Escape from 26
[UPDATED VERSION] In this escape game, you wake up in a golden cage with the number 26 on it, in a tiny house and yard that seems to have everything you need... but even more than figuring out where you are and why, finding a way out becomes increasingly pressing as you soon realise that whoever is supposed to be tending these cages hasn't come by in quite some time, and with supplies dwindling and the place falling into disrepair, things are looking grim.
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There is a typo in the URL from the pic that says "Andy, you are my new roommate"
Could someone please help out with the audio clue? Thanks.
Yeah, the text is a bit sloppy. It's all so darling and creepy, though! Original.
(Also, real protip: learn how to do that yourself. Baking soda!)
This looks lovely - reminds me of the gorgeousness that was the 'Get The Glass' game from ages ago.
Only a few minutes in so it is unfair to call it, but the first 'conversation exchange' made me want to hit the boy at the table for a ridiculously out of date judgment that my character (as a woman) is the only one of us able to do any house work.
You may well say that that's inverse sexism as he could be flawed character but it still made my blood boil.
I am hoping that this is some clever thought provoking moment that will later be justified by him being swallowed up by a massive budgerigar while he dies helpless and alone.
Missing 1 clock piece, the walkthru picks one up in the bedroom. I can't find that. For some reason it won't flash, meaning you can't pick it up.
Some kind of bug or glitch, I assume?
Looks beautiful, and great atmosphere. Game crashed once on me,
when I tried to open the padlock
, but I restarted, and it worked thereafter.
Looks pretty but boy oh boy talk about pixel perfect.
@google you can pick them up when they do not flash but as I said pixel perfect, move your mouse slowly and look for the changing cursor
@Shudog
I am thinking you are talking about the radio code. It is not an audio clue you need to use 2 items on the radio to write down the code
@Jim
No - you get to wash his disgusting y-fronts!
Thanks yaddab. Turns out I was doing the right thing, but I didn't have the right pattern. (Which naturally I had no way of knowing.) Someone may need to check this:
it's the radio frequency with rectangles.
We can admit, the graphics are just amazing!
Hint about making the clock work:-
you need to use the bolts, screwdriver then clock key in the ZOOMED OUT view, NOT zoomed in!
Also, the combination for the padlock is different everytime.
I'm stuck. Had all the nuts and bolts to put on the clock after the gears were in place, but when I clicked to bring the clock up, they disappeared. Is this another glitch ? I suppose I have to start all over again. =(
It's too bad everything is so quirky...the graphics are lovely, but I'm losing interest fairly quickly.
I found one inconsistency.
I managed to get the code from the radio but it told me to speak to Annie before I actually got to talk to her the first time. I did manage to enter the dream world beforehand but didn't realize I was supposed to explore it so I woke up prematurely. So I wandered around looking for someone named Annie and found the graves. Only then did I manage to put two and two and realized there might be something to the dream world. I doubt that was the way to solve the puzzle referencing a name of a person I haven't met but it's just something I'd like to point out.
I managed to open the padlock purely by fluke....so I still have no idea what the radio code was trying to tell me. Being as i'm pretty sure I have to start again, and that the code is apparently different each time....can anyone tell me what I'm supposed to be looking for, or hearing ?
Never mind. I got it. That'll teach me to ignore the dialogue. =))))
I keep ending up short on parts.
1. in the shadowy grass near the gravestones
2. under the gutter towards the laundry room
3. grass by the well
4. in shady area by the tree
5. upstairs by hearth
6. in jacket in foyer
7. nightstand in bedroom
8. back wall in clock room
9. towards floor in clock room
What am I missing?
Shudog...there is one to the right of the outhouse that I couldn't get until last. It had no light ed marker there, but when I walked there, the hand appeared. Give it a try.
I'm out. =)
There is a typo in the URL for the link in the first paragraph of the review.
Nice game ... made it with just a tad bit of help.
