September 2014 Archives

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Carmel Games serves up something short but very sweet and silly in point-and-click adventure game Quest for Milkshake. Made as an homage of sorts to bastion of childhoods and puppets Sesame Street, in this game you'll need to help our green furry friend make a coconut milkshake for his demanding customer... even though the shop is actually out of it. When the cursor changes to show an interactive area, just click to move around or, well, interact! You'll need to hunt down ingredients around town if you want to make your customer happy, but this place is seriously weird to say the least, and you'll need the help of other monsters to make your coconut dreams come true.

Play Quest for Milkshake

As of September 2014, Kraven Manor is no longer free to download and is only available as a purchase from Steam. This review has been updated to reflect that.]

A dark mysterious house on a stormy night... what could possibly go wrong? Originally released as a freeware beta and now available on Steam, Demon Wagon Studios' harrowing indie horror adventure has you stumbling into the cold comfort of Kraven Manor one night. You may be out of the rain, but you've run straight into the dark heart of one man's obsession, and you'll find out that the whole house is against you... unless you can manage to turn it against itself. Move with [WASD], holding left [shift] to sprint, and use the mouse to look around or interact. Hitting [F] toggles your flashlight on and off. The key point to exploring is to find more scale models of rooms hidden throughout the manor and bring them to the entryway. There, you find out that this place has one seriously unique floor plan... you can place and rearrange the places any way you like (as long as they have a valid connecting doorway to the main areas) and doing so literally changes the layout of the house around you, opening the way to new areas and changing pathways so you can reach previously inaccessible places. But keep your eyes peeled as you explore. You're not alone, and something doesn't appreciate you prying into the house's past and its secrets, and the more you know, the harder it's going to try to stop you. If prompted, hit the onscreen keys whenever assaulted, because in addition to light, the antagonistic force in the house is weak against button mashing. The game works on a checkpoint system, so should you meet a gruesome end, you'll just start over again at the last point you passed.

Everyone knows the easiest solution to debt is to throw yourself in the gladiator ring. Every foe you kill is another gold piece in your pocket and your debt will shrink in no time! At least that's the solution in Alchemists' Poor Gladiator, for iOS and Android users alike. The whole point of this free high difficulty game is to defeat the unforgiving debt by finding the right balance between payments and buying another skill point to make yourself closer to be the Conan of the Colosseum. In this mix between a incremental idle and simulation game, your little fighter handles all the physical parts of entertaining the crowd and you're more like his accountant spending money left and right or saving up for when the debt collectors call, which is about every thirty seconds. You can give him orders by tapping and holding your finger on one part of the screen and he'll ignore all the bad guys in order to get to where you are. You can also tell him when to use his special powers, but only after you unlock them with a little bit of gold you earned from the newly deceased fellow fighters.

If you don't think grinding is a dirty word when it comes to RPGs and you love dungeon crawling, Mitsuhiro Okada's completely free, simple, and devilishly addictive Minute Quest for iOS and Android is calling your name. You play a nameless hero sent off by a lazy king to... uh... I'm not sure exactly. Slay a whole bunch of monsters? Doing so involves advancing through screens of enemies as you journey forth from the castle, every enemy increasing in power the further you get. Just tap the left or right side of the screen to move, and move into enemies to attack. Slay enough and you'll level up, earning five points to distribute to your attributes. Die, and, well, you're booted all the way back to the castle (don't worry, you keep all gold, items, and levels) to start again, though you will eventually unlock a means to speed through places you've been before. As you slaughter your way to the right, you can find chests with different monster pets that provide bonuses as well as helping you fight, and you'll discover different shops you can buy new equipment types at as well. Though it looks easy and even too simple, behind its carefree retro charm Minute Quest has a surprising amount of depth and nary an in-app purchase to be found.

To a young man like Cantus, the rest of the world and all the people in it can just seem like... noise. An indistinct roar that's nothing more than static. Of course, he won't shut up about it either, so it's no surprise that everyone is content to let him spend his time alone, listening to waves crash against the shore. Everyone that is but this energetic blue-haired girl that just showed up in front of him, and who seems aggressively interested in piercing all of his carefully constructed jaded cynicism. (Happens to me all the time!) Why does he even care? Maybe it's something in her voice: a voice that sounds like water flowing, with a breeze in the sky. Something like the Voices from the Sea. Voices from the Sea is a visual novel adventure from Zeiva Inc. about a boy, a girl, the ocean, and sea shells. Lots and lots of sea shells.

Content Advisory: This game features a small-minded character who uses several vicious slurs against the LGBTQ community. Discretion is advised.

In The Astronauts' highly anticipated indie horror adventure game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, it's every parent's worst nightmare when, as the title suggests, young Ethan Carter goes missing. Before his disappearance, he'd been sending you letters... you, Paul Prospero, a detective with a reputation for the occult. Nobody believed the things Ethan told them about... not the police, not the priests... but you did. Now you've come to his hometown of Red Creek, which looks like a quiet, obscenely picturesque, yet oddly quiet, town set deep in the forest, but looks can be deceiving. Billed as a "non-linear narrative", The Vanishing of Ethan Carter offers little to no direction when it drops you unceremoniously into the game, and it's entirely up to you to figure out where to go, follow your own clues and leads, and solve puzzles with minimal obvious direction. It's a slow, thoughtful experience with abstract puzzles and a heavy focus on storytelling in a gorgeous, immersive environment, made more for fans of subtle, classic horror than splashy, flashy scares and thrills. Though only a few hours long and lacking in replay value, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is an extraordinarily beautiful and unsettling piece of narrative fiction that uses some knock-out imagery and shocking events to take you along for the ride.

Warning: Parts of this game contain flashing lights that may trigger those sensitive to it.

Did you hear the story about the running physicists? No? Well, let me tell it to you: Once upon a time, two physicists and their robotic assistant went running through a super collider to discover new elements. Sometimes they succeeded; sometimes they failed. The End. What do you mean that wasn't very entertaining? Well, maybe I told it wrong. Ian MacLarty and Jon Kerney do a much better job in their indie jump and run title, Boson X for iOS, Android, and PC, Mac, and Linux. Yes, there's running along moving platforms. Yes, there's jumping back and forth upon said platforms. And, yes there are definitely lots of failures in this seemingly simple task. LOTS. But they're of the kind that will make you say "Dang! Okay, just one more try".

Just because you saved some guy from a cage in the forest doesn't mean you're turning into Robin Hood. Because you're just in it for the loot, right? Well, maybe not. In Rogue Soul 2, the second installment of the jump and run action series by Soul Studio Games, you want treasure and lots of it. But just maybe you'll become a hero along the way. Use the [arrow] keys to move and jump, [Z] to slide, and [X] to throw collected projectiles at your enemies. Your goal is to make it to the end of each level alive. You need fast reflexes to dodge, jump, or attack what's coming, so if you stay too close to the front of the screen, you could be dead before you know what happened. Collect cash, called soulons, and other treasures throughout the levels to purchase upgrades for your character to make survival easier. These include such things as starting with projectiles, better armor, and a chance to dodge enemy attacks. Different goals are listed before each stage. Accomplish these and you'll be awarded stars which can be used to buy skins to change your look. Get all these in the shops from the map screen, where you can also check out the soulbook which has information on your enemies.

