April 2015 Archives

Here at JayisGames, we get a lot of e-mails, tweets, and bricks thrown through our windows about various crowdfunding campaigns. Like, a lot a lot. Mostly for good reason, since, despite not being without risks to both the developer and investors, crowdfunding offers an opportunity for many creators to make things they simply couldn't before. So with that in mind, welcome to our new twice-monthly feature Greenlights and Kickstarts, where we'll feature a few promising projects and shine a little attention onto developers looking to get on arguably the biggest digital gaming retailer in the world... Steam.

This first edition we'll take a look at a game that aims to mess with your head and get you good and twitchy, an Oculus-compatible "look-and-click" adventure about the way the choices we make change our lives, stealthy hotel-based vampire warfare, and a mysterious cage that holds an ocean, a lighthouse, a submarine... and you!

Please note that we cannot guarantee any projects posted will be completed and delivered. As with any investment, please make sure you do your own research into the project and its developer. Even a successfully funded project can never see release for a variety of reasons, so always use your best judgement, and only fund what you are willing and able to part with.

[Mac user? Try freeware tool RPG Hub]

In Epidemic Games' free indie horror game COATS, you're Randal, the Chief of Staff at one of the last surviving research centers in the country, working with scientists to try to develop a cure for the creatures everyone calls "Skins". The center is filled with the best technology and is supposed to be entirely self-sufficient... which is a good thing since things have taken a turn for the worse outside, and now all you can do is try to keep your people alive and research a cure. With multiple endings and choices, each day is up to you as you decide how to manage your people and your supplies, sending out scavengers or trying to bring back "test subjects" to experiment on.

Not everything is about you, y'know. In Vitamin Hana's cute, micro-sized escape game Free the Birds, you're actually trying to help some feathered friends fly free from f... hm. No word for "cage" that starts with an "F". Regardless of my foiled alliteration streak, you'll need to hunt around the area for a few items to crack codes and solve puzzles. There's no changing cursor for interactive objects, so you'll want to click around everywhere... not that it's that big of an area to search. Free the Birds is very much a mini-sized escape game, with an emphasis on finding codes and plunking them into the right places, so players looking for something more filling may not find it enough of a challenge. If what you want is something light and fun with a sweet objective, however, Free the Birds is more proof Vitamin Hana games can always be counted on for a smile.

Play Free the Birds

Taylor's dream comes true when the science student's number comes up in the lottery. No, not to win millions of dollars, but to fly aboard the space ship Varia, while performing experiments in space. The dream suddenly turns nightmarish when the ship crashes on a desolate, uninhabited moon, with no other apparent survivors. 3 Minute Games brings us a thrilling sci-fi interactive story Lifeline, written by Dave Justus. This choose your own adventure game for your iOS device (including the recently released Apple Watch) deliberately leaves gender out of the narrative, which allows the player's imagination to conjure up whatever image of stranded astronaut Taylor they want. (In my mind, Taylor ended up as a guy, something to do with the sarcastic humor reminding me very much of a friend of mine.) The interface is simple. Imagine you've got some futuristic data pad like they have in Star Trek, or, you know, an iPad, and you get an unfamiliar signal trying to hail you. There's no video, only text which scrolls down the touch screen. As your day suddenly gets entwined with Taylor's, the unlucky astronaut will frequently ask you for advice. When it's your turn to intervene in the story, just tap on the choice you want to make and read what happens next. Choose carefully, because your advice can drastically affect the outcome of the adventure.

There is a killer on the loose and soon he's going to find his mark... or at least you better hope so because you're him. A contract killer hired by a large company to get rid of an evil villain so, hey, that makes you a hero right? But you're not ordinary assassin-for-hire, no, you specialize in deaths that look like an accident. You are the Allergy Assassin, killing people by food-or-air-based allergies, and you're good at it. Things aren't so easy as they first appear in this logic puzzle of a game, by Ash K, Rev. Lord Dr. Lorin Grieve, and Brandon L for the Ludum Dare 32: "An Unconventional Weapon". You are serving five different people from five different companies, and must gather clues to decide which one is from Dastardly Holdings LLC, and what they are allergic to. You're going to need pen and paper for this one, and more than likely a logic grid to solve all five different scenarios.

Well, would you look at that! It seems the escape game fairy has been here again. Maybe you're saying to yourself, "Uh, escape game fairy?" It's true, though. The ol' EGF as I like to call her is as real as anything. Oh now, lose that skeptical scowl. It's not a flattering look (although, honestly, if anyone can get away with it, you can). But since you want proof, I'll give it to you: These three lovely creations from FunkyLand, Vitamin Hana and Primera. You need just spend a few moments poking around a whimsy-lush kitchen, viewing the starry sky from a puzzle-filled bedroom, or gathering colorful marbles in a single-scened room and you'll be convinced—the escape game fairy is truly real! You don't want to hurt her feelings and scare her away by doubting, do you? Like the magic that makes Santa's reindeer fly, you only have to believe...

Things are pretty hoity toity in Pine Studio's latest escape game King's Escape, also free for iOS and Android, where you find yourself locked into a very fancy schmancy room indeed. I mean... regular people don't just have pudding sitting right out there whenever they want it, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't actually be allowed to touch any of this future. You, though, you get to touch whatever you want by clicking around to explore. The cursor will change and the game will display text at the top of the screen whenever you can interact with something, while you can try to combine items in your inventory by clicking on first one, and then the other. Despite its refined appearance, there's a fair amount of weirdness in this escape game, with some MacGyvery when it comes to your inventory and creative (though strange) puzzles and mechanisms hidden everywhere. It's not always clear exactly what you're supposed to be doing, though it definitely earns points for inventiveness. One thing's for sure, when you do finally escape the room after the state you leave it in, you're probably not going to be welcomed back!

Play King's Escape

King's Escape (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)


Android:
Get King's Escape

no1game expects you to jump through a few hoops for fashion in Tailor, where the only way to escape is through the liberal use of a sewing machine. To play, just use the transparent black bars at the edges of the screen to move around the room, and click on things to interact. There's no changing cursor, as usual with no1game's titles, so leave no stone unturned as you hunt for the items you'll need to solve problems. To view an item up close, click the little rectangular button beneath its icon in your inventory at the top of the screen, and drag it anywhere you'd like to try using it. Tailor is actually a little fiddly about how it accepts this, requiring some items to be used in juuuuust the right place. It's a clunky little bit of pickiness, but not one that detracts too much from the overall experience... which, by the way, I feel confident in saying, is probably exactly like being on Project Runway. You'll practically be a fashion maven once you sew your way out of this one! Rarity would approve, darling.

Play Tailor

RoseKey's escape game Pass*Word is all about flowers, stars, and alarming musical flourishes as you try to find your way out of a cute room with a locked door and some cryptic decor. To play, just click on things around the room... your cursor will change when you can interact with something, and arrows will pop up when you mouse over the left and right sides of the screen so you can move around the room. To view items you're carrying up close, click what you want to peep at, then click the "about item" button. Pass*Word is on the short side, and probably a little simple as well, with most of the clues and their corresponding puzzles fairly obvious. It feels more like a warmup than anything else, and a bit of extra fleshing out would have made it a real winner. As it is, if you're looking for an escape game you can play before you've rubbed all the sleepies from your eyes, along with some musical riffs that will shock you awake if you, oh, were playing unaware with your volume all the way up, Pass*Word is a good choice.