Out with no help! Simply gorgeous art. Great gameplay. Simple. Short. Sweet :)
This game reveals just how shallow I am. The woman doing the man's laundry should annoy me. The pixel hunting should annoy me. I anti-climactic end should annoy me...
BUT IT'S JUST SOOO PRETTY!!!
Did anyone else find 11 of 10 clock parts? That was weird. Also when I
picked up the screwdriver it gave me 2 screwdrivers.
is a walkthrough on it's way?
I think I'm missing some essential understanding of the game mechanics.
When she walks over to the well, for example, a caption tells me "I can fill a bucket with water here." Yippee-- HOW?
@MrsRavoon:
You have to pick up the bucket next to the well before you can fill it with water. When you pick it up it goes into the inventory at the bottom of the screen, after which you click the bucket and then click the well to fill it with water.
@Paul: There's a link to an official video walkthrough at the top of the game screen.
What a dreamy little game! Seems to be a bit buggy though, when I exited the bedroom and tried to go back outside the screen darkened up and she just keeps walking but I can't click on anything or move. I have had this happen in other games, is there any way to free my character when this happens other than restarting it? I will restart because I am quite intrigued by this one, though I don't like the part of the review that says the ending doesn't make sense, I will be sad to see that but I still want to see for myself.
Beautiful visual concept. I had jerky mouse issues and I struggled to be able to SEE anything properly - so small! I found the pace a bit plodding but i liked the originality.
I restarted and was able to finish (though this time it game me two screwdrivers which I had to use both of-weird) and I see about the anticlimactic ending-boo. The rest of the game makes up for it but I would like to see the ending revamped.
Have to agree with the majority of comments above - this sweetly creepy little game's flaws are easily overlooked by the aesthetics and the feeling that playing it leaves you with.
Love it!
I have a code but can't look at it or use it. Any suggestions?
the video walkthroughs go too fast and I get lost. i'd like a text walkthrough.
Wee bit stuck and would appreciate some help. Can't check out the video walkthrough due to network errors.
I have:
8 out of 10 clock parts, empty bucket, screwdriver, written note.
Tried giving the note to Andy (not Annie) but he just repeats his "Hello nice lady!" spiel with or without the note.
What am I missing?
Oops. Ignore my last comment. I mistook the item description for a typo, not the game jumping a head a few steps. Thanks for pointing that out in your spoiler, isengrin...
cool lil game, loved the atmosphere, but wished there was an option to play full screen, or did i just miss an options/screen size key? very hard to see some important pixels!
@carolyn hall...
after you get the code you need to go back to the bedroom and sleep/dream... while still dreaming get out of bed, go outside and talk to annie the ghost on the bench
Nice graphics. They remind of an old adventure game, Sanitarium.
Very neat little game. My only quibble was the last part that wouldn't flash for me for some reason.
As for the sexist bit, I took that, the music, the clothes, and the appearance of the house as all intended to set the game sometime in the early 1900s. There's no reason to get bent out of shape about depicting sexism in an era when it was the norm, as long as it's not being promoted as a good thing.
Yeah, uh, there were plenty of strong female characters from the 19th century who didn't take such nonsense from their contemporaries. Also, radios weren't common in households until the 1920s, so I rather challenge that this was "just the norm" at the time.
I think the main point though, that it's a male character who withholds a crucial item for no other reason than to make a female character do what he could have done himself. Given the other deficiencies in the narrative, I'm not prone to getting "bent out of shape" about it either, but it doesn't have to be "promoted as a good thing" to be massively out of place in what is otherwise a rich environment. Why not make soap? Why not revive the dead flowers? Why not build something? Why not reveal a secret message in a letter? Why not make a ladder to climb the tree? I mean, come on. They could have made tons of other narrative choices, and they went with that one. Nancy Drew came into the scene in the 1920s, and I don't remember her doing housework to solve her problems (granted, there was Mrs. Gruen.)
