s 5kg thus far. Then we double it. So we offset 10kg per physical copy sold. For digital MIRU, we say it 'costs' 1kg to make and exist. and we round up to 5kg.

Alora is an eco-terrorist and takes over earth so that she still has environment to survive in. Humans are inefficient stewards apparently.

JUSTIN: Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’m going to be a better steward and make better choices from here on out. Thanks, dude.

Physical Copies

If you want to have a truly analog experience, you’re going to need the physical book. Here’s where you can get it:

EXALTED FUNERAL
PEREGRINE COAST PRESS (MIRU I & MIRU II)

And of course you can get it directly from the creator at MIMIC PUBLISHING

WE’RE FINALLY DONE

Sorry, folks, that was a long one! I had been planning this interview for a long time, and it turns out we had a lot to talk about. Thanks for being such a gracious conversationalist, Hinokodo. I can’t wait to see what kind of shenanigans Mimic Publishing Collective has planned for the future!

This is our third week in a row, do you think I can keep the train running? I suppose you’ll find out next Tuesday. I have a half-dozen interviews sitting in the hopper and some of them are really special.

I love you all,
Justin