Currently in Early Access, The Long Dark, or as I've taken to calling it, The Long Dark: The Wolfening, or The Long Dark: Help, Help, a Wolf is on My Face!, is a challenging first-person apocalyptic survival simulation adventure with roguelike elements from indie developers Hinterland Studios. In it, you play a man or woman whose plane has gone down in the Northern Canadian wilderness in the dead of winter due to a "mysterious geomagnetic storm" that's rendered the whole world still and silent. It's just you against the elements (and the wolves), as you scavenge for everything from food and water to wood and other supplies, constantly battling freezing temperatures (and wolves), dropping caloric reserves (and wolves), and your own fatigue... and wolves. At the moment, The Long Dark offers a mostly complete sandbox mode based around the Mystery Lake locale, with the promise of more to come, as well as an eventual episodic story mode. Your sandbox goal? To survive as long as you can, which is easier said than done since you start with little more than the clothes on your back. You'll need to scrape together wood, find shelter, melt snow for water, search abandoned buildings (and frozen corpses) for supplies, and cross your fingers that you find a hunting rifle because even if you have a knife, those deer carcasses aren't going to be around forever.

In Eipix Entertainment's flashy and classy hidden-object adventure Danse Macabre: Moulin Rouge, you've been summoned to solve the murder of a young woman at the legendary concert hall, and though the police think they have their killer, we wouldn't have much of a game if hat were the case. (Shortest game in history. "Oh, our mistake, madame, please go back home and enjoy some pastries." Credits roll.) As you probe deeper, you soon discover there's something seriously weird happening on the streets of Paris, and Sophie, the poor girl who was murdered, is just the tip of the iceberg. Luckily, you've got your forensic kit at your disposal, and despite the sneering of the local police, you're sure this "new science" will reveal the killer. With your own private coach, you'll travel around the city as you put together connections revealing suspect after suspect and discovering their motives, solving puzzles, hidden-object sequences... and maybe even polishing up your bartending skills a little.

It seems like, for once, the zombie apocalypse has caught you at a decent time. You're way out in the woods, far from obnoxious crowds and all the chaos of a major city. Out here it's a pleasant vacation - nothing but you, a bunch of weapons, and a car you have to fix. Oh, and dozens upon dozens of bloodthirsty, brain-chomping zombies scratching at your barricade. Still Alive can't go too easy on you, now can it? It all boils down to a shooting game with some time management thrown on top. Aim with the mouse to use a variety of weapons to turn each shambling corpse into a regular corpse. When the horde has died down, you have to allocate your remaining stamina into either searching for weapons, practicing to increase your shooting skill, fixing the barricade or repairing your car. If you can get that car fixed up you're home free. It's not going to happen overnight, however...

Either you love tower defense games or you don't, but if you do, there's a good chance you love IriySoft's ferociously addictive hit Cursed Treasure and its sequel. For a while, your productivity was safe as long as you were away from your computer, but now that Cursed Treasure 2 has hit iOS, well, hey, it's not like you needed that job or those social obligations, right? The premise is still the same as you place and upgrade towers full of demons, orcs, and the undead to hold off the heroes (that's right, you're the bad guy) who are trying to come and cart away all of your precious gems. As towers slay foes, they become eligible for upgrades, which increases their power, but also allows you to choose certain upgrade paths for them that will give them new abilities, such as turning an undead tower into a crypt that terrifies or slows enemies. You're awarded experience based on how well you did, which earns you skill points to upgrade towers, passive bonuses, and spells, and if you can make it through a level without an enemy even touching a single gem, you'll earn a three star rating. Eventually you'll unlock Night Mode for all levels, which, well, is what it sounds, allowing you to play the game at nighttime with the restriction of only being able to place towers within the range of light sources.

When evil space pirates kidnap your brothers, it's always wise to go look for a hero. Getting one from another world is a major bonus, unless he's as apathetic as all get out. In Mr. Splibox, a platform puzzle game by Eyesteam, you play as this unmoved hero, who can't even be bothered to jump. That may raise some issues in a platform game, except the spliboxes have granted you the ability to spawn them underneath you at will, giving you the boost you need. Use them like a stepstool, or an improvised pole vault, or as flat out bait for the bad guys. Seriously these spliboxes will do anything for you, including falling onto spikes and letting themselves be launched across the screen. They don't care, they always seem to come back to you no matter how they 'pop'. They'll help you do anything as long as you get their captive brothers back to them or make your way through this wacky world to the teleporter.

Those of us who spend all day playing browser games are no strangers to the art of laziness, but the little pajama-clad infiltrator in Sean James McKenzie's Lazy Thief is a true master of the craft. He's driven enough to sneak all the way into each of the 50 levels, hauling a bag of rocks, bouncy balls, and ninja stars the whole way, but he can't be bothered to scamper up the blocks to grab the precious gems. That's where the physics puzzles come in. Click to lob your various projectiles at the diamonds to knock them onto the color-coded platforms nearby. Some blocks will crumble on contact with a projectile, some will require some fine-tuned bouncing with a bouncy ball to strike at the correct angle, and sometimes there's a string you have to cut with a ninja star. Watch out for the diamond-destroying lava squares. If you can get the gems onto the correct platforms they'll magically teleport into your possession. Thievery has never been so lazy!

As warm and inviting as the perfect summer day, Rub's short, free indie adventure game Lisa, made in just two months, is the perfect combination of awwww and hmmmm. The only description it gives you is that it's about a dog and a girl, but I'd more accurately call it "adorable, whimsical afternoon simulator". You control both a peppy blue pup and (eventually) a young girl as you explore and solve simple puzzles around the lazy countryside surrounding your tiny farm. The dog follows your cursor when you click, while right-clicking makes it bark (hold to release a bigger, mightier woof!), and the girl moves with [WASD], with [E] to whistle and call the dog to her, and [spacebar] to pick up and throw certain objects. All of this is relayed via signs and images, as Lisa is a game entirely without words, leaving you to intuit what characters want, and you'll need to explore everywhere. It's the type of game that may only take you ten or fifteen minutes, but is so cozy and sweet you'll wish it was much, much longer.

See those cute, adorable graphics? Try opening up the game and listen to that darling, innocent background music. Isn't it all so charming? Well, don't be fooled! That dastardly, darling, little fish will win over your heart with her cozy stitching and and her muted orange color, but look at that blank stare. This isn't just a happy-go-lucky little game. No, this is a game to test your physics skills with no mercy. A heartless, cold, unforgiving test. Or perhaps it really is just a charming game with actual tricky puzzles to figure out, with a few levels that just really kicked my tail fin.... Tricky Fish, where the goal is to help this supposedly sweet little fish jump out of the water to collect all the pearls (and stars) it can, while avoiding spikes and those infamous saw blades. But Tricky Fish has some aces up her fins, and with the help of springs, bubbles, and you, she can gather all the pearls she needs for whatever reason her fishy little heart desires.

Love is in the air and it's shaped like gigantic, fuzzy, eyeballs. Yes, the cute furry couple need to be united once again in ALMA Games', Blob's Story 2. Even if you haven't played the first Blob's Story (that can be solved with an easy click) you should know you're in for a delightful treat when ALMA Games comes into the mix, as they have given us the wonderful Monsterland: Junior VS Senior and Cat Around The World series. Blob's Story 2 continues on with the endearing simplistic puzzles of the cut-the-rope style physics. Slice the ropes that bind the eyeballs (and other miscellaneous items) to collect the beautiful flowers, avoid the rogue saw blades (there should really be a law about leaving those laying around), and cuddle those two eyeballs together to listen to their warm purrs of joy as you complete the round. It's so sweet and so darling and full of small details, like how once the lovers lock eyes they don't look away till they are together, who could pass it up?