As consumers of stories, we have every right in *this* century to question why narrative choices are being made. If it's a 16-color room without so much as a drop-shadow, or if it's an accurate depiction of a specific time period, then the context might be there. But as we were presented with gorgeous art, an imaginative concept, and an extremely rich environment, it's fair game to examine the storyline with the same lens.
Given the context of the story, I didn't take it as 'sexist' given that the source was an abandoned child and thus appropriately selfish and ignorant.
The game has been udpdated with lots of change.
I would like to thank all the players who regularly post comments here and also thank the developers when they take care of the comments and offer a new version.
List of the changes will be posted in a short time.
Hey guys,
thanks for the great feedback. We did a
lot of changes in the new version, but the
most important are:
- bigger texts
- bigger pick-up area for the clock parts and more frequent shine effect
- some cool visual effects
- better ending, with a cool animation
enjoy!
Hey, has anyone else had trouble with...
the pen? When I tried to use it to write down the code, it seemed to disappear and I haven't been able to find it. And, no code was recorded. Thoughts?
Ah, I see. To solve my issue,
I clicked on the radio with the paper, and despite having wandered around for a while with no pen, it recorded the code for me. So I guess the trick is to apply both pieces to the radio.
can someone put a text walkthrough up soon?
What a delicious game. It's hard enough to entertain, full of atmosphere and extremely well done.
Much kudos.
Only con being the size of the window, it's a bit hard to see some of the details.
The new ending scene made me realize something borderline hilarious...
It would have been very easy to escape the cage just by climbing down the well rope!
guess not :(
Escape from 26 Walkthrough
Getting to know the world
Spend some time wandering around--it's well worth it. There are lots of interesting easter eggs.
You'll discover several things that you can do right away, but here is the order I did them:
-
Walk to the well. Pick up the bucket. Take the bucket out of inventory and put it in the well. You now have a bucket full of water.
-
Something sparkled up in the top center part of the cage. Go pick it up. It's the first piece of the clock.
-
More sparkles! One is near the broken swingset, another to the right of the outhouse; one is next to the bench and one is in the tall grass near the bottom center of the cage. You should now have five clock pieces.
The Rooms
-
Go to the upper center of the cage and enter the room you find there. Click around and you'll see it's the laundry room.
-
Take the soap. Leave the room.
-
Go to the upper right part of the cage and enter the second door. This is a very dirty outhouse. Eww!
-
Leave the outhouse and climb the stairs. Enter the door and have a conversation with Andy. Agree to do his laundry.
-
Before you leave Andy's room, you'll see a sparkle. Take the clock piece. There are also matches on the floor (or a shelf or something) on the far wall from him.
-
Leave Andy's room.
Do the Laundry
-
Go down the stairs and take the wood that is near the bottom to your left. Go get Andy's dirty laundry from the clothesline.
-
Go to the laundry room and put the wood and the water in the heater. Light it with the matches.
-
Take the bucket to the spiget and you'll have hot water.
-
Put the hot water, laundry and soap in the washer. Wa la! Clean clothes.
-
Take the clean laundry back to the clothesline and then sit on the bench.
-
Remove the clothes and take them to Andy for the key.
The Locked Door
-
Go to the door at the bottom of the stairs and unlock it. Enter the room.
-
Rifle through the coat pockets and find a pen in one and a piece of the clock in the other.
-
Read the letters on the floor.
-
Enter the bedroom and look around. You'll find a cleaning cloth, another piece of the clock, and a screwdriver. You'll also see a radio and a couple of other interesting things.
-
Lie down on the bed. When it becomes dark, click outside the door so that you get up while it's still dark (don't click on the bed again yet).
-
You hear sobbing, so you go outside to investigate.
Now Things Really Get Strange
-
Go to the ghostly lady and speak with her.
-
Return to the room, lie down on the bed, and wake up.
-
Outside, your new friend is gone, but the outhouse could sure use a cleaning. Get more water from the well into your bucket.
-
Poor the water on the floor of the outhouse and use your cleaning cloth.
