Treasure Island Escape
Escape from a treasure island as fast as you can! Click the hand pointers to move around the island locations and use the mouse to interact with objects, gather items and assemble a few of them to make useful tools. Treasure Island Escape is an entry into our 10th Casual Gameplay Design Competition, with the theme of "Escape".
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Treasure Island Escape Walkthrough
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Take the fishing line from the bottom right of your boat. It's the bright red item that looks like a yoyo.
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On the left side of the boat is an unopened tin of spinach. Eat it to gain super strength and fish gills.
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Swim underwater and pull the anchor up.
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Surprisingly, leaving your boat unanchored and unmanned means it drifted away. Swim right, the same way you swam up, before the sharks get you.
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Once you're on the island, collect the rock next to the coconut tree, and then open the skeleton's mouth and take a tooth.
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Head north and collect the brown leaves on the top left on the screen, between the tree trunk and the red mushrooms.
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Go right and take the vine hanging down off the tree. Combine it wit the anchor.
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You can remove the rocks on the right to get access to a cave. Start with the top rock.
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The cave contains a treasure chest, but you can't unlock it just yet.
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Go back to the crocodile swamp, and then north to the plateau with the two exotic birds. there's nothing to do here so head west to the plane.
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Pick the pipe up from the background, to the left of the tree. Combine it wit the tooth to make a spade.
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Hang your hook / vine combo over a branch below the plane, and pull the end of the rope - the side without the anchor attached - to make a rope you can climb up.
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The pilot will sadly not be coming with you. Take his flying goggles, the scope off his gun, and the bullet.
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Climb back down the rope and combine the bullet with the fishing line.
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Take the bullet / line combo to the treasure chest, found in the cave right of where you collected the vine.
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Put the bullet in the lock.
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Use the rock on the light brown stalactite. You'll need to do this three times to break it off.
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Pick up the piece of stalactite.
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Put the goggles under the light ray.
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Put the leaves where the light ray deflects to.
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Open the chest and take the jack in the box.
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Pick up the map and examine it to see the location of the treasure. It will be in front of one of the trees on the plateau, but the location is random.
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Close the chest (rather than looking for a 'back' arrow).
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Head to the plateau with the birds and use the spade to dig up the treasure.
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Take a bottle of rum.
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Go back to the swamp and feed the Jack in the Box to the crocodile. Pick up the spring from what's left.
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Combine the spring with the sight to make a corkscrew, and open the bottle of rum.
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Put the map in the bottle, and seal with with the stalactite piece
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Throw the bottle into the sea so that someone will come to rescue you.
I had trouble in that when I go into the water, clicking on anything to look at it causes the hand pointer to move there, and then clicking the moved hand pointer usually causes it to move more, so it was like catch-the-pointer-before-you-die.
I'm using Chrome 21 on Windows 7. Hopefully you can figure out what's doing that...
Doesn't seem stream-lined yet. A bit choppy. Sometimes a bit illogical as well...with my old cork and all the other corks in the other bottles and my corkscrew, why use a
stalactite?
Very colorful and you could tell it was supposed to be kind of funny and zany. Confusing logic though, and I hate hate hated the controls. Silly little game, but I don't think I'd bother to play it again to get high-score.
I kinda agree with the "this game doesn't really follow logic". It's amusing and funny, but... the lack of logic bit really bites at me quite a bit.
Interesting, but sadly, not worth a second play. :(
Hi Parmeisan,
It's an intentional mini mini-game. Yep, being an avid escape-the-room fan like you, I was trying to use it like a Robamimi navigational arrow at first, too. But, the intent is indeed to follow the hand up to the surface before dying (um, breath more air, eh? Hehe.) The same is true with swimming from the sharks (note the timer at the top of the screen). And...something else a little further in. If you can have fun with that type of gameplay, though, I think you might enjoy the rest of the escape.
I hope that helped!
So this game is a bit illogical because there is used a stalactite instead of cork destroyed by a corkscrew.
And controls are generally bad because there are on two screens a player has to click three or four times more to simulate diving and swimming although all other controls are the same as usual in this type of game.
Interesting, but sadly, I am wondering who plays adventure game the second time after it is already completed?
Thanks everyone for playing Treasure Island Escape, I can understand this game is not so good, but I can't accept these comments.
Overall a decent attempt, though some of the controls were a bit.... finicky.... annoying... I'm not sure, but the "click quickly or die and start again" kinda did my head in. The artwork and puzzles were interesting though, just needs a bit of 'je ne sais pas'.
Don't have much to say other than what's been said. I didn't enjoy it much. The pointless details made finding things you COULD use like finding a needle in a stack of needles (most egregiously with the leaves.)