I had an introduction for you, folks. It was right here, no joking. So let this be a lesson for you, which I very recently learned through my freewheeling cavalier oh-I'll-just-real-quick-step-away-for-a-phone-call—backing up your creative endeavors, no matter how small or large, is a good habit to be in. Anyways, the intro? It went something along the lines of "embrace new things, treasure old things," and all that sort of muck muck, closed with a witty (very profound and very insightful) platitude about taking the opportunities life gives you. I really have to tell you, it was some of my best work. You would've loved it. Anyhow, here are three new (and not-so-new) escape games for your Weekday Escape enjoyment...

Even wizards have bills to pay. What, you think that security deposit for cleaning ground eye of newt out of the carpets is a joke? In Tasty Stewdios' colourful and chaotic indie dungeon-crawling action-packed platforming shooter Magic Maker, your destiny could have been literally anything, but the Wizarding Temp Agency insists you're meant to be a security guard. What's that, you say? Not fun? Not interesting? Not challenging? Oh, my sweet little poppet, how wrong you are. Because in the world of Magic Maker, there's a whole lot of danger, and in addition to being light on your feet to dodge enemies and attacks, you also need to craft your spells and equipment from the ground up. Take a low grade electric crafting component, for example, and attach it to your wand so it'll arc from one enemy to another, or slap it on ye olde magic robe and you'll build up an electric charge as you walk that deflects harmful projectiles. Not enough? Find some rock alchemical ingredients and apply it to your wand along with a fire crystal, and sudden you have fireballs that can pass through walls. Or sprinkle a little explosive powder in your ice spell, compound it with quicksilver, and you'll have a rock of ice that travels at breakneck speeds and explodes on contact. With over two million combinations of spells and effects to uncover, you'll need to be crafty and clever to create an arsenal that'll get you past any challenge in the randomly generated dungeons. Stir in a sense of humour and a vibrant, eye-catching style, and you have a brew guaranteed to satisfy even the most sour-faced potions master.

If you've ever seen a luchador movie before, you'll know that luchadores are made of pretty tough stuff. When they're not wowing fans in the arena, they fight off mummies, zombies, and vampire women with nary a thought! But even they are only human, and in killabunnies' El Papel, the mighty luchador El Macho finds himself humbled by the most embarrassing of necessities: A potty break. Specifically, his rival Diablazo has stolen his toilet paper. Nooooooo! Luckily, El Macho is a master of the legendary "Quetzalcoatl" technique: Using only the [WASD] or [arrow] keys, he can stretch his muscular neck out just like a rubber band! He'll quite literally go to ridiculous lengths in search of el papel in this puzzle game, as he snakes his head through the cactus-and-piñata-infested ceiling above his wrestling arena. The only limitation of the Quetzalcoatl technique? He can't cross his neck over itself, so he'll have to be very careful about which parts of the ceiling he coils himself through... El Macho isn't the first game protagonist to be stuck in a situation that can only be solved with Hamiltonian paths, but he's certainly one of the weirdest and most vibrant! Collect colored bats to bash open the matching gates, and pick up stars and tacos for bonuses. The catch is that while you can retract your neck, it means you'll drop most items you picked up in the space you're backtracking from, so you'll need to plan a path that catches everything in one long line.

In Freeway Fury 2 and the original, you controlled a man who beat up people and aliens and drove cars very fast. In Freeway Fury 3, the latest in the arcade driving series from Serius Games, though, we dive in to the serious and complex motivations behind our protagonist. His hidden angst, his secret dreams and aspirations. Spoiler: Turns out he wants to beat people and aliens up and drive cars very fast. In addition speedboats, jets, and laser-spacecars. Okay, maybe complex is an exaggerated description of Freeway Fury-Dude's psyche. But as you're leaping from limo to semi to motorcycle to school bus, trying to stay one step in front of the law, you won't mind that Freeway Fury 3 keeps it simple.

Cute as a button, and now with kid-friendly explosives, Gaz Thomas's Red Remover games are back with the latest installment in the popular physics puzzle series, Red Remover Blast. Your goal is to figure out how to get all the scowling red shapes off the screen (don't worry, they want it) without knocking any green ones off, and this time, you've got some dynamite on your side! Just click to release explosions anywhere you want, as often as you want, but be careful. Though it starts off easy, soon you'll have to be a bit more thoughtful about where and how you drop the boom. When you're done, make your own levels with the level editor!

Play Red Remover Blast

Red Remover Blast (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

The world is black and white, as basic as that. All you see is a black directional arrow on a white background. With a point-and-click you try to get a bearing on your surroundings... but there's naught else to see. Are you too focused on that one scene in front of you to make sense of what you're meant to do next? Well, there is more here than first meets the eye. Of course there is. If there's nothing else you can expect from a Robamimi escape game, it's that you can expect surprises. So play around a bit more, "make full use of the mouse," and as you do, more ways to explore will open up to you. That is what One Scene 7 is all about. Solve the sneakily simple puzzles in order to find, and open, the door to escape. Then do it again to have both endings, because life is really more colorful than you know.

Michael Shirt's free platform shooter Tess is one of those weird little indie games that always makes you feel just a little out of it when you play... but largely in a good way. You control the titular Tess, a sad little girl who apparently didn't have a very good day yesterday, though nobody will really come right out and say why. A letter from her friend Milly asks her to come to a certain spot, promising her that it'll be worth her while. Sounds fairly simple, right? But there's something decidedly off about this whole thing, from the distorted yet still musical soundtrack to the masks everyone seems to be wearing. Use the [arrow] keys to move, [Z] to jump, and [X] to shoot, while [spacebar] will let you interact with things. Tess' health is in the upper-left corner, and can be replenished with the hearts enemies sometimes drop, or by using the big S-shaped save points. When you destroy an enemy, they'll drop a glowing white spot, and if you gather enough of them, you'll gain an extra heart.

A land full of light has been plunged into darkness. The Sun Gem has been broken in two. "Perhaps these hopes were misplaced," laments the narration. So begins Soluna, a platform game with a retro aesthetic that oozes artistic mastery. The creators at Diestware prove they know how to set a mood in this minimalist narrative, using simple controls and a simple color palette to tell a story that sneaks into your head and stays there. You play an unnamed warrior who must reunite the pieces of the Sun Gem and bring light back to your darkened home. Use the [arrow] keys to move, jump and cling to ledges, and use the [S] key to attack the foes you find along the way. You'll also encounter friends holding spears that you can speak to with [A] who give you hints and nods at a greater mythology of the Soluna universe. All of this adds up to an engrossing browser experience.

The ants went marching one by one, two by two, three by three, and frankly, in all the numerical configurations you can think of. The war against the giants from the sky was hard fought, with grievous damage done to both sides. Queen Antoinette lead the way in producing the uneasy armistice that now governed relations between the two people. Today, the ambassador from the sky kingdom is arriving, and if they make a good enough impression, peace could last for generations. You are that Antbassador. Or rather your finger is, and man, doesn't it just look dapper in that top hat? Antbassador is a QWOP-styled physics platform game by Kevin Zuhn and his team that has been declared the winner of the Ludum Dare 30 72 hour "Connected Worlds" game jam, and it has more than its fair share of ant-tics to show.

Kamotokamotokamo's escape game Strange Little Searching may look simple, but it's simple in a way that makes you go, "Oh. Oh. Oooooh. I see what you did there. Clever girl." You're trapped in a room that appears to be mostly featureless apart from a bit of furniture and some boxes propped up on tables, and unlike many escape games you may notice that this one doesn't appear to have a door, which is typically essential to the whole "escaping" part of the formula. The cursor will change when you can interact with something, but you'll still want to search everywhere since some items or viewpoints are very well hidden. Click an item in your inventory to highlight it, and you'll be ready to try to use it wherever you want. Though the room may appear mostly empty, a little bit of experimentation will reveal some pretty big secrets...