-
Take the toilet paper.
-
Return to the room and find the code on the radio.
-
Put your paper and pen on the radio, and it will record the code.
-
LIe back down on the bed and go back to sleep so you can return to the ghost lady.
-
Ask her about the code and she will give you a number for the closet (mine has been different every time I played).
The Clock
-
Return to the bed and wake up.
-
Go to the closet and input the code the ghost lady gave you.
-
Enter the closet, where you will find bolts, a winding tool, and the last two pieces of the clock.
-
Open the clock and put the pieces where they belong. I found that the hand, and not the piece, had to be touching the place where the piece belonged.
-
Close the clock and put in the bolts. Use the screwdriver, then wind it.
-
Return to the bedroom and go back to bed.
-
Return to the ghost lady and fly away!
WoW thank you so much dsrtrosy :)
On purported sexism:
Tenzhi is right: Andy doesn't ask you to do his chores because your character is a woman, but because he's an abandoned child, left fairly helpless by the death of his parents in an isolated and strange environment. The myopic focus on perceived sexism overlooks some of the poignancy of the situation.
On purported alternate means of escape:
Yes, there are many ways to get of out the cage that seem less convoluted than what happens in the game, but then what? You'd still be a centimeter tall! The Master who imprisons you is not a giant, but a magician who keeps his captives by magical means. And as the ending animation suggests, that means escape is only possible also through magical means.
I would agree with Mike about the perception of sexism in this case.
Andy even SAYS he's tried to do the chores himself, but that he's unable to do so. He's a kid. He's just made things worse, and he has nobody to help him. He's not forcing you to do his laundry just because you're a woman. He's desperate because since the death of the other two people in the house he has no idea what to do and is left with a pile of stinking clothes in a house that's already falling into disrepair. I highly doubt it's because our character in the game has breasts.
The dialogue options when you first meet Andy
are utterly meaningless. Whether you're nice or mean makes zero difference beyond his immediate words in reply. You still get the items you need and he still calls you "nice lady" if you ever talk to him again. It doesn't affect gameplay to any degree, not even in the form of a subtle easter egg later on.
I am still having trouble using the radio. I have the required items, but can't seem to get them to work properly. Any suggestions?
@silliee
First, focus on the radio and tune it to the morse code station -- it's off a bit to the right side. Then zoom back out and use the pen and the toilet paper on the radio (order doesn't matter).
All the writing in this game is simply deplorable. The style does not fit the game at all, it's charged with typos and seems like a 13-year-old being "cool" or something. Nope?
Get a true writer that can pair with the artwork.
Yeah, it is a pity that the very elaborated visuals, audio and game engine have been mixed with extremely poor writing, the unbalance is shocking and spoils all the good work. Get a serious writer into the team and release a new version, it shouldn't require any big changes to the rest of elements and the game will improve enormously as a whole. Writing is as hard to acquire a skill as 3D modelling or coding.
I actually think the story is pretty good, but I agree that the writing feels a little clunky. I attribute that to the fact that English is not the developers' first language. A good translation would indeed help solidify the overall feel of the game, but considering this is the first full release from a small indie company, I don't find it too disconcerting.
Hmm, this is just an Easter Egg, but I think there's a mistake in
the Morse code on the radio. It's a loop of about 45 characters reading:
"PLAYING OF 26 MAY CAUSE SERIOUS MENIAL DISBALABONGED"
I'm pretty sure "disbalabonged" is not the intended word. Perhaps it was supposed to read:
"(prol)onged playing of 26 may cause serious menial disbala(nce)"?
But the loop was cut short?
Can anyone verify?
For the morse code:
Can't really make it out by ear alone, still it's very easy with Goldwave.
"(s/d)onged playing of 26 may cause serious mental disbalabonged playing..."
I think John's interpretation is right.