Play Pass*Word

Man the cannons and warm up those fingers, because Bubble Shooter Archibald the Pirate has been released! It's a match-3 marble popper game from Akkad and Avox Games with a unique physics twist. Archibald needs you to help fire the colorblind friendly marbles to clear the screen before you run out of ammo. If you notice Archibald looks a little familiar, then you've probably played the hit game also from Avox, Frozen Candy. While a lot of things are similar, with some levels having the balls frozen into place until the temperature rises, Bubble Shooter Archibald the Pirate has new surprises of its own. Special cannonballs you can buy to help when you're in a tight spot, plenty of levels each with their own challenge, and probably the best, a mobile version, both iOS and Android compatible so you can enjoy even on the go. Oh and it's all free, with no impossible levels that make you pull out your wallet to beat. and ads that are rare enough and so non-intrusive you'll forget the game even has them. Throw in the beautiful backgrounds and an adorable pirate with his own personality and you've got yourself one fantastic game.

It liiiiiiiiiiiives! Weekend Download is back for more, and we're kicking off the first new installment with an assortment of games so rag-tag and different they're just some exposition and mana potions away from starring in a JRPG to save the world. Find out whodunnit in a murder trial following a disastrous wedding, search for a way to separate yourself from a mummified corpse (and its nagging former owner), and indulge in some artsy black and white platforming with a very unusual lantern. Remember, folks, just like friendship, free indie games are magic.

Originally free for iOS and Android and now available in your browser, Nitrome's high-difficulty arcade game Silly Sausage in Meatland is all about stretching your weiner dog as far as you can, nabbing gems along the way, while avoiding all sorts of deadly hazards. Use the [arrow] keys to begin moving... your sausage pup's hindquarters will stay planted while the rest of him stretches out in any direction, even wrapping around things, until he touches a surface he'll stick to and the rest of him will snap forward to catch up. If anything touches you, including anywhere on your stretched-out sausage body, you'll be snapped back either to the very beginning, or the last checkpoint you spent your gems at to activate. Though it starts out easy with a few innocuous floating spike balls, soon you'll have to deal with whirring, moving sawblades, treacherous pipe tunnels, locked doors, and more. Think you have what it takes to make it through?

[Note: This is the first installment of a planned series, with other episodes planning to be paid downloads!]

You know, you wouldn't think death would be so complicated, but Doris finds herself having a right bit of trouble as she tries to pass on in the afterlife. Apparently, she didn't get the leaflet on her way into this odd limbo-like world, but after befriending a dragon named Norb and having a trusty trolley with her, things are looking up. In Arrogant Pixel's new point and click adventure game, The Tale of Doris and the Dragon: Episode 1, Doris only wants to find her husband and move on into the eternities, but a mysterious group is attempting to use this aged adventurer for something far more sinister. Click and hold on people or objects to view a menu to choose "look at" or "interact", and just click anywhere to make Doris walk to it, with your inventory dropping down from the top of the screen when you mouse over it. This retro pixel art game will have you remembering the fond days of games like King's Quest and Quest for Glory, and if you don't have those memories... well, The Tale of Doris and the Dragon will help you get a feel for what you missed. If you're interested in more, check out the official site for news on upcoming episodes!

Did you miss me? I missed you! After over a year, Link Dump Friday rises from the grave, probably because I didn't bury it all that deeply anyway. (I had things to do. Things like organizing my My Little Ponies and Farscape figures. Don't judge me.) So while we shake off the grave dirt and pick the worms from our hair, let's kick things off with four fine and free online games for your pleasure. We've got a seedy cyberpunk adventure, an episodic Twine tale about a magical land and the woman who barely tolerates it, take a very unsafe moonlit drive with one weird ending, and try to satisfy one seriously petulant prince as the proprietress of one unusual shop.

Mediocre's Does Not Commute, free for iOS and Android minus a single in-app purchase that unlocks checkpoints, is an unexpected delight. It's a game of traffic jams and speeding cars, as you direct the various residents to their destinations in each level. Just tap the left and right sides of the screen to steer, and watch out for obstacles, since the car will slow down if it's damaged. Though you only drive each of them one at a time, the catch is that not only are you on a timer that persists throughout the stage, the game replays your other completed driving records, forcing you to dodge and drive around, well, yourself essentially. This means that the better you drive, without crashing into things and zipping across lawns like a maniac, the easier time you'll have, though with upwards of a dozen cars winding up onscreen, all following their own routes, it still gets hectic, and you'll need to try for the bonus time tokens that pop up as well. If you really don't like the driving you're doing with the current car, you can choose to rewind and start again with it, though you'll lose a second off the timer. Run out of time, and you'll have to start all over, either from the start of the current area you're on, or the very beginning of the game if you didn't buy the premium version. You can unlock various upgrades like better traction or turbo boost as you play, but by far the biggest incentive to play is finding out what strange secrets and lives the townsfolk you're ferrying around are hiding, because there's a lot of profoundly weird and funny things happening here.

In Psychoz Interactive's classic-styled survival horror adventure Forgotten Memories: Alternate Realities, the first in a planned series of self-contained yet interconnected stories, Rose's search for a missing girl named Eden took her to an abandoned asylum, but the last thing she can remember is a man pointing a gun at her. When she wakes up, she finds an unlikely ally in the form of Noah, a strange girl who keeps company with mannequins and only ever communicates by recordings even when she's right in front of you, and Rose must explore the asylum to learn the truth about where the missing girl is, and what happened long ago. A limited and very restrictive save system as well as clunky combat mean it isn't entirely smooth sailing, but a fantastically creepy setting with stunning visuals and otherworldly, surreal imagery makes Forgotten Memories: Alternate Realities a fantastic alternative to games that go for gore and violence in abundance.

[Note: This game is available in Pay What You Want format, including free! If you enjoy the game, please consider paying the developer an amount you think is fair for their hard work.]

Short but definitely sweet, Carter Lodwick and Ian Endsley's Little Party is a pay-what-you-want indie interactive art piece about the night your daughter decides to throw a party for a few of her "arty" friends. As her mom, you don't really mind... you're happy to help however you can. But she doesn't seem to need much from you... she's not a little girl anymore, after all. Use the [WASD] or [arrow] keys to move around the house, and hold the [spacebar] to look or tap it to interact when blue text appears. In general, once you've found and interacted with all the kids, their locations will change as the night progresses and you can look for them again, though occasionally you'll be given a more specific objective... though even that is sort of a grand word for the actions you take. Most often you simply watch, puttering around the house or taking the dog for a walk, and though your daughter and her friends are always polite and welcoming, they often don't even seem to notice you're there. It won't take you long to play through, but Little Party is a warm slice-of-life story that might make you better appreciate and understand the people who look after you.