I'm late, I'm late for a very important game! It's time for more Funkyland with their latest Alice in Wonderland themed escape game Alice House: No 4. Mushroom and Blue Caterpillar. Which is... very green, despite the title. Huh. Regardless, you're trapped once more, and this time you're looking for five caterpillars... or, well, five caterpillar objects. The cursor doesn't change, so it's up to you to search everywhere and figure out what you can interact with, but you'll need a keen eye as well to spot clues to solve puzzles. If you find an item, you can click it in your inventory to highlight it, which will tag it for use so you can try to, um, well, use it. Sometimes the caterpillars will be in plain sight, but others will be more cunningly hidden behind locks. At least one item you'll need to find may fade into the background a little, so keep your eyes peeled and get hunting.

Please note that this game deals with suicide. Players who are sensitive to the subject matter should be aware.

Tap it Games and Artifex Mundi's hidden-object adventure 9 Clues: The Ward begins with a frantic phone call that brings you, a private investigator, and your partner, a guy who always looks like he suspected you farted and is disappointed in you for it, to remote, self-sufficient Mnemosyne Asylum. Only when you arrive, the director insists nobody has called for help... a statement that seems a little dubious when a body goes hurtling out a window right behind her mere moments later. The victim is Doctor Crow, a therapist, and notes on his body point to a slipping grasp on reality, as well as rambling indications of some vague sense of guilt. It quickly becomes apparently this old asylum has its share of skeletons in its closet, but the more you investigate, the more you begin to suffer strange... lapses. What's going on in Mnemosyne Asylum? What secrets are its staff and patients hiding? Who seriously hangs paintings like that on their walls?

Adorable anthropomorphized candles in danger from evil shadow creatures? It sort of sounds like something you'd expect from Pixar, doesn't it? But the demo for Candlelight, the upcoming platform adventure by Pixel Maverick Games, is all indie. You play the lone surviving candle in a world that's literally going dark as ominous shadows have been snuffing out all the other candles and light sources one by one. This is no time to stand around quivering in your wax, however, as it's up to you to find and relight the candles strewn around the windswept world. Use the [arrow] keys to move, hold [A] to run, use [S] to roll things, and tap the [spacebar] to jump and double-jump. At the top of the screen is your wax meter, which slowly depletes, so you'll need to find and collect wax droplets to keep it fill and your candle alive. Avoid water and gusts of wind, naturally, since it'll tack a big whack out of your wax meter, and if your wax runs out, you'll be booted back to the last camp you activated.

You see a handful of cards haphazardly strewn across the table, with vague descriptions around the edges. You're either looking at amateur night at the tarot house, or Pokergrams, a card-based logic puzzle by Ronald Stewart. Your goal is to place all of the extra cards into the grid so that each row and column form poker hands whose best possible ranking is described at the left and bottom of the grid. There are lots of ways to shuffle the cards around, but there's only one solution that matches all of the criteria!

Matchstick Memories is a curious text adventure-esque game by CH Buckingham where you gather fragments of memories while wandering around a strange and forgotten land. However, instead of typing "N" to go north, you've got to reassemble the proper fragments to perform actions in your search for elusive matches and matchboxes. The combination of an intriguing (if ambiguous) story and samegame and other puzzle elements makes for some surprisingly compelling and tactile gameplay.

Snakes are such fascinating creatures. They smell with their tongues! Their ears are internal! And, as any Nokia owner could tell you, as soon as they eat something, they instantly gain another segment of an ever lengthening body. Okay, that last one may only apply to virtual conductive snakes, the kind that stars in Coil, the tiny puzzle platformer that's the latest in Nitrome's initially-icon-sized-but-enlargeable series of games. And, like Flue, Turnament, Ice Beak, and J-J-Jump before it, Coil is sure to have you wrapped around its little finger. You know. If virtual conductive snakes had fingers. And good thing they don't, because we probably wouldn't have the pixels for 'em here. Coil takes the concept rules of Snake and gives them an electric side-scrolling twist. Move your snake wire with the [WASD] or [arrow] keys, attempting to get to each level's goal.

There are a lot of "educational games" on the iTunes App Store aimed at kids, and the lion's share of them make the mistake of assuming kids are simple. I don't even like kids and I'll tell you kids are only simple if you don't challenge them, because they will rise to their occasion, even if they make weird annoying sounds and their hands are all sticky. So it gives me great pleasure to say that Bossa Studios' iOS puzzle platformer Twelve a Dozen, which bills itself as designed "to support the curriculum of 10-14 year olds", is not just a good educational game for kids... it's a good game for just about anybody. And it's about math, and I'm supposed to hate math! Twelve a Dozen stars, appropriately enough, Twelve, a number who lives in the city of Dozenopolis up until it's destroyed by a bizarre calamity that leaves numbers and strange machines and debris strewn everywhere. Together with Dot, a sentient decimal point who will be Twelve's guide and narration, Twelve sets off to uncover the source of destruction and set things right. With beautiful, fluid visuals, just the right amount of whimsy, and clever math-based platforming puzzles that introduce new elements and challenges the farther you go, Twelve a Dozen isn't just an unexpected gem for all ages... it's an absolute diamond.

It's one thing to find yourself locked in a pleasant little tea room or bakery shop, with cookies and coffee on hand and a refreshing breeze wafting through the window. It's another to suddenly awaken in the depths of an ancient temple, your mind muddled by time, the stench of decay thick in the air. The only clues to your identity are a series of hastily-scrawled notes strewn about your cell; your only chance of escape is through an impenetrable stone door. Welcome to the world of Psionic Games, masters of the horror-themed point-and-click game. Escape Eternity is their latest escape game for browsers and Android devices, but this time, there's a three-dimensional twist: Your murky, claustrophobic tomb is rendered in glorious 3D in Unity. You'll still navigate using your mouse, clicking on objects and arrows to move around the room. The orange, "i"-shaped button in the upper right corner holds your inventory, where you can click on items to either use them or examine them. Peer deep into every nook and cranny of your grim surroundings, even when hideous things hide within, and keep a close watch for even the tiniest scrap of paper. Someone might have wanted to trap you here, but someone else seems to want you to run free...

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Deqaf Studios' short horror platformer Little Phobia may seem cute at first when a little boy awakens in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but things take a turn for the freaky when he finds his hallway overtaken by all manner of things that go bump (and bite, and grab, and boo) in the night. Use [WAD] or the left, right, and up [arrow] keys to move and jump, with [E] to interact. Other keys will be revealed to you when you need them, but you'll need to think and move fast in order to run and jump safely from the creatures in the dark, knowing when to cower, close your eyes, or make stacks of furniture.

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Rose Key's Scales Escape may not have a lot of weight (hurr hurr), but you'll still need to use your brain if you want to escape. Hidden around the room you're trapped in you'll not only find items to use, but clues and ciphers for puzzles as well. The cursor will change when you can interact, so all you have to do to play is click to look around, and remember to view any items you pick up with the "about item" function, since it can not only tell you what an item is (helpful) but perhaps even reveal secrets or more clues when you interact with it (helpful-er).

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So much about life is uncertain, each day so new and full of possibilities, it's impossible to imagine what could be next. If you're the anxious sort of individual, you might be a little rattled by how little time is actually under our control. But not today, my friend. Today you have Weekday Escape; here you are the master of your domain—the room in which you are captive. And the three free escape games we have for you this week are as comforting in their predictability while still being just fresh enough and creative enough to whisk you away from all your other worries. If you have a few minutes to spare, then indulge in the sweet goodness awaiting in FunkyLand's fruit kitchen, pause for halftime in Hottategoya's strange locker room, then finish by puzzling over Yomino Kagura's three pictures...