I really love this game. The whole premise of it made me feel quite sad and it's such a nice original idea. Looks so beautiful aswell, I love the way the rooms light up as you go in them, the music was also excellent, really added to the atmosphere and was tension building without having to be loud and overpowering. I really hope they develop this into a longer game with an extended story as it could be so good. Text could benefit from some spell checking though, when there was so much attention to detail everywhere else I thought the font was an odd choice and also some of their language was far too modern. They should have steered clear of the word 'cool' for example.
can someone post a screenshot link or spoiler with the contents of the letters in them? I can beat the game fine, but the letters for me all show up on a single line, overwriting themselves repeatedly and becoming entirely unreadable.
Crashed on me once when I tried to wind the clock before using the
screwdriver
, but when I figured out what I was doing wrong, it was a breeze. Kind of hurt my eyes with how small everything was though. However, certainly looking forward to more from BigLoop Games.
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Game of the week
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Escape from 26 Walkthrough
Getting to know the world
Spend some time wandering around--it's well worth it. There are lots of interesting easter eggs.
You'll discover several things that you can do right away, but here is the order I did them:
Walk to the well. Pick up the bucket. Take the bucket out of inventory and put it in the well. You now have a bucket full of water.
Something sparkled up in the top center part of the cage. Go pick it up. It's the first piece of the clock.
More sparkles! One is near the broken swingset, another to the right of the outhouse; one is next to the bench and one is in the tall grass near the bottom center of the cage. You should now have five clock pieces.
The Rooms
Go to the upper center of the cage and enter the room you find there. Click around and you'll see it's the laundry room.
Take the soap. Leave the room.
Go to the upper right part of the cage and enter the second door. This is a very dirty outhouse. Eww!
Leave the outhouse and climb the stairs. Enter the door and have a conversation with Andy. Agree to do his laundry.
Before you leave Andy's room, you'll see a sparkle. Take the clock piece. There are also matches on the floor (or a shelf or something) on the far wall from him.
Leave Andy's room.
Do the Laundry
Go down the stairs and take the wood that is near the bottom to your left. Go get Andy's dirty laundry from the clothesline.
Go to the laundry room and put the wood and the water in the heater. Light it with the matches.
Take the bucket to the spiget and you'll have hot water.
Put the hot water, laundry and soap in the washer. Wa la! Clean clothes.
Take the clean laundry back to the clothesline and then sit on the bench.
Remove the clothes and take them to Andy for the key.
The Locked Door
Go to the door at the bottom of the stairs and unlock it. Enter the room.
Rifle through the coat pockets and find a pen in one and a piece of the clock in the other.
Read the letters on the floor.
Enter the bedroom and look around. You'll find a cleaning cloth, another piece of the clock, and a screwdriver. You'll also see a radio and a couple of other interesting things.
Lie down on the bed. When it becomes dark, click outside the door so that you get up while it's still dark (don't click on the bed again yet).
You hear sobbing, so you go outside to investigate.
Now Things Really Get Strange
Go to the ghostly lady and speak with her.
Return to the room, lie down on the bed, and wake up.
Outside, your new friend is gone, but the outhouse could sure use a cleaning. Get more water from the well into your bucket.
Poor the water on the floor of the outhouse and use your cleaning cloth.
Take the toilet paper.
Return to the room and find the code on the radio.
Put your paper and pen on the radio, and it will record the code.
LIe back down on the bed and go back to sleep so you can return to the ghost lady.
Ask her about the code and she will give you a number for the closet (mine has been different every time I played).
The Clock
Return to the bed and wake up.
Go to the closet and input the code the ghost lady gave you.
Enter the closet, where you will find bolts, a winding tool, and the last two pieces of the clock.
Open the clock and put the pieces where they belong. I found that the hand, and not the piece, had to be touching the place where the piece belonged.
Close the clock and put in the bolts. Use the screwdriver, then wind it.
Return to the bedroom and go back to bed.
Return to the ghost lady and fly away!
Posted by: dsrtrosy
|
September 21, 2013 11:13 PM