Deep in the bowels of a secrative facility, something stirs. Long-dormant processors whir to life. Keys click on a keyboard as someone types furtively. And a digital computer voice rings out: Welcome to Mu Complex, Bruce Dayton. Only it's not Mr. Dayton behind the keys, but you, as you step into the shoes of a hacker, in this enthralling game from Studio Cime, which is part text adventure, part riddle game, and part one in a projected series. Dive deep into the intranet of the secretive Mu Complex, virtually hopping from machine to machine, rifling through the files of its employees as you hunt for the links and the passwords that will lead you to more mysterious, more sensitive machines hidden in the heart of the facility. And there's no pointing and clicking here... You'll do it oldschool, by entering command prompts and toggling power supplies. Each file you uncover will tell you a little bit more about what Mu Complex is, and why you're hacking into it, but you won't be satisfied until you've uncovered the secret lying at its very heart. Seriously, you probably won't... Mu Complex is an absorbing and engaging adventure that will work your brain and hold you in its thrall until the very end.

[Note: This game is available in a "Pay What You Want" format, including free. If you like the game, please show your appreciation to the developer by paying them what you think is fair!]

Everything seemed to be going normally for Nigel. He has his own business with his two best friends, and taking care of 6 year old Alicia is more like having a playmate around than having to feel like a legal guardian. The only thing on Nigel's to-do list is to find a new tenant, and when an odd woman named Morwenna pops up out of nowhere, it seems that Nigel's problems are solved. But Morwenna is a strange girl, with strange things, and she starts stirring up Nigel's calm life... not to mention there are some odd disappearances happening around that are leaving the police baffled. Three Guys That Paint is a pay-what-you-want indie visual novel with a dollop of romance and mystery by Jasmin Osler that has you in the shoes of Nigel, a hard working house painter. Read along with him, clicking anywhere to pass the text, until the occasional choice pops-up. There doesn't seem to be a bad ending, but the story is weird and fun in a way that feels like one of your childhood fantasies coming to life.

Kurechii's real-time strategy tower defense hybrid Tiny Guardians for iOS and Android is an almost aggressively adorable and unexpectedly challenging little game that plays like a cross between Kingdom Rush and Defender's Quest. In it, little would-be sorceress Lunalie wakes up one morning to find her home ransacked and her powerful mentor missing, so naturally the only thing to do is gather up her summoning cards and set out on a journey to save the day! With her magical deck, she can call powerful heroes into battle to defend her against all the monsters and enemies she faces along the way, which is a good thing since Lunalie is... well, I don't know if she's a lover, but she's certainly not much of a fighter. Tiny Guardians is a fast-paced and surprisingly difficult little game that's packed with beautiful visuals, too-cute-to-be-killing-you foes, and simple to pick up, yet hard to master gameplay. For fans of tower defense looking for something different, Tiny Guardians is polished, professional, and a ton of fun.

So. Another week has passed. A lot has happened this week, too. But that's not what we're here to talk about, are we? Although, if I'm going to be honest, I'm going to say I've missed you since our last get together. I sometimes wonder what you're doing, where you've been, if you're, for whatever reason, you know, having fun without me? Eh, not that I'm checking up on you or anything but I noticed that you've been a little quiet lately. Let's talk about these escape games then, ya? Before things get too awkward with silent pauses and all that. Luckily for us escape-the-room aficionados, production of escape games has been bustling this spring. It's more than possible you haven't even finished playing the past week's worth that were reviewed here on JIG. Be that as it may be, tell me what you think of these next three games, chosen from Hottategoya, MayMay and No1Game...

Browser-based RPG games tend to be a bit of a click-fest. You're always clicking here to launch a fire spell and clicking there to use a health potion. Clicking, clicking, clicking, JEEZ where does it end?! Well Happy Ghost Studio has got your back with this epic new keyboard-only fantasy adventure game, Primal Champions, which plops you and your party into an action-packed adventure with no mouse required. Select your party of two adventurers and set out on your quest, moving to each dot on the map to do battle with hordes of goblins, pigs and general monstrosities. The game operates on a real-time combat system, having you choose targets with the [arrow] keys and press [Q] or [A] to launch your party members' basic attacks whenever their cool down counter reaches zero. Reflexes are essential, the tides of battle can turn quickly. A strong leveling system and some epic magic spell combos add to the frenetic joy.

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The game of golf is many things to many people. It's an ancient game with a diverse legacy, with variations spanning different nations and empires all throughout history. It's a favorite sport of business professionals looking to blow off steam. Its fans clap really daintily. But if there's one thing everyone agrees on, it's that it's really hard. And Dakina Games wants to bring some of that challenge on home to you with their puzzle game, appropriately enough entitled Golf is Hard. (And if you don't want it brought on home, but rather to restaurants and workplaces, it's also available on iOS and Android devices.) Although we get the feeling that these particular links miiiight be a bit more challenging than usual. Because on this course, walking on all of that brilliant green, perfectly trimmed grass is strictly verboten... if your ball doesn't make it into the hole from your first shot, you'll have to fire off from the tee again and again until you make it. This is also the only golf course we know of where you'll have to hit balls up cliffs or onto tiny islands in the middle of water hazards. Just click or tap to choose the angle of your shot and your power, and if you aren't too thwarted by the challenges and perils of the green, maybe you'll get the ball in the hole! Golf is Hard is a silly, irreverent, one-button take on the game of golf, and while it may, indeed, be hard, it's that special kind of hard that encourages you to just keep trying.

[Note: This game deals with physical abuse and other subject matter players may find upsetting.]

While many visual novels tend to focus on romance, Yucie's free indie game Those Without Names focuses on the close relationship two siblings can share. Eight awakens, confused and disoriented, inside the Building, which sits on a hill beneath the glow of Earth high above. She doesn't remember her name, just a series of numbers that are used to identify her and the few other residents, and while she also doesn't remember much about her life, she's relieved to see her brother, Zero, here as well. In this place, your memories come back to you in bits and pieces, and if you find enough, you'll also remember your name and awake. Eight is convinced it's some sort of bizarre lucid dream, but Zero isn't so sure, and as Eight's surfacing memories turn from sweet and simple to something more troubling and hard to watch, finding the truth might be more painful than she's willing to admit. With four different endings depending on your choices, Those Without Names is a short and bittersweet story about family, and how simultaneously simple and complicated it can be at the same time. To play, just click the dialogue choice you want when it appears, and right-click to open the save and load menus whenever you like.

TapirGames' minimalistic sliding block puzzler Push Out Fans is actually more of a browser demo of their iOS and Android game Rect Pushers, which has even more levels and other game modes. In Push Out Fans, you're... well, you're pushing the fans out of the playing field by dragging blocks around the area. The twist is that different blocks can each only move in their specific way, such as horizontally or vertically, and you can click the arrows to either side of the move counter to undo or re-do your most recent move. Lacking anything even so fancified as a soundtrack, Push Out Fans is a very bare bones approach to a puzzle game, and yet there's something satisfying about its simple concept and trying to finish each level in as few moves as possible. It's a very clean little game, with nothing wasted about its design, and is perfect for players who want something quiet, thoughtful, and smart to puzzle their way through a few dozen levels with. Bells and whistles? Who needs 'em!