Gemini Strike is one of those games you sort of feel missed its calling in an arcade cabinet, because everything about this gorgeous free-to-play iOS sci-fi shooter from Armor Games brings back fond memories of my days spent losing the entirety of my allowance (and begging for more) to the machines in the convenience store and the laundromat. In it, you pilot a ship against a fleet of dandy space robots. And I don't mean that they're awesome, although they sort of are apart from the whole "genocide" thing, I mean that they're literally dandies, or at least lead by them, with waistcoats, roses, and bad poetry. Your job is to survive each level, taking down as many of the enemy's ships (and any huge bosses!) in the process, and controlling couldn't be simpler. Hold your finger on the screen, and your ship will fire automatically and follow your digit where'er it doth go. Double-tap to unleash any power-ups, and nab blue credits when you see them to spend on unlocking cargo containers of new equipment for your ship... though some cargo containers can only be unlocked with credits. You get one credit per day, and one credit for clearing a sector, as well as any more you pick up for completing successful bonus missions. If you fail a mission by, y'know, exploding, you can either spend a credit to keep playing, or choose to retreat and lose a heart, of which you have four that replenish at one per every fifteen minutes.

When you hear about a wizard leaving behind some vague "secret" in an ancient dungeon filled with giant spiders and zombies, do you go after it? When you find a recipe for an undefined "elixir", do you set out to find a stranger to mix it for you so you can quaff it down? If so, then congratulations, you're the protagonist in Fire Victory Games' action RPG Vilesteel. To play, just click to move around, and click on enemies to attack. Click and hold on them to keep attacking, hold [shift] to attack without moving, and either click the icons at the bottom of the screen to use your special abilities, or hit the corresponding hotkeys. You'll gain points in your attributes like vigor and so on as you fight depending on how you play, and when you level up, you'll gain even more points (automatically distributed), with the option to choose an extra ability every four levels. As you slay enemies and loot chests, you'll find randomly distributed treasure and equipment of varying rarities. Equipment can be upgraded from certain NPCs for a fee as long as you have the potions to do so. The story? Well, uh... you're a powerful hero, and you travel from place to place kicking evil's butt, Minsc-and-Boo-style, and that's about it. If you're looking for depth and strategy, Vilesteel ain't it, but if you want hack-and-slash style dungeoncrawling distilled down to a fine soup, you might find it a light and tasty lunch indeed.

One... get a hold of a box. Two... put a cat in that box. Three... don't ever open that box, because you never know if it might be dead. Created for Ludum Dare 30 themed around "Connected Worlds in just 72 hours, point-and-click puzzle game Schrödinghost, by looPing and Valmont de Ragondas with graphics by Carduus, stars you as Maru, Schrödinger's long-suffering cat, who is really sick of all these experiments. Maru wants to seek revenge on his master, but that's a problem since he's stuck in a box, and if Schrödinger sees him moving around, he's dead. Your job, then, is to click to move Maru around whenever Schrödinger isn't looking, avoiding the sphere of light around Schrödinger that denotes his field of vision and make it to the opposite side of the screen. (Don't worry, if you mess up, you just restart the stage.) Being sneaky will only get you so far, however, so by clicking on Maru, you can release his spirit as a ghost which allows you to manipulate switches and travel through electrical sockets while Schrödinger is none the wiser.

Got a significant other who snores? How about a parent, or a little brother? Now imagine if that person was an elephant. Yikes. I think the neighbors might start calling in about disturbances of the peace at that point. It's no wonder, then, that the jungle denizens of Alma Games' Snoring Before Time are eager to do something, anything, to wake the local elephant from his nap and make the jungle quiet again. This adorable, animal-themed puzzle game has a similar premise to the Wake up the Box series of games, but instead of drawing shapes, you'll be interacting with the local fauna and making use of all their animal superpowers; just click on them to make them do their thing! With the help of yaks that roll, zebras that jump, bouncy owls, and many more, knock over Mr. Elephant and give a rude awakening! And yes, we did just say "bouncy owls." It's "push or be pushed" in the heart of the cartoon jungle, and what gives Snoring Before Time its appeal is the ways in which every animal reacts differently to being clicked, shoved, or otherwise activated.

You are the sole operator assigned to a spaceship carrying out a mission as part of the New Earth Federation Connected Worlds Project. You are assigned to search for viable dead planets and revitalize them for future Federation colonization operations. Unfortunately, you've forgotten a lot from your instruction manuals. But you have a whole spaceship filled with science stuff to play with, so hey, you might as well give it a shot! On the Edge of Earth: 5000 is a sci-fi adventure game by Roope Tamminen of Lakeview Cabin fame. It was originally developed for the Ludum Dare 48 game jam under the theme of "Connected Worlds". Use the [arrow] keys to move around the ship, with the down [arrow] used to interact with its machinery. You can also hold down while moving to run, speeding up the process. Figure out how all these machines work together, and you just may make NEF proud after all!

In Tachi's funky free indie RPG adventure Hero and Daughter, translated by vgperson, Ralph may be an all-powerful hero, but he's also pretty smartmouthed and big-headed, which is why he winds up being busted all the way back down to level one as punishment when he decides defeating the dark lord would be beneath him. Now he's got to grind his way back up to proper legendary status to take the Big Bad down if he ever wants to be restored to his former glory, but how's a punk like him supposed to do that when he can't even handle a lowly slime... especially when he discovers can't actually level up? Well, it so happens that a kindly Summoner takes pity on Ralph and decides to help out... by summoning pretty girls. Pretty girls who are a lot more powerful and pack a bigger punch than Ralph himself. By finding other Summoning Stones, you can unlock new ladies to add to your party, each of whom not only has her own unique abilities, but her own story and personality as well. Packed with replay content and getting updated all the time with even more, Hero and Daughter is a strange but unique and addictive dungeon crawler worth checking out... with a few caveats about some troubling scenes and themes.

It's sort of pointless to go through the efforts of getting your clothes spiffy and fresh-smelling if you don't have anywhere to go once you've cleaned up. Why not treat yourself to a day of sophistication and refinement, enriching your senses as well as your cultural aptitude? Spend an afternoon browsing an art museum. This is exactly the plan for the day in Aries Escape: Episode No.14—except as this is an escape game, the day takes a turn when you're trapped inside a strange exhibit. Here, a new type of medium is on display: the puzzle as art. It's all quite interesting but...where is the door? If you're ever going to leave these two rooms, rather than turning into a new mummified display, Pas de Fuite, you need to look beyond the surface and hone your art interpretation skills. Following the arrows to navigate, and pointing-and-clicking on active zones, explore everything around you, keeping eyes peeled for hints and items to guide your way. Both the clean, clear design and changing cursor aid your progress, while a "save" button will let you discover both endings without having to play through twice.

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Short and sweet with just the right amount of challenge, Tototo Room's Button Escape 24 is as strange an escape game as you could wish for without getting Detarou involved. To get out, not only will you need to crack some codes and solve some puzzles (all without an inventory!) but you'll need to find and click eleven gray buttons as well. The cursor doesn't change to show what you can interact with, but as long as you keep your eyes open and your brain working, you'll be out in no time... right?