Another honorable mention for getting on my nerves is the lack of anything to pick up in the far northern section, where there are birds and eggs which would make good FOOD for the crocodile, which was implied and would have made sense.
I'm not particularly annoyed about the fact that feeding the croc isn't a goal as it is used sensibly, but with foodstuffs lying around and means to get them, it left me standing around a bit. This could just be me.
The two quick-click sections seemed unnecessary, as well as the crocodile and the anchor thing, no need to reset progress for trying something, warning or not. Giving a warning invites people to try again, thinking they may be onto something.
As for what I like, the art style was good. The few quips here and there were entertaining. I guess the puzzle to
open the chest
was smart. The ending was chuckle-worthy.
This has a vast room for improvement, but as-is I wouldn't recommend it. Would you prefer THAT term to "replay it"?
I feel differently than a lot of the commentors here it seems....
This was the first entry I played and, I agree, I was initially thrown off by the quick click sections. Since I didn't notice the timer bar at the top of the screen, that poor red-bearded sailor was eaten by sharks repeatedly as I tried to go around them.
Once I understood (or rather, once Ben pointed out) that these were simply timed click puzzles, I thought "Ooh, neato! Nice addition and twist on the gameplay."
As for the rest, I didn't have any trouble finding objects (except the mole hole but you fixed that pre-release). But I'm used to these sorts of games. Not all of the JIG audience is an escape game addict, though. So, my suggestion is just like others made here: to add even more labels to objects.
It may have helped my perception of the game as I had colleagues playing it along with me to talk me through spots where I was uncertain. So...I bet you could improve this by adding an introduction along with a more explicit explanation of how to play before the game starts.
I also recommend not letting dying or feeding crocodiles reset the entire game. Players do love to explore in point-and-click games, as Jdpeach pointed out. There shouldn't be a penalty for exploring as that just seems...mean.
So is it possible to just take the player back to the same spot in the game? To the boat or surface if you drown? To the shore if you're attacked by sharks? Maybe with a note to the player that, if they want to play the shark game again, to just go back out into the water?
Players who get frustrated with mechanics and controls do tend to vote down a game as it colors their whole perception of it. But those things are really small details that can be easily fixed without redesigning the whole game.
This is actually one of my favorite entries, to be fair. I liked the quirkiness and enjoyed exploring the setting. Add in an intro, give more messages for things as they're scrolled over (because it's fun where you do have it so let's have more it!) and don't let simple experimenting/errors reset the entire game and this is a very fine escape game.
I do hope to see more of these games from you. I've played it several times now. It was a lot of fun! ;)
OK, I will remove this unbelievable annoying movement control from that 2 sections which as a result can produce very frustrated people. It is obvious that was a mistake to experiment with addind something new to a stereotype concept of an adventure game. So there will be now infinite air for diving and free style swimming between 20 sharks. Besides, that seems pretty logical!
By the way, I'm not sure what more labels I can add to items description or I need to write exactly what to do with an item?
I hope my comments didn't come across the wrong way. I liked the quick click area. I think some player's frustration comes from being sent back to the very beginning of the game. Again, game is good as it is in my opinion. My suggestions were just ideas for helping those having some trouble with it. Shouldn't be discouraged, though; give more time for others to play and comment. Not all games are for everyone but doesn't mean certain games are any less good. :)
Ssunic
Do not do that, I consider myself at best an average adventure/escape player, and after a couple of "you have died to the sharks" I got the message :) click the hand and move on!
The game was good, the graphics were good, the humour was up my street. You just stick with what you feel, it worked for me. It WAS logical - even the Jack in the box :)
You know some folks expect all of everything to follow a set path and be handed to them on a plate it is good to throw them a curved ball sometimes that makes them think a little differently.
You follow your own instincts and be true to yourself, you will not go wrong
That's good advice, yaddab. :)
I don't think you should remove the sections, as it actually was interesting. But letting them be the two first things in a game gives an impression. When that type of mechanic is seen nowhere else in a game, it colors the perception more.
I found them refreshing in a static environment, but being the only two examples and being at the beginning felt off. I didn't have problems with them (I noticed the bars corresponding to both
Along with the puzzles. They WERE logical, a bit. I mean, I have an issue with the whole
external heat and the explosive round thing. But that's just from watching too much Mythbusters.
Everything was, in fact, quite reasonable, and apparent as to what it was. No need for more labels, I think.
I might have been a little tainted coming off innovative and heavily storied games and seeing this, only moderately innovative and little story to speak of. But it does what it does well, provide a fun little game. That's what it is.