Play Push Out Fans

Rect Pushers Free (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)


Rect Pushers (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)


Android:
Get Rect Pushers Free


Android:
Get Rect Pushers

The year is 1983. Space is being conquered by man. However Xanadu, a research space ship that was searching the far edge of the explored universe has sent out a distress signal. Called in to help them fix their engines and get them back home you are the first one to find out what happened to the three man crew. You soon discover there is a lot more happening on the Xanadu than just mere mechanical issues. Spirits of Xanadu, by Night Dive Studios, is a, indie first person horror adventure game where you must explore the ship and fight off the ship's security system while you solve nonlinear puzzles. With four types of robots, all ready to kill you on sight, you need to blow most of them to pieces or use their own systems against them by shutting them down sneakily. If a shoot 'em up game doesn't pique your interest, you can actually change the game to make the robots passive and get lost in the mystery and swallowed up in the creepy atmosphere. While this game doesn't have creepy monsters after you, it's going to definitely get your heart rate up and your adrenalin pumping with the immersive environment. You'll also be grateful for the multiple endings so you can go back and play it again.

History is written by the victors.Take for example... our favorite Italian plumber. Oh wait, did you think that was just a classic tale of hero saving a princess from a dragon... turtle.... dinosaur-thing and his army of mushrooms? Well, think again. Kill the Plumber by Keybol and Izzy Aminov, has you playing as the little round goons enemies trying to kill the player plumber character. In this puzzle platform game, you can move the little "goons" with [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to try and bump the overall-clad human and send him falling off the screen to his death. He has his ways of fighting back, of course, with his jumping ability, fire shots, and er... again, he jumps really well. If he reaches the flag or kills you before time runs out he wins. But you don't just have the little goons to help you you also get to visit some of your old-timey favorites such as shy ghosts and thwomping not-thwomps. It's a great blast of nostalgia that is challenging enough that you'll hate your childhood hero and cheer on some of the most weakest video game enemies ever.

Vitamin Hana serves up an escape with amenities in Terrace View, and continues their tradition of making cute, simple-seeming games that offer more than meets the eye. There isn't much around you... a locked door, a painting, a TV, and a few pieces of furniture that are all locked up tight with various coded puzzles. There's no changing cursor to help you see what you can interact with, but there's also not really any pixel hunting to make that a problem... just a whole bunch of cryptic clues for a room with enough puzzle locks to belong in an early Resident Evil game. It won't take you long to play, but it also doesn't feel like it's too short either, the proverbial juuuuuust right with a few puzzles that'll kick your brain into gear and require you to connect the dots without going overboard on difficulty. Sometimes you want something heavy and perplexing, and sometimes you want something light, fun, and clever, and Terrace View fits the latter perfectly well.

Play Terrace View

In no1game's mouthful of a title Find the Escape-Men Part 147: At the Park Part 1, you're a dirty rotten thief... or, well, at least a girl who can't resist sneaking her mom's expensive pendant to wear while she's out at the park. No blood no foul, right? At least not until you're ready to head home and you realize it's missing! Now you have to search the whole place (or at least the places you've been while you wore the necklace, since some locations are mysteriously unavailable, and of course find the iconic ten little green men hidden throughout the park along the way. Just click to interact, and make sure you hunt everywhere, since no changing cursor means you'll need to shake, scrounge, and dig wherever you can. While it's annoying to have more than half of the available map locations locked off for (presumably) part two, At the Park Part 1 is still a seriously cute and quirky game. It has a tendency to make you go back and forth between locations with indication something has changed, though it ups the weird factor considerably over some previous installments in largely good ways. Needless to say, as indicated by the title, it ends with a big, fat, "to be continued", so you'll have to wait for the conclusion another day, but for now, there's searching to be done!

Play Find the Escape-Men Part 147: At the Park Part 1

Your life seems like it's about as perfect as it can get. You're engaged to a handsome jazz pianist in New Orleans, just putting the final touches on your wedding plans. But when your sweetie's former band mates start turning up dead, and mysterious smoking men are slinking about, it's time to take action before it's too late. You play as Ella in Mad Head Games hidden-object adventure Cadenza: The Kiss of Death. With nothing but a black lipstick stain as your lead, you're going to have to use all your skills, and maybe even learn some new ones (unless picking locks and diffusing bombs are already part of your skill set. Who are you, MacGyver?), as you do everything you can do to save your future husband's life.

So it has happened again, has it? You have ended up trapped in a strange room. Obvious methods to escape from this room elude you. No keys, crowbars or climbing out the window will work. On hand instead: various puzzles to be solved, done by searching the room for essential objects and various clues, using your ingenuity to decipher the riddles throughout. What's that you ask? Why not just break down the door with your brute force? Because this door is not simply locked, it's guarded by a secret code that, should you fail, threatens to dismantle the entire room—you right along with it. Which is just one of the reasons Gam.eBB's mobile game Room Escape [Secret Code] is such a kick to play!

The horse in no1game's Bored White Horse is actually a very special horse since he's the prince's noble steed, and when he hears that the prince has finally managed to slip away from his bodyguards, the horse decides to go to him for adventure... though he'll need your help escaping from the stables first... no small task considering the horse's handlers think so highly of his cognitive abilities that you'll have to bypass multiple locks and puzzles from within to get out. To play, just click to interact, though your cursor won't change when it passes over something useable, so you'll need to be diligent in your exploring. Bored White Horse isn't a particularly long game, or even a difficult one, though some of its puzzles are tricky enough that you'll need to really examine them in order to figure out the solution. It's a light, whimsical treat for escape fans who want to engage their brains without breaking them, and reunite two dear friends in the process.

Play Bored White Horse

Much like its predecessor, Bikas.net's latest puzzle game, Shape Fold Animals, is best described as 2D origami. This game, which is available for both browser and mobile platforms, has you folding polygonal shapes that are connected by hinges to form something that sort of resembles an animal. The resulting shape is not always clear - it could be a turtle, a chimp, a giraffe or some kind of bird, leaving you to use your best judgement about which direction each chunk needs to get folded. The game falls pretty squarely under the casual banner, since there's no lose condition and no real urgency to win, but it's still fun and extremely well-made, a fun treat for any casual puzzler on a coffee break.

Lines. Squares. Lines and squares. These are the tools you will be using in GooDMage's new puzzle game, Glow Path, available for your browser or Android device. The game is as minimalist as they come, featuring white backgrounds, simple designs, and puzzles that are quick to solve but immensely satisfying nonetheless. Simply click on the block you wish to slide in order to connect one glowing box to it s non-illuminated partner. You only have a limited number of clicks, usually only two or three, so plan things out beforehand. This is a game about perfection, not experimentation.