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After ERS Game Studios' hidden-object adventure series Maestro: Music from the Void and Maestro: Music of Death, you'd think your taste for musical prodigies might have soured a bit, what with all the unspeakable evil and demonic pacts they seem to attract and leave you to clean up. In Maestro: Dark Talent, a performance by "Diva", a singer who literally came out of nowhere, turns freaky when your friend, Kate, and the rest of the theater patrons are sucked inside by the dark forces du jour, where they'll have their life force drained unless you can stop them. At least, according to some dandy in an alleyway who calls himself a "Knowing One", which sounds smug and insufferable until you realize there's a good reason he's not called the "Actually Effective One", and soon it's up to you to stop Diva and the dark forces and wannabe Dementors behind her.

What do you do with an action game sequel? What do you do with an adventure game sequel? What do you do with a pirate game sequel, ear-ly in the morning? Well... if it's Labu Games' Pirateers 2, the sequel to the original Pirateers from 2012, well, then I'd suggest playing it, no matter what the time of day it is. It takes place in a time long ago when merchant adventurers roamed the seas, and a parrot on the shoulder was still considered a swank accessory. It is a time of legends, no more famouse than that of The Artifact, a treasure so valuable that anyone who possesses it could remake the entire world. You are only starting out on your pirating career, but thoughts of The Artifact drives you forward. Be smart, be strong, and be quick, and the seas and all its bounty will be yours for the taking.

The problem with kids these days is they just don't get it. They think the fun is all about jumping around, making noise, playing games...being sociable for goodness sakes. As if. Napping is where it's at. But don't try telling Junior and Jenny that—not only do they feel like bouncing about and giggling, they want sleepy dad to join in. All tired, overworked parents out there can sympathize; no wonder it's called Monster-land. That's Monsterland 4: One More Junior to be more exact: a continuation of Alma Games' physics puzzle series bringing 36 more nap-busting levels, made just right for a relaxing break without the Zzzs. Just point-and-click to pop blocks in the right sequence to move Junior (who jumps on dad to wake him) and Jenny (whose special moves break dad's kid-proof helmet) through the increasingly complicated obstacle courses and onto dozing dad. Sometimes this is a straight-forward drop or slide, other times you'll need to make use of buttons, treadmills, trampolines, teleports and more. All while avoiding saw blades and long falls, such things that are hazardous to kids' health.

Gelato Games' sword-swinging platformer Goblin Sword is one of those iOS titles that earns the term "retro" both in look and gameplay. If you had shown it to my ten year old self back in the nineties I would have believed it right at home on the SNES, and then I would have told you to leave me alone and let me get back to Chrono Trigger because ten year old me was a brat who was an insufferable RPG snob. The premise with Goblin Sword is pretty basic, in that you play a hero out to stop ye olde ancient evil-e, which requires leaping and slashing your way through levels filled with minions, traps, angry wild life, and pots to smash. There are only four buttons... the left and right arrow keys, and one to slash, and one to jump and double-jump. Stab enemies and collect gems and coins to buy better equipment, and don't let your hearts run out or you'll need to start the entire level over. Don't worry, most stages are short... unless you want to find all the chests, coins, and crystals. Pile on a bunch of bosses, power-ups, and secret areas, and Goblin Sword is a vibrant love poem to days gone by with bite-sized levels that are perfect for on the go.

Deep in the heart of the labyrinth, something waits. One by one, the men and women of the elven militia have gone in, and all of them have failed to return. You are all that's left of their once-proud army. But you have a mighty sword and indominable will to survive... Oh, and mastery over arcane magics. That helps too. Elventales: The Arcanery, from Elven Games, puts you in the greaves of this lone adventurer as you plumb the depths of the savage dungeon that has already taken so many lives. Which will probably include yours. Several times. This action RPG has a hefty amount of roguelike in its ancestry, which means the challenge level gets fairly high. But if you have no patience for the stat-building and micromanaging of most roguelikes, don't worry... Elventales is a simplified and streamlined experience that removes turn-based battles and cuts you free from the grid for a more open and active experience. You can walk anywhere you like with [WASD] or the [arrow] keys, interact with anything nearby with [E], and attack anything in front of you with [R] or a left mouse click! You can spend the currency monsters drop on unlocking new spells, which you can then bind to the number keys. It's more accessible to be sure, but it's still got plenty of teeth!

For coy playfulness and understated charm, Yonashi's escape games are like little treasures found in the window of a whimsical shop in some quaint seaside town you visit on vacation. They're colorful toys that wordlessly catch your attention from afar and draw you in, leaving you to ponder over little details that seem incongruous with the rest of the parts, pieces of inventory that make no sense, until they do. Mori Room serves as a quintessential example of these Yonashi traits, with a few quirks thrown in. You start with the basic locked-up-in-a-room setup—point and click to navigate and examine all this setting has to offer. Its subtitle, "Chameleon, etc." has it about right, too; a uniquely talented chameleon and an assortment of other fine friends, both animal and inanimate, will guide you through puzzles until you reach your ultimate destination: a fantastical escape.

Danilo Studio's Climbo is a joy to play. It's a charming platform game that plays fast and loose with gravity. Your little bug/alien thing can walk up walls and make the whole universe rotate around him. Use the [WASD] or [arrow] keys to meander about, jumping over spikes and pits, collecting little light balls to boost your score. The game adds boxes that slide hither and thither as the course rotates around them so you'll have to be mindful of getting crushed. This might be little solace to our Climbo monster, but his death animation is just adorable. Positive attitude and all that.

The Wheel of Time turns, and days come and pass, and before you know it, it's Wednesday again and time for Weekday Escape. It's been a while since you escape game aficionados and I had a chat, so I knocked Elle over the head with a sock full of pennies and left her tied up in a room with a goldfish, a screwdriver, a ticket stub, some coloured plates, Gumby fanfiction, and the jumbled sonnets of a 14th century unknown poet. None of those will actually get her out in any combination, but she doesn't know that, so I've bought you and I a few hours together at least. So what's new? How do you like the new Doctor? Is that a new shirt? Do you want to look at my pony collection? What should we order on our pizza?... man, you don't even care, do you? You just want the games. No, no. It's fine. It's not like I count the minutes until we're together again. Have some Gotmail, Yomino Kagura, and some Choko Chai. Good thing game reviewers don't have feelings or anything.

In the desert land of Ecta, tongues are parched and cities are wasting away for the want of water. Only one man controls the water... er, well, one walrus... and that selfish jerk, Walrus King (his self proclaimed title of "king" is debatable) is refusing to give any out! The true Queen of the land sent out her loyal engineer, Dame Celeste, to try and talk some sense into the Walrus King. Short story even shorter, it doesn't work and the ton of blubber falls in love with you, and throws you in the dungeon as soon as you refuse his attempt to woo you. Of course, he forgets you're an engineer and you have maps to his entire mansion. After that the name of the game is stealth. In Adjective Animal Studios' Dame Celeste you get five in-depth levels of sneakiness. Dress up in disguises, dodge the vision of the guards, and hide inside bushes and suits of armor alike in this highly difficult game.

I'm conflicted. On the one hand, TomaTea's Room 39 is as lovely and challenging an escape game as you'd expect, but on the other hand, its soundtrack makes me feel like I should be 85 and back somewhere in the "old country" in the middle of a snowfall wearing my grandmother's babushka. Which couldn't be further from the actuality, since the room our beloved yet fiendish developer has locked us up in this time is all buttery yellows and flowery decor, complete with what I choose to believe are memorial Hatoful Boyfriend statuettes. To find your way out, you will of course need to solve puzzles, and as per TomaTea's usual, the game will inform you whether you've encountered the clue you need to solve them by telling you that you have no idea how to solve it. The tip of the cursor will glow slightly if you're hovering over an interactive area, and items in your inventory will pop up a small "i" icon when you mouse over them, allowing you to view them close up with a click.