Well, I'm in a little confusion now to change or not to change this mechanic. Probably there are 49.9% of population that doesn't like it and 50.1% that likes it which results with a poor rating of 3.1. Even I invented a new funny puzzle how to avoid all sharks without using this annoying mechanism.
Regarding illogical puzzles, I really don't know what is so illogical. But almost all comments about this are quite irrelevant. For instance, this one is the best: "why to use a stalactite instead of a cork from a bottle to close it". Even if you don't have any imagination you must know that corks are destroyed after opening bottles by a corkscrew! Or "I lost all my nerves because there is nothing to take in the plateau with the birds". This comment is quite silly because in this section you must find the most important thing to escape! But for that player is more logical to take an exotic bird and its eggs and feed the crocodile. Unfortunately for me these players give a low rate!
In this game, I tried to invent as more items and object which are funny but when they assembled together their usage is quite possible in such a fictive world (that comes from my inspiration I got during playing Great Room Escape series where almost all items can be hardly used in a real world). For instance the puzzle for opening chest, a combination of sight and spring of the Jack In The Box to get a corkscrew or shark tooth with caries+ T-pipe=spade, all this is quite creative and unique. And I am proud I got all that ideas during reading kid books to my little son. A world of children's imagination is used to make a fiction game.
Ssusnic - I would not change anything necessarily. The quick-click sections were simple enough once I figured out what I was supposed to be doing, which is just part of exploring in a game. You might consider the suggestion of just taking the player back to the boat or empty water if they fail (depending on if they fail underwater or with the sharks), as opposed to restarting completely, but I don't think they need to be eliminated at all.
As far as the puzzles, I think they were fine. The problem I think people are having (and I did have myself) is it is a bit difficult to identify what items on the screen are interactive and which are just part of the background. You've created a rich, lovely, full environment. The only problem is that items which are takeable do not stand out significantly from the background setting. I don't know how to suggest you change that unless you were to just make the hotspots a little bigger. Really, that was the only real flaw I experienced with the game.
I keep getting eaten by sharks. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I quickly click the right hands across the screen, then it gets to the point where only a left hand is visible and he's still swimming right.
But he never makes it to the right side of the screen before time runs out, and if I ever hit a left hand, he stops swimming.
Is there some point I'm suppose to click on the island? Or try to direct him up there instead of across the screen? I've tried that a few times but it didn't work.
akaiLV
You should just have to hit the right hands, when there is none left he will just keep swimming right and you get to the island screen. You should not hit any left hands at all
yaddab
That's what I thought and tried several times, but it has yet to work. I hit all the right hands and eventually run out, so I wait for him to swim to the edge, but he never makes it. Time runs out and I have to start over. I don't know if I'm not hitting them fast enough or what, but I have yet to get past that part.
Could someone please explain what I am doing wrong? I can not for the life of me figure this out. I keep just getting eaten by sharks again and again and again. I noticed there's been changes, the game doesn't end, and I can't get the anchor anymore, but I still can't get past the sharks.
I hit right, and I immediately start the mini-game. I quickly hit the right hands eight or so times. After that, there's only a left hand on the edge of the screen, so all I can do is wait for him to swim to the edge of the screen. But he never makes it. He always gets attacked. Am I suppose to move the mouse a certain way after clicking a right hand? Am I doing this too slow? Could someone just show me a video of how THEY beat it so I can see what I'm doing wrong? Because I just don't understand what is wrong with me.
Please try reloading the page and try again. Srdjan sent a new version that I uploaded earlier. I just now emptied the server cache so you should get the new version. Try it again once you reload and see if that helps.
I took some screenshots to show what I mean.
Screenshot 1 - This is after I've clicked on the right hand 8 times in a row. As you can see, there are no more right hands. At this point, all I can do is hope he swims to the edge of the screen. If I click the left pointing hand, he'll stop swimming.
Screenshot 2 - This is pretty much the spot I always die at, or around. Time runs out and sharks swarm. I really don't know what else I'm suppose to do. He never makes it across the screen, and trying to click on the island doesn't change anything.
Please help, I'd like to actually play more of this game.
Thank you, it does seem the last three tries though it is the new version. ie I can't swim to get the anchor and getting attacked by the sharks sends you back to the boat instead of ending the game.
I'll try again a few more times to see if I can make it now.
I'm afraid I'm still not making it. All I can assume is that I'm too slow on clicking hands as it takes me about 6 seconds to click them all.