In his last adventure, Eyesteam's humble hero Pajama Boy braved the depths of a dark, spooky, sawblade-ridden forest and overcame his fear of the dark. With his newfound courage, he decides to leave the forest and head on home to the city... only to find out that it's been destroyed and been conquered by mechanical monstrosities. Welp. At least he chose a good time for his little foray into personal growth! Now, in Pajama Boy 3, he must save the citizens of his city from their robotic imprisonment in yet another challenging platform game. Run, jump, slide, and even wall-kick with the [arrow] keys or [WASD], and collect the shiny gold keys that will free the humans from their cages. But the metallic invaders have worked themselves into the very fabric of the city itself... They even control the rebar! For Pajama Boy, that means ever-shifting levels that are constantly morphing and changing, pushing your reflexes to the very limit. Pajama Boy's third outing is perhaps his trickiest yet, and it brings with it a healthy helping of creative level design to delight you, even as you die repeatedly on that same patch of thorns, over and over again.

Murder, kidnapping, explosions. The life of a cop is not a dull one. You play as Baltimore detective Sam Pearce in Relentless Software's latest 3D mystery release for iOS, The Trace. The proprietor of a local business is found dead, and foul play is suspected. It's your job to figure out what happened. At the beginning of the game, your lab helper Alex sets you up with a new high tech remote forensics system that allows you to instantly run fingerprints and test blood samples, which turns out to be quite handy during the investigation. Tap on objects of interest to get a description, or perhaps zoom into an important spot. Hold and swipe to look around the room. Some items you tap on will go into your inventory which you can access on the left of the screen. When you find a piece of evidence, it will fill your screen. Sometimes you can push buttons or otherwise manipulate the item and you can always deploy your forensic scanner to look for clues. Tap the scanner icon on the right to activate it and tap and hold over the evidence to scan it. When you find something of import it creates a lead for you on the investigation screen.

TomaTea is known for one thing... serene colour palettes. And mellow instrumental soundtracks. And "I have no clue how to solve this!" And... okay, so for a lot of things, basically. Let's just say they make great escape games and move on to talking about Spring Celebration, which combines puzzles and pastels all in one pretty package. To play, just watch for the tip of your cursor to glow as it passes over things you can interact with, and carefully examine your environment for sneaky hidden clues you'll need to crack the puzzles on the various locks. Don't let the lute-ish soundtrack fool you... there're no castles and courts here, but there are a whole lot of sunny Easter-themed decorations, as if any of us needed a specific date as incentive to bite the ears off a chocolate bunny. Some objects you may find a little fiddly or unintuitive to interact with, as some of them have extra functions that aren't immediately apparent unless you click on them in a certain location, and you might likewise find yourself stymied at a point that doesn't make it obvious you need to drag something rather than merely click it. Still, TomaTea's talent for crafty puzzles whose clues take a little puzzling themselves is in fine form here, and apart from a few mildly awkward implementations, they offer a great variety in difficulty and concept, and the sweet presentation is just the cherry on top. If you love escape games that seem to invite you to relax even as they make you think, TomaTea's Spring Celebration is sunny and satisfying despite a few bumps along the way.

Play Spring Celebration

In Alex and Eugene Plotnikov's point-and-click adventure Aldo and Gus: The Skeleton Key, you play a cat in an enchanted flying tea-kettle (no, you're ridiculous) who's trying to rescue their dear wizard who was locked up in a dungeon for, well, wizardry. You'll need to hunt for a key to help him escape, which is easier said than done given the propensity for puzzles this jail and the surrounding area appear to have. To play, just click, and your cursor will highlight yellow when it passes over something you can interact with. You can use items in your inventory by clicking them to pick them up, then clicking again wherever you think they should go. There are a surprising amount of scenes to explore here, so it's easy to get overwhelmed at first, though once you know where everything is, things start to become clearer. Most of the puzzles are fairly straight-forward, requiring you to use the proper item in the right place, or unlock doors by spotting the proper codes for them, though not every object has an immediately obvious use. What makes Aldo and Gus so charming, however, is its wonderful surreal style, using simple shapes and bright colours to create imaginative environments that feel like something out of a Tim Burton film. It's weird in an eye-catching way that makes you want to explore it, though with so much going on in some scenes, it isn't often clear at a glance what's useful, so you'll want to waggle your cursor everywhere in case you missed something. That, combined with the way the cursor's colour can get washed out in some places making the highlight hard to see, makes the game feel a little rough around the edges, but Aldo and Gus: The Skeleton Key is still a wonderfully strange little game that makes us hope we see more of this pair down the road.

Play Aldo and Gus: The Skeleton Key

Contrary to a rumor started around the JIG office espresso machine, I do not spend all my evenings huddled up around the blue-white illumination of my laptop, empty take-out boxes strewn along the counter and a meowing band of cats my only company. I mean, alright, maybe in theory it's possible that could have happened. In the realm of possibilities, anything could be possible yet it's best to remember: Rumors spread rapidly on social networks. Even if it sounds like a good idea or goes viral, getting bunches of likes, snoop around a bit before assuming its verity. But shoot, I won't get all rhetorical with ya when there are escape games waiting to be played. Since there's also much to be said for ignoring cynicism and letting your heart wear a great big smile for all the world to see. Having some fun and playing games always makes sense, and this Weekday Escape game trio is an actual thing happening right now...

By now you're no doubt well-acquainted with the dungeon crawler format. Hero goes in, steamrolls through various monsters, and pops out the other end with a princess and/or box of treasure in hand. Well Jinmann Kim and Jaewon Yoo's Dungeon Warfare, currently playable in Alpha and still in development, flips that formula on its head, casting you as the world's most insidious interior decorator tasked with designing all manner of traps to keep the hordes of greedy heroes at bay. This defense game has you using the mouse to place various spike traps, dart shooters, blockades, snares and other fiendish obstacles in the path of the heroes as they march towards their goal. Copious amounts of retro-style slaughter ensue as the crowds of treasure-seekers march blindly into each trap. These little guys aren't big on self-preservation, it seems.

Wacky Pirate is a new reflex game for both browser and mobile platforms. You're the titular wacky pirate, as described to you by an adorable bit of voice over narration, who's fallen on hard times and needs to fill up the old coffers with as much booty as possible. This is accomplished through the expedient use of clicks. Here's the breakdown of the operation: you need to click the bombs at the bottom of the screen to release them so that they connect with the boats that come whizzing by. Pirate ships will also pass along your coast line, and for them you need to destroy the ice bergs that crop up before them with a few good clicks. Tokens also appear that give you money after a few good clicks, as do treasure barges that leave tons of clickable gold just laying out in the open where anyone can click them. There's a lot of clicking going on is the point, so you'd better get good at it fast. Things are going to get frantic really quickly in Wacky Pirate.