Plexus puzzles always look less like jigsaws and more like someone's photo album was attacked by a wild herd of ravenous scissors, but hey... that's sort of how we like it. Like the others, Fun to Boot features a scene where the pieces are jumbled up and sliced up at odd angles, so putting it together isn't as easy as picking out all the edge and corner pieces. Instead, you click to drag pieces around, and click the edges of each one to rotate them, or click a piece and use [WASD] and the [arrow] keys to rotate instead. When you have two pieces that fit together properly aligned, they'll lock together automatically. It's all about lining up the edges, like a normal jigsaw, only the edges here aren't neat and orderly and are instead all wibbly-wobbly. If you're not going to play all in one sitting, remember to hit "save" in the upper right corner, and the mute button is in the lower left for those of you who prefer your puzzle solving a bit less plinky-plonky.

If video games have taught us anything in life, it's that no matter what sort of problem you're having, be it kidnapped princesses, disease, or vandalism, call a plumber. The hazmat-suited hero of Respire Games' Locom may not have a monogrammed hat or sweet dinosaur pal, but he and his trusty pressurized water tank can still navigate a booby-trap-filled sewer with the best of the world's plumbing superstars. Only he's not quite as athletic as Messrs. Mario & Mario, so instead of hopping and bounding like other platform game heroes, he lets his hose do the walking. Just aim his water nozzle with the mouse cursor, and click to fire a powerful stream that will send him soaring in the opposite direction. On the surface, that's all there is to it. But to those who knows the hose, our portly protagonist can run, jump, shoot, push, hover, and even fly, all with a single click! Just keep an eye on how much water he has left in his tank... It's a unique, simplistic control scheme that's both intuitive and tricky, and it makes for a mighty fine platforming challenge.

With the trend of new incremental games coming out, it's been difficult for gamers to find titles that bring worthwhile ideas to the genre, or sometimes to even tell them apart. Some are barely-coded "watch the numbers get bigger" examples, while other developers have been lunging for some flashy gimmick to vie for your attention in an effort to get their own title to stand out from the rest. Pray don't toy with our affections, good sir! And then along comes a title like Idle Village. Unity-savvy up-and-comer Supercluster just goes ahead and bolts on everything he can find to the experience, unabashedly throwing the kitchen sink at the game and not even satisfied until the thing releases a pile of adorable puppies into the room from a hidden vent and checks your e-mail for you at regular intervals. If all that sounds a bit on the hyperbolic side, take a gander at the list of features and decide for yourself. A full-fledged CG model of your village, complete with day and night cycles, that accurately depicts the growth and development of your village — and which you can enter as a player. The ability to gain a fourth of some of your resources, and all of the rest, while you're offline and while the game isn't even loaded. A sophisticated and intricate system of buildings to research that produce everything from potatoes to shrimp and lanternfish to jewelry, carrots and deer and bear meat. An employment system, where you delegate your growing body of villagers to produce these various resources, and a market where you can sell them all for gold and buy new resources for your town. A smithy, where you can craft a diverse arsenal of weaponry, and a recent addition to automate your production. All this and more, from a title still very actively being developed, has put Idle Village firmly on the map.

She's traveled through The Cave of Heroes. She's asked what's The Deal With The Gods. Now Alexia Crow, tourist and reluctant chosen one has to face the most dangerous peril yet: the third game of a trilogy! No, wait... I mean: Pandora's Box! As in the Pandora's Box... the one with the bad history in re: unleashing things? At the very least something of equivalent danger. Chiron wants her to destroy it and it looks to be in that shady office buildinge. Since the outside is secured by all kinds of weird puzzle junk, you know that the inhabitants are up to no good... the "millions of lives are at stake" kind of no good. Alexia Crow: The Pandora's Box is the concluding chapter of QuestTracers' point-and-click adventure saga, where a hero finally discovers her destiny.

Funkyland continues to live up to the name with Alice House: No. 3 House of White Rabbit, an escape game that looks frilly and sweet, but is just a little bit weird, sort of like a restrained version of its source material. The White Rabbit Hole had you searching for, well, rabbits, and with The Pool of Tears it was dodoes. This time, you're searching for items emblazoned with lizards, because why not? Click around to interact, and since your cursor won't change to highlight any interactive areas, you'll want to scour everywhere. Not that you have much to scour, since House of White Rabbit is a very small game indeed. Keep your eyes peeled for clues, and click any item you're carrying to "equip" it for use.

In Blam! Games' hidden-object adventure Fierce Tales: Feline Sight, you play a country vet of dubious credentials, unless you think taking a stranger's "sick cat" and giving it a random tablet of "cat medicine" you had laying around on your dusty shelf is the pinnacle of modern medicine. Seems the whole area has had some feline problems, with house cats running away in droves, and a pesky leopard infestation terrorizing the townsfolk. The local authorities are pretty quick to demand you find out what's going on, which seems like a lot to ask from someone who frequently gets locked inside her own house. Seems a mysterious woman is controlling the colossal cats, and in addition to sabotaging your progress to almost comical extent, they're even abducting certain locals. Mightn't it have something to do with the local legends about the native people being driven off the land? It mightn't. But it also might have something to do with two sisters and a love triangle, too. If you can survive the strange woman stopping you at every turn (and your character's own questionable judgement), you might be able to get to the bottom of things. Which you should definitely do, because a town without cats is no town at all.

Mateusz Skutnik takes us on another gorgeous photographic stroll with 10 Gnomes in Venice, the latest in his popular series of point-and-click puzzle 10 Gnomes games. As the title implies, there are ten tiny gnomes hidden throughout the streets, nooks, and crannies of Venice, and finding them all will require scouring every inch. All you have to do to play is click to travel and look around... your cursor will always change when there's a place you can move to or zoom in on. The gnomes are small, so don't expect to see any clear sign they're hiding somewhere gnome'in' it up. There are no items to collect or puzzles to solve beyond where the gnomes themselves are, so click everywhere and leave no stone or picturesque street unturned. Just don't spend too much time admiring the scenery, because there is a ten minute time limit and if it runs out, you'll have to try again from the beginning.

So here you are, ruling the world with your evil fire powers, being worshiped by the worthless, and ever enjoying your juicy sacrificial cows, when suddenly one of those peons comes to inform you that they are not going to give you any more sacrifices. Something about a famine, and starving to death and bla bla bla. Psh, mortals. This is a troubling matter however, but being the god of fire and lightning you have your solutions. Entertainment Forge, the same wonderful duo that brought us Epic Boss Fighter now brings us Sacrifire! Using your undead minions you must collect the cows being guarded by your previous zealots. It's a game of skill and timing and strategy, as you must chose what minions to use in the battle against, or narrowly miss being slaughtered by, the guards.

If you can't get enough Angry Birds but always secretly wished they were pink, Rovio is here to make your dreams come true with Angry Birds Stella, free for iOS and Android. STELLLAAAAAAAAAAA is our pink protagonist, and when a map is stolen from her by an airship filled with pigs and one feathered purple monarch, she sets out to retrieve it the only way she knows how... by violently hurling herself through the air at precarious structures and smashing her face into them until the pigs atop them are destroyed. Fail to knock out all the piggies before you run out of birds, and you'll have to restart the level. Tap and drag on Stella in her slingshot to aim, then release to send her flying. Unlike other birds, however, Stella's got a trick up her sleeve, which is really surprising since she has no arms. If you tap and hold on the screen, you'll temporarily slow down time and can direct Stella to rocket once in a different direction, allowing you to pick off pigs in hard to reach places, or set up a chain of ricochets to take multiple targets out. Along the way, you'll unlock other birds with their own abilities, such as Poppy who can drill down through structures, or pint-sized Luca with her sonic scream. With gorgeous visuals, eye-popping colour, and crafty levels, Angry Birds Stella is both a stunner and challenging... so it's a shame about those obnoxious ads.