Occasionally Flash has been freezing on me (a recent Chrome issue for me), but that only seems to happen one in twenty tries on this game.
akaiLV-
Keep an eye on the timer at you move across the screen. If you're having a lag issue, I'm assuming the bar wouldn't move smoothly but in jagged stops and starts.
Just quick clicking on the rightward pointing hands is all you need to do. When you've clicked the very last right hand, just wait to transition to the island.
EDIT: I have an idea. Will be back in a second with screenshots.
Swimming with Sharks:
You have only a few seconds to click on every rightward pointing hand (avoiding the left hands) as you swim to shore. Visa-versa if you're heading back to the boat.
Here are screenshots of what this looks like:
When you reach a point where there is no more hands pointing the direction you want to go, just wait and you should see your shipwrecked red-bearded sailor continue to swim past the edge of the screen. As that last bit does take another second or so, you'll want to get there as quickly as possible.
From your screenshots and mine it looks like you're running out of hands too quickly, or do not start clicking the hands fast enough before the timer is already half-over or there is something keeping him from swimming fast enough.
Also, I have mad respect for your determination. Some players would've given up but you're being awesomely patient in retrying! :)
I didn't play the first version where, apparently, the timed puzzles were not very well designed. The version I played was absolutely straightforward for hardcore escape fans, no walkthrough needed. The influence of the humor and quirky contraption construction from Pastelgames is unmistakable, although it reminded me more of the Sneak Thief series than of the Great Escape one. As it is now, this game deserves a better rating than 3.3, so I am giving it 5 mushrooms instead of the 4 I would normally vote. Srdjan, good job, you can be proud of your game. Although when you submit your creation to the public scrutiny you have to be ready for all kinds of criticism and it is always better if you take it with a graceful disposition and don't take it too personally. Cheers!
Thanks a lot for your comment Cu and for 5 mushrooms :) I'm very glad there is someone who noticed a quality of this game and its humor based on an inspiration from Great Escape Series (by the way, I didn't play Sneak Thief yet!).
As I already said in theme description I'm very satisfied and proud of my game because all game engine, background story and all drawings are made on my own in a month from scratch.
Regarding criticism, I obeyed it and changed movement control adding a new little action at the start although I still think the first version was not so bad.
Ugh, it let me leave the boat and go through the crocodiles before I had the anchor, etc.
@merchantfan:
Then go back and take the anchor! What do you expect that everything must be linear in an adventure game so you can't go to another location if you don't take all items and actions from previous locations?
If this is also a problem for giving a criticism and low rate then I'm very sorry what I participated in this contest.
I have a rotten tooth and a broken spade and cannot dig up the treasure. Must I start the game again?
Not necessarily.
You'll need a map to the treasure to dig only in correct spot. Our walkthrough at the top of the comments section should help with that. Did you break the spade from digging?
ssusnic, if you keep taking every criticism personally, you won't learn anything! Instead, simply understand that every player has a different experience. Some escape game fans expect a completely linear gameplay and ALWAYS complain when it isn't linear. Some of us HATE linear gameplay and want the challenge of being able to do (or not do) what is needed in the so-called "proper" order. So settle down, let people make their comments, and learn from the experience. Your game is very funny and quirky. You are proud of it. Excellent. If it doesn't win, that doesn't mean this was a "bad experience".
Since you don't seem to think any feedback is correct, here is some very precise feedback I'll provide while playing your game. In a spoiler, so not everyone is forced to read it.
-Making one rock in a pile of rocks clickable is irritating.
-Making one pile of leaves in a pile of piles of leaves clickable is also irritating.
-Making one tiny vine in a tree full of vines clickable? You guessed it.
-Opening the chest was good, but closing it is not. There should be a back arrow, or something more obvious to get out of a view.
-Why do I have to open the jack-in-the-box before I can take it? the knob was tiny.
-Putting a cork back into a bottle is never impossible, unless it's champagne. You remove it from the corkscrew and put it back in. Using a piece of stone to plug the bottle, however, would be impossible. You'd likely end up with a bloody hand.
-The spring from the box as a corkscrew was not bad, but why I have to attach it to the tiniest thing I could find is beyond me. There is no logic behind using the sight as a handle. I could have used anything. But the sight was so tiny and barely clickable, and made no sense.
Things I didn't enjoy pixel hunting for:
Rock
Leaves
Vine
Stalactite
Button on jack-in-the-box
Closing the chest
Shovel handle
Pulling the vine taut
Climbing up the vine
Crosshair
Bullet
Climbing down the vine
The spirit of this competition is for those of us playing the games to critique them, weighing the pros and cons. This way, we can compare them to one another and decide which deserves to win.