Pudding, marbles, fingerprints, and soda are just a few of the things you'll need to escape Yonashi's weird but cool Yonashi Escape 17, where you'll definitely need to think outside the box and experiment a little if you want to make any progress. The cursor will change whenever it passes over something you can interact with, but otherwise you'll be given no real help at all, so it's up to you to figure out how to use the frequently very odd assortment of items in each room in order to open the doors to move forward. As strange as Yonashi Escape 17 is, however, a lot of it actually makes its own sort of sense in context, so nothing is ever really unintuitive or illogical. It's still not particularly long or difficult, but it still manages to capture that feeling of tactile exploration and wonder in a way that more straightforward and "serious" escapes don't really have, making the "ah-ha!" moments rewarding. It's silly, sweet, and more than a little cute, make it a great break-sized escape for players who like their games whimsical and weird.

Play Yonashi Escape 17

The Calm Room Escape by Tesshi-e definitely lives up to its name, as you find yourself trapped in this soothingly soundtrack'd room after being invited there via letter by someone who hasn't shown up herself. Naturally you want to escape, but there are far worse atmospheres for you to solve puzzles in, don't you think? To play, after of course making sure to choose "English" when you start the game unless you read Japanese, just click to interact with things, though there's no changing cursor to help you figure out what's useable and what isn't. In addition to cryptic clues everywhere, you'll find your fair share of inventory items you can use or examine for further secrets with the "About Item" function, though you'll need to pay careful attention to your surroundings, exercise a little patience, know how to combine information... and, of course, fight the urge to just follow the instructions on the bed for an hour or three...

Idengames proved their talent with Royal Warfare, a truly exceptional defense strategy game that managed to cram all the thrills of real time combat in. Well the sequel, Royal Squad, is where the studio really gets to test their mettle. Simply put, the game is a stellar little adventure in arrow-shooting, goblin-stomping, magic-casting goodness. You select your roster of soldiers before each encounter and watch them chop down some truly impressive hordes of enemies as they march towards you in waves. For some added micromanagement, simply click to command your archers to rain arrows on a specific spot, or deploy some lightning bolts, bear traps, or swordsman onto the field for maximum effect. Chopping through the masses of necromancers, soldiers, and goblins as they come pouring towards you is supremely satisfying but be warned: this game isn't afraid to throw some curve-balls when you least expect them.

Did you notice that sudden chill in the air? A cat just yowled in the background and all the cockroaches suddenly seem more nervous. Yes, that's right, Drawmaneater is back with Nekra Psaria 3. Johnny Boy's train comes to a stop and he's told to "go back home," but to get there you must help him travel through this surreal world. This point-and-click escape game keeps its creepy vibe right up to the end, and also keeps the story going from the first and second games of Johnny Boy trying to find his way around this blue-tinted world. If you haven't played those, you'll be a little more confused than those who have, but just a little. Even though this installment feels a little rushed compared to its predecessors, the twisted art work and creepy feel is still alive and pulsing in this unsettling adventure.

Two feuding Louisiana towns. A mysterious mythical owl man. Creepy swamps. A missing boy. Crocodiles. All in a days work if you're a Mystery Tracker detective. When sightings of the local legend are at a peak and young boy goes missing, the townsfolk don't know what to believe. Piece together clues, question suspects, and find the link between things in Mystery Trackers: Nightsville Horror, a hidden-object adventure from Elephant Games. Use your sleuthing, your brave little dog Elf, and your puzzle solving skills to track down the missing boy Oliver before it's too late.

Rose Engine's eerie platformer ascend features a silent girl trying desperately to make it to the top of a dark and deadly maze, where moving platforms, pits of spikes, and crushing traps await around every corner, and mysterious text dogs her steps. Use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move, and the [spacebar] to jump, while hitting any key will make you respawn back at the last brazier you lit when you die. You can respawn forever, essentially, though if you want to see the alternate ending, you'll need to make it to the top with more than one life, as evidenced by the bars in the bottom left corner. You get another life every time you find a new flower, but once a flower has been drained, it's gone forever, so don't get too cocky. The hardest part about ascend might be that the controls seem a little too responsive, so that every jump and movement has a little extra zip in it that can easily make you overshoot what you were aiming for if you don't account for it, and since when you fall, you can fall far depending on where you are, working your way back up can be frustrating... you can't just die and respawn back up, after all, if you want that alternate ending. You're also left to your own devices to figure out where to go other than, as the title implies, up. If you have the patience for the climb, however, and you love subtle storytelling and a great, uneasy atmosphere, ascend is still worth checking out.

Play ascend

no1game's Find the Escape-Men Part 146: Fully Packed Train is less an escape game, at least at first, than it is about you desperately trying to find your way onto a train that's already been (literally) pushed way, way past capacity... and of course finding the ten little green men in the process. To play, just click to interact, though since your cursor won't change you'll need to sleuth around on your own for things to click on. As usual for a no1game, you might find yourself needing to click on things more than once, sometimes a lot more, or even hang around on some screens waiting for something to happen. Most of the puzzles are logical, and there are a few surprises in store, and your expected dose of silliness makes this a perfect example of why so many people love this series... it's campy, creative, and doesn't take anything too seriously, on top of being the perfect size for a short break from the daily grind. Give it a play, and then give thanks if your daily commute doesn't look anything like that.

Play Find the Escape-Men Part 146: Fully Packed Train

Need a good brain work out? How about one you can take on the go with your iOS or Android? It's time to put your thinking caps on and start stretching out the only organ that named itself, because N4games' Brain Builder is here to, well help you build your brain! With eight different puzzles you'll need to think logically in this brain-training game. It starts off easy and grows harder the more questions you get right. After cycling through the eight levels you then arrive at the 'pro' versions of them, and try again but with higher difficulty. The puzzles range from simple math, to reaction testing, to not-very-colorblind-friendly logic puzzles, and while the idea of each one sounds simple enough you'll be surprised how difficult it gets. Sixty seconds to click on as many correct answers as possible is a much shorter time than you'd expect, especially since very wrong answer takes off a couple of seconds. Brain Builder is all about helping you get your mind into shape and keeps track of your daily scores and lets you improve today you by comparing against yesterday you to let you see your brain is building.

Feeling like your wordsmithing skills need a workout? Look no further and try out Lettercraft, a fun new word game for iOS by developer Marco Torretta. The first five levels are free to try, and the rest of the game is unlockable via an in-app purchase. The goal is to make as many three or more letter words as you can before the game ends or the timer runs out. The letters you use don't have to be adjacent; you can use any letter on the board. Tap a letter and it will appear at the top of the screen. When you've spelled your word, swipe to submit it. If it's a valid word, you'll get points depending on length. The first letter of your word gets underlined, so if you determine you need to trash the word you were working on, just tap the first tile and it will disappear. Sounds easy, right? Well let me get to the twist: As you play the letters begin to heat up, eventually burning up so you can't use them. However, if you use the letters in a word, it cools them back down. But if you submit a misspelled or imaginary word, the tiles used will go up one heat level. If your board burns down to just three tiles left, it's game over.

