indiegame.fan
Glass Beads header art

Glass Beads

“I’ve forgotten everything about mathematics!” Join charming characters and an engaging story as you tackle math‑based puzzles and uncover hidden secrets in this heart‑warming Super‑Mathematics puzzle novel game!

Steam Page
Developer
Publisher
Release
Coming Soon
Steam Reviews
No reviews yet

Does this feel indie?

Vote based on whether this game feels indie to you. You can change your vote at any time. Results earn an IGF score after 10 accepted votes.
No votes yet
Vote on More Games
Game contextLatest: IGF Team
ContextThe evidence factors used to assess whether this game belongs on IndieGame.Fan.Status
Notes
Latest Contributor: IGF TeamEdit notes
Search Google: Who developed Glass Beads?Developer scaleThe operating scale of the game's developer.
Search Google: Who published Glass Beads?Publisher scaleThe operating scale of the game's publisher.
Search Google: Is Glass Beads self-published or published by Castalien LLC?Publisher statusHow the game's publishing relationship is classified.
Search Google: How is Glass Beads and Castalien LLC funded?FundingThe known source of funding behind the game.
Search Google: Who controls the creative direction and IP for Glass Beads and Castalien LLC?Creative controlWho appears to retain creative control of the game.
Search Google: What is the release status of Glass Beads?Release statusWhether and how the game has been released.

Media

6 items

About the Game

Story

An ultra‑high‑energy particle strike hits a massive starship en route to an exoplanet, catastrophically corrupting the navigation system’s memory.

To handle the crisis, the ship’s management AI awakens two passengers from cold sleep.

One is Yuko, a café clerk.

The other is Kenji, a ramen‑shop waiter and guitarist.

Neither knows the first thing about starships or computer systems, yet the AI pitilessly announces:

“I’ve forgotten absolutely everything about mathematics!”

The AI truly remembers nothing—not even what “0” or “1” mean.

Without mathematics, navigation is impossible.

A strange terminal appears before the bewildered pair, filled with inscrutable symbols and puzzling logic. Their only ally is a single cat‑shaped emergency‑response bot.

“Prove it!”

Can Yuko and Kenji restore the system? Why were these two awakened? What fate awaits the ship and its passengers?

Theorem‑Proving Puzzle

Glass Beads is a puzzle‑novel game in which you prove mathematical theorems presented as puzzles.

Because the AI has forgotten every trace of mathematics—even the numbers 0 and 1 and basic operations like addition and multiplication—you must painstakingly rebuild mathematical concepts from scratch.

The theorems themselves are simple enough in meaning for an elementary‑school student to grasp, yet giving a rigorous, step‑by‑step proof is anything but easy.

Rely on the cat‑bot’s careful explanations, solve the puzzles, and unravel the mysteries of the starship and its story!

A Deeper Dive

The game’s puzzles aim to provide a hands‑on embodiment of the Curry–Howard correspondence.

Using a type system with dependent types based on Martin‑Löf’s Intuitionistic Type Theory (ITT) and a theory grounded in Peano arithmetic, you will constructively prove theorems of elementary number theory.

Expect proofs of basic arithmetic properties of natural numbers, followed by applied challenges such as string‑manipulation problems built upon those proofs.