IT ALSO SERVES TO HELP DESIGNERS FIX THEIR GAMES. You're allowed to tweak your game during the judging process, so I would think that the designers would welcome as much critique as possible, to make their final piece as good as it could be. And all the designers did just that.
With the exception of you.
Why you chose to berate those giving negative comments about your game, I don't understand. If you were going to be so sensitive about your game, why submit it to scrutiny? Why join a competition? Regardless of why, what I'll leave this page with is a game that's mediocre at best, but with a lousy person standing behind it. And THAT is why you have a 3, and THAT is why you won't win this competition.
And that guy who gave you a 5 to balance out the lower scores? I just gave you a 1 to negate his.
Thanks Dam, this is the most constructive feedback I received during this competition. Unfortunately, I have just a few hours before the end of judging period to remove all things from the game and so make it better :(
For those like Dam who didn't notice but write comments with big characters as him, I fixed most of negative but constructive feedbacks and resend this game about 15 times during judging period.
Besides, I'm repeating once again, this game is an imaginative fiction and all items and tools constructed from them are naturally useless in a real life as you described and I agree with that. But here I can't help people without a little imagination to find a logic how to use them in this type of game.
I'm late again, but I have to say thank you for a very nice little game, Srdjan Susnic.
I really love the Great Escape series, and this was a great reminder of them - [and now I must go and replay Escape The Attic for the gazillionth time - I adore those bats, haha.]
Normally I wouldn't even start a game if I knew it had a timed puzzle in it, but by the time I played you had relaxed them enough for me to get past the sharks on the second run - so thanks for that, too.
I didn't find the hotspots too small, either.
Just the right size, and I always hate pixel-hunts, of which this game most definitely isn't one.
I'm convinced some players will eventually demand games with a huge button somewhere on screen which says "complete game".
The rest of us like a challenge, and I love the way, when I found an object, I can think, "Ooh, I wonder what I can use that for?"
As far as I'm concerned, every puzzle item had a surreally logical connection, whether the clue be shape, strength or size, for situational or comedic purposes.
For example, I love the idea of fishing line which doubles as fuse wire, haha.
Surely the spinach-superman was a big hint as to how the game would progress ;)
You let me air my imagination and my laughing lung-ette, which these days gets little exercise.
You got my 5/5, too.
Didn't like it. Made no sence,anyone would be baffled :-(
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Walkthrough Guide
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Treasure Island Escape Walkthrough
Take the fishing line from the bottom right of your boat. It's the bright red item that looks like a yoyo.
On the left side of the boat is an unopened tin of spinach. Eat it to gain super strength and fish gills.
Swim underwater and pull the anchor up.
Surprisingly, leaving your boat unanchored and unmanned means it drifted away. Swim right, the same way you swam up, before the sharks get you.
Once you're on the island, collect the rock next to the coconut tree, and then open the skeleton's mouth and take a tooth.
Head north and collect the brown leaves on the top left on the screen, between the tree trunk and the red mushrooms.
Go right and take the vine hanging down off the tree. Combine it wit the anchor.
You can remove the rocks on the right to get access to a cave. Start with the top rock.
The cave contains a treasure chest, but you can't unlock it just yet.
Go back to the crocodile swamp, and then north to the plateau with the two exotic birds. there's nothing to do here so head west to the plane.
Pick the pipe up from the background, to the left of the tree. Combine it wit the tooth to make a spade.
Hang your hook / vine combo over a branch below the plane, and pull the end of the rope - the side without the anchor attached - to make a rope you can climb up.
The pilot will sadly not be coming with you. Take his flying goggles, the scope off his gun, and the bullet.
Climb back down the rope and combine the bullet with the fishing line.
Take the bullet / line combo to the treasure chest, found in the cave right of where you collected the vine.
Put the bullet in the lock.
Use the rock on the light brown stalactite. You'll need to do this three times to break it off.
Pick up the piece of stalactite.
Put the goggles under the light ray.
Put the leaves where the light ray deflects to.
Open the chest and take the jack in the box.
Pick up the map and examine it to see the location of the treasure. It will be in front of one of the trees on the plateau, but the location is random.
Close the chest (rather than looking for a 'back' arrow).
Head to the plateau with the birds and use the spade to dig up the treasure.
Take a bottle of rum.
Go back to the swamp and feed the Jack in the Box to the crocodile. Pick up the spring from what's left.
Combine the spring with the sight to make a corkscrew, and open the bottle of rum.
Put the map in the bottle, and seal with with the stalactite piece
Throw the bottle into the sea so that someone will come to rescue you.
Posted by: Ben
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September 5, 2012 1:17 AM