While some thought Krutovig's Abandoned was a wee bit too Submachine-sy, others adored the clean design and air of mystery, and now the series has a spin-off in the form of escape game Abandoned: The Cube Chambers, which sees you waking up confused and disoriented in a maze-like series of rooms filled with puzzles. To play, just click... your cursor will change when it passes over something you can interact with (but not ALL the things you can interact with), and you'll want to pay seriously close attention to your surroundings, because the game issssss... ambigious. Perhaps far too much so, given the vague nature of the puzzles that lack a lot of the direction of the original game. The Cube Chambers might be even more obviously Skutnik influenced than the first game, from the user interface to the premise, which is similar to Submachine 3: The LooP. The atmosphere is largely excellent, with a a sleek design and ominous audio, and if you don't mind a game that neither holds your hand nor even so much glances in your direction reassuringly, you might find it a welcome challenge, but others might find it a little too obtuse to conquer.

Play Abandoned: The Cube Chambers

Please note that Flight Rising requires a free account to play. Due to capacity issues, account registration for new players is only available during certain periods of time. Registration is currently closed.

Stormlight Workshop's Flight Rising, a free online blend of MMO adventure and dragon-breeding simulation, has been recommended to us several times over the years, but due to their limited registration periods, we never really felt comfortable writing about it. With their current registration open, however, we thought we would take the time to bring it up now for new players to register while they can and discuss the game. Due to the fact that we had to wait until, well, now to register an account of our own, please do not regard this as a comprehensive review. We will update this article at a later date.

As to the game itself, well, Flight Rising revolves around founding a clan after pledging your allegiance to one of the elemental dragon gods, and then running your lair and managing your dragons and their offspring. The focus of the game is arguably on the breeding system, which allows you to breed different dragons together for various qualities and genes, some of which you may have to work for, or trade with other players to get. At your lair, you'll need to choose the dragons you wish to breed (getting a peek at potential future offspring), and then have them lay eggs (anywhere from one to five) in a nest you'll have to incubate over the course of five real days. Not enough for you? Well, like a bigger, radder Neopets (whoa... early 2000s flashback...), you'll get to play, hunt, and even fight with your dragons, though you have a limited amount of turns per day to do so. You'll also, of course, need various resources to care for and feed your dragons, and the coins you earn from minigames and other activities can be spend on everything from expanding your lair to hold more dragons, or buying new equipment to enhance them for battles in the Coliseum. Flight Rising also has an optional currency called Gems, bought using real money or earned as a bonus if you keep your dragons happy with high energy, and these can be used to buy items as well, even those from other players. It's a surprisingly deep and engaging game, perfect for playing in short bursts, with gorgeous artwork and fun mythology, and we'll report back once we have more experience ourselves! Have you played Flight Rising?

Play Flight Rising

[The following is a reader review by Aidan Randle-Conde, used with permission. Want to submit your own review for a game we haven't covered? Use our submission form!]

91 (free log-in required to save) is a community funded turn-based RPG adventure game that is still in Beta. You wake up in an alley to find that you've been mugged and the ID from your wallet has been taken. Strangely enough your money has not been touched. As you stagger to your feet and try to get your ID back you find that there are much deeper mysteries to solve and much bigger problems to face. You're in the city of Flauston in 1991 and the outlook is bleak. It's been years since the "ascent" where huge columns rose out of the ground in major cities across the world, and the psychological damage they have caused is evident everywhere. Cities are abandoned, left to the criminal underworld, and the police forces struggle to keep control. The further you venture into Flauston the more unsavory characters you encounter and realise that there's a lot more happening than just someone taking your ID.

You'd never know it to look at its perplexingly Minecraft-sy icon, but Naquatic's CivCrafter, free for iOS and Android, is actually an Odd Couple mashup of incremental clicker games and a simplified version of the Playver Versus Player of Clash of Clans. In the beginning, it's just you and three icons to tap on... the apple collects fruit, while the log and rock collect wood and stone respectively. Tapping on each icon gains you a single unit of that resource, and eventually you'll have enough you can spend on building things, though these resources can also be spent on upgrades down the road. When you've built enough houses to start a population, you'll need to employ your civilians to work... farmers are important for making food, of course, since the more people you have, the more food depletes, while loggers and miners gather what you'd expect autonomously. Note that unlike similar games, CivCrafter does not gather resources while you're not playing. It's simple to start off, but as you play, you'll realize things get a little more complex... farmers, for instance, can find skins, which you'll need to build a tannery for and employ someone at to convert them into leather. Eventually, you'll need this and other "secondary" resources like metal from refined ore in great quantities, both to unlock more powerful upgrades, but also to outfit your army. Yeah, that's right. You'll need to pillage and defend yourself from being pillage, and maybe even join a Clan, if you want to get all the trophies and skulls you can. Because who doesn't like trophies and skulls?

Before we get started on that thing you came here to do, you know, playing free online escape games, I thought we could spend a few minutes shooting the breeze. I'll start. The other day, a friend called and invited me to play hide-and-seek. Maybe it's silly but that's why it's so fun. "Sure!" I said and began to walk over there. Suddenly aliens attacked! All was pandemonium, panic and mayhem until a mystery figure stepped out of nowhere with some oddly pieced together rocket. Huzzah! Loves to heroism! Because I needed to unwind after so much excitement, I entered a relaxing little green room where a pink frog served tea and played a tune on her miniature piano. After relating my story, she suggested I go into the study, sit at a desk and write it all down. Which I started to do but, well, really now, writing is kind of hard. I stared at the windowpane lined with colorful pots contemplating how best to capture my strange experiences in words. I think this is how it all began. My eyelids grew heavy, the world grew dim and, when I woke up, I was locked in a room I'd never seen before...

Welcome to indie multiplaying exploration-based adventure with KWAAN, currently playable in Steam's Early Access, a beautiful and persistent online world steeped in tribal myth, natural balance, and co-operative gameplay. KWAAN is a dynamic environment where keeping the spirit of the world vibrant and alive on a daily basis is of paramount importance, and players must collaborate to do this if they want the world on their server to continue. Nurturing the living pixel environment, contributing their unique artistic touch to the branches of the world tree, hand-crafting flowers, bringing the stars together into constellations, solving puzzles, crafting offerings, exploring the realm, and summoning animals like penguins, platypi and ducks are just some of the things that will keep KWAAN, the sentient tree and spirit of the world, healthy and alive. This is a harmonious and gentle world in which aesthetics, myth and imagination reign supreme. Blue glowing maana crystals glisten overhead, bright spirits of animals waft across the sky, and ice-block jellyfish appear briefly to form oceanic platforms for safe passage. Deftly bringing together a special blend of elements from genres like role-playing and adventure games, KWAAN is perhaps best regarded as a fantastic and mystic co-operative multiplayer platformer provided by David Calvo and Maxime Plantady.

Carmel Games' Creepo is back for another ghoulishly goofy tale of mildly macabre escapery with Creepo's Tales: Friday the 13th. Pedro, a hiker, finds himself trapped in a national park and hunted by a crazed ranger who's turned into a psychotic killer after falling off a cliff... you know, as you do. To help Pedro find a way out, just click around to explore. The cursor will change when you can interact with something, and you can either combine items in your inventory by clicking first one then the other, or pick it up to use it elsewhere. Don't be too scared... despite some great atmosphere thanks to the wonderful ambient colouring and creepy backgrounds, this isn't much of a horror game. In fact, the scariest thing might be how short the game is, though by and large most of the puzzles tend to be logical, which has been an issue with some Carmel Games titles in the past. Will Pedro escape "crazy Mason"? And even if he does, well, he's not out of the woods yet! Hopefully the next installment is a little meatier... you know, something to really sink your fangs into.