In Califer Games' simple yet gorgeous little puzzle game Spirits of Elduurn, you control two excitable little spirits who think they've found a new home, only to discover it's chock full of nasty demons made from dark energy, which has happened to me at least twice before while house hunting. Using the [arrow] keys, which moves both spirits at the same time, your job is to guide your two spunky critters around the level, picking up all the glowing sparks and then moving your light spirit into the demon to banish it. The problem is that while both your light and dark spirits can pick up the sparks, only the dark spirit can cross the purple voids, and will actually slide across all adjacent ones in the direction you move. If the light spirit touches those voids it'll be destroyed, and if either spirit touches the Swirling Red Level Boundary of Doom (tm), they'll vanish, so you need to plan your path to make it through each level safely, and in as few moves as possible. Press [M] to mute, and [S] to skip a level when the prompt appears.

When you think of rabbits, the thoughts that run through your head probably include carrots, soft cotton tails, big floppy ears and cute widdle bunny wunnies! But as countless TV shows and movies have taught us, woodland creatures have their own secret lives unfolding when they're not scampering around foraging for food. In this case, it involves digging their way through caves and crypts down to hell to rescue their kidnapped bunny rabbit kin from a deranged sorceress. Developed by veteran casual game developer Elliot Pace, Demons Down Under plays like the now-classic roguelike The Binding of Issac, meaning that you'll spend your time exploring baddie-infested rooms in search of keys, potions, and sweet, shiny gold. The [arrow] keys or [WASD] moves your character and the [spacebar] is used to drink potions, while clicking the mouse will employ your weapon, be it a sword, dagger, blunderbuss, or magical laser of doom. What makes Demons Down Under so much fun is the wide variety of weapons and items you can use in each run—killing enemies grants experience and gold, which unlocks a plethora of fancy upgrades. This allows for a bit of replay value, making up for the game's comparatively mild difficulty. Combining this with a collection of unique enemies, a procedurally generated map, and a charming and delightful presentation means that Demons Down Under is a good bit of fun for casual audiences anywhere.

You stubbed your toe getting out of bed, you spilled your cereal all over the place, and looking out the window, you realize that the sun has burnt itself out. Yep. It's going to be one of those mornings. But with the help of the last little ray of sunshine and a couple of sparks, you just might be able to Fix the Sun. Fix the Sun is a puzzle platfomer by DB based around a unique gameplay mechanism that will have you flitting and flipping everywhere as this little light of yours is let to shine all over the dang place. Use the [WASD] or [arrow] keys to move and the [spacebar] to jump. To open the exit on each level, you'll have to collect all of the sparks on the screen. To collect them, you must leap in their orbit, then hit [spacebar]. You will be launched in the direction indicated by the arrow relative to your position. You'll need to flip around from spark to spark to grab them all. Also, you are racing the clock: spend too long without a spark and it's lights out. [R] restarts your current level, and there are 24 levels in all.

At the end of the day, the important thing to remember is not whether you seized it—it is about whether you've learned what needs knowing and are ready to apply that knowing to the unknown: i.e. tomorrow. Well, tomorrow will be eventually upon us, dear readers, but for now it's worthwhile to have ourselves a bit of vacation. A get-away-from-it-all-and-forget-yer-troubles sort of thing. That is where our illustrious friends, the room escape game designers, speak from the heart. Whether hurrying through the midst of a bustling city or lazying near an island beach, everyone needs a chance to escape. Thus Weekday Escape is just what everybody needs! This time around FunkyLand is red all over with a return of the whimsical Candy Rooms series, Yuri's darling chicks give hide-and-seek another go, and Yomino Kagura presents a puzzling A-B-C...

And here we have the adorable Chainy Chisai in its native habitat. This small creature, discovered by Amir "Nonamez" Shabarchin, prefers the safety of cardboard boxes to the outside world. But do not think it defenseless! Rather, this tiny animal has a whole host of protective mechanisms, from shooting lightning, to spitting acids, to even exploding! And you, dear reader, get to be the one to provoke them in this charming chain-reaction game! You have just one click with which to set off as many of the languidly-drifting Chisai as possible. They'll unleash their special abilities, which will in turn activate MORE Chisai, on and on in a frenetic reaction until no more Chisai remain... Unless a few manage to slip out of the bedlam. It's simple, it's pleasingly chaotic, and it provides a surprising amount of variety for a game where most levels can be passed with only one click... not surprising since tech support was provided by Silengames, who has made a plethora of popular chain-reaction games!

The Jelly family, including Jellydad, Jellymom, and Jellykid, were on their yearly summer jellytrip, when some not-so-friendly space-pirates used their space-plungers to plunge their Jellyship right up! Now Jellydad, separated from his family, must traverse the pirate ship, find his family, and get them to safety... preferably the safety of a tropical resort on a beach planet. It's Jellydad Hero, a puzzle platformer from Snail Bob creator Andrey Kovalishin, and other developers might indeed be a little jelly, baby.

When a popular author's car is suddenly buried by an avalanche, then she is rescued by a mysterious man who happens to be a caretaker for an eerie (and empty) nearby castle, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had wandered into a badly thought-out edition of Misery 2: Paul's Revenge or something similar. Instead, you have stumbled into the latest Dana Knightstone joint, Death and Betrayal in Romania: A Dana Knightstone Novel, Boomzap's latest adventure hybrid. Dana Knightstone is no Stephen King, heck, she's not even Tabitha King. She is, in fact, a best-selling romance novelist who just happens to have a unique talent — she can see and speak to ghosts. This has led to her being able to solve the mystery of whatever dead star-crossed lovers happen to stumble into her path and then plagarize their love-story for a public that just can't seem to get enough.

Pencil Kids' point-and-click puzzle Monkey GO Happy stars are terminally miserable, and that's just the way we like them, because it means we get to play games like Monkey GO Happy Dragon to cheer them up. Which... sort of makes us sound like terrible people, when you think about it, so if nothing else these games prove Schadenfreude is alive and well. To balance that karma out a bit, in each of the game's seventeen stages you'll need to solve puzzles to cheer up your sulky simian. Use the big yellow arrows to move around locations, and click to interact with anything whenever your cursor changes, dragging items from your inventory at the top of the screen when you need to use them. Keep your eyes peeled for secrets, and click your mini monkeys if you want to dress them up in different costumes because of reasons.

One of the five love languages is gift giving and no gift speaks from the heart more than home baked cookies. But when you live inside Lo.Nyan's house, baking involves more than opening a bag of Pepperidge Farms onto a plate and spreading frosting on top (this method works in other situations, though; believe me, no one would ever question you). Not only do you have to find all the proper cookie ingredients and bake them up proper, you must also escape the room. Ergo making your way out of the lovely and whimsical Lo.Nyan's Room Escape 12 means donning your sleuth's cap under your baker's hat, finding useful items and solving the puzzles sprinkled about the room. This is done easily because of Lo.Nyan's user friendly UI—with a simple point-and-click you can explore your surroundings, pick up items, examine and combine inventory, and even use a camera to take pictures of clues. Any inventory item that works as a clue can be "held": use "about item" then click the arrow to shift it to the left so neither screenshots nor note-taking are needed to solve puzzles. Instead, you can relax a bit in these gorgeous surroundings and concentrate efforts where the fun is at.