Play Creepo's Tales: Friday the 13th

[Note: This game is available in "Pay What You Want" format, including free. If you enjoy this game, support your indie developers and consider paying them what you can for it!]

[Note: Please note The Blind Griffin deals with some subject matter some people may find upsetting.

Made for NaNoReNo 2015, Asphodel Quartet's free indie otome visual novel The Blind Griffin starts off in San Francisco during the roaring twenties, and your parents would really rather you, the youngest daughter of a large Chinese family, settled down and got yourself married. That's not the life you wanted for yourself, but with few job opportunities, you're running low on funds and choices... until strange signs lead you to a candy shop that happens to be a front for a very special speakeasy. You start off bartending, but you quickly discover there's something a little magical afoot, not just about your bewitching coworkers, and soon you find yourself with a surprising challenge... prove you have what it takes to be a magician, something you had no idea you were until that night, and take the exam administered by the Grand Council, or have your memory, and your newfound magic, stripped away. You'll need to choose a mentor from three of your fellow coworkers (who all happen to be eligible bachelors, of course), and work hard to take your exam in a few months time. With snappy writing, gorgeous visuals, and welcome diversity (though unfortunately all romantic options are hetero only), The Blind Griffin is cheeky good fun with polish that belies its short development time.

Way, waaaaaaay back in the ancient annals of time known as 2012, Kotorinosu released a challenging little escape game called Sphinx. Now, apparently, it's time to revisit that classic with Sphinx (2015) (Android and iOS versions coming soon!), which keeps the Egyptian setting but provides you with an entirely new place to explore and set of puzzles to crack. There's no changing cursor, so if you want to find everything you need to interact with, you'll have to put on your Sherlock hat and scour every dusty inch of this place, and if you expect the game to give you any hints and direction, well... looks like you're going to be entombed for quite some time. This update of the original game concept strikes a solid balance between simple "use item X on space Y" style puzzles and more complex offerings that require a lot of logic and attention to detail. Whereas the original kept you facing a single direction, not counting any close up examinations, this one lets you move around a lot more, and thus feels complex in a different way. Pixel hunting isn't really an issue, but some puzzles require more thinking than others, and with some inventory items needing to be combined or used more than once, you have your work cut out for you. As of this writing, I'm unsure if this web version will vanish after a while as happened with Kotorinosu's last update of a classic and subsequent mobile release, but for the moment, it's freely available for all to attempt to unlock. B Y O Explorer Hat, and maybe give Brendan Fraser a call... he was always good with ancient temples.

Play Sphinx (2015)

Sure, frantic action arcade mobile games have their place, but sometimes you just don't feel like competing to see how fast your fingers can fly across the touchscreen. You know you're on to something different when you find a game that's a delight to look at and listen too, is relaxing yet at the same time makes you think. Many Monkeys zen like puzzle game Breath of Light, with a soundtrack from Winterpark, is all of this for your iOS device, and more. Each level has light emanating from one blossom. The goal is to manipulate the light with different objects until it hits all of the flowers, causing them to bloom. This is mostly done with various rocks, which of course every good zen garden has.

Steven Universe is one of those cartoons people keep recommending to me, and it turns out, it's for a good reason. The series, which follows the superpowered guardians of Earth, the Crystal Gems known as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, as well as their half-human charge/bestie/party-starter Steven, is not only ruthlessly adorable and nostalgic, it's also brilliantly plotted with fantastic character development and a lot of heart and much needed diversity and representation. So, naturally, the release of Grumpy Face Studios' Attack the Light as a turn-based strategy RPG for iOS and Android with a Mario RPG-sy flair, has a lot of fans very happy. At the start of the game, Steven accidentally unleashes a swarm of powerful enemies from an ancient Gem weapon, and tags along to provide support and Hambuger Backpack-ery for the others while they travel the world trying to return the corrupting light to the prism Steven accidentally released it from. Though it focuses mainly on dungeon-crawling combat with an eye on strategy, Attack the Light does so with all the style, charm, and heart that fans of the series have come to love.

In Denis Vasilev's cute but very grindy action game The Power of Love, a knight and a princess are smitten with one another, but the king isn't having any of it. So what's a lovestruck knight to do? Why, beat down the castle, using the coins the king hurls in distaste to buy new upgrades to further increase your punching prowess. Just click and hold to swing your weapon (initially just the very lute you used to serenade your lady love), and move the cursor to move the knight, walking over coins to pick them up. Move alllllll the way to the left to enter the shop and purchase speed and power improvements. Cute and simple? Sure. Fast? Not so much, as initially the knight moves so painfully slowly you'd be forgiven for getting frustrated before your first speed upgrades. Your goal is to eventually destroy the castle, thus freeing the princess to love as she wishes, though one could argue maybe the princess should get off her frilly butt and do something herself if she were really in love. Still, while it could definitely have been streamlined, once you start unlocking new equipment and thus the king starts hurling more types of treasure, things get a lot faster.

Play The Power of Love

Awww....who's the cute widdle headless zombie? You are? Why, yes you are, in Zombonarium, a super-cuddly zombie physics puzzler from Bite Lemon Games. Your zombie loses his head at the beginning and it will take you 30 levels, including a boss level, to finally keep that thing in place. Using your shovel cursor, you aim the zombie head at a key, a bone or a sticky platform and click to launch your head, all the while trying to avoid killer falls or fire traps. Friendly rotating skulls can help you along the path, and bats can help or hinder.

MayMay's name is quickly becoming synonymous with fast, cute, and fun escape games, and Fixed Unfixed Escape is no different, though sadly this time there are no baked goods to devour. Instead, you're trapped in a small room with a bed, a balloon (we all float down here), a door that opens onto a tiny balcony, and not much else... y'know, aside from a bunch of puzzle locks. The cursor won't change as it passes over things, so you'll need to click around and figure out what's interactive for yourself, and remember to use "About Item" to view and play around with the items you're carrying up close. One of which will be a dirty and torn piece of laundry, for those of you who have been desperately wishing for more games about complicated solutions to household chores. The biggest challenge here will definitely be trying not to overthink things, as Fixed Unfixed Escape is definitely a straightforward game, but while it might last less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee/iced tea/ginger ale/the tears of your enemies, it's still cute and fun in a way that makes it perfect for a little nibblet of an escape game.

Play Fixed Unfixed Escape

Lo.Nyan is playing around a bit with their latest escape game Lo.Nyan's Room Escape 14, although if you think being trapped in a colourful, soothing room filled with toys, crayons to colour with, and a place to nap peacefully is a bad thing, you clearly overestimate my maturity. There's no changing cursor, so you'll have to click on everything if you want to find all the items and clues needed to solve the game's many puzzles, though bars will appear at the edges of the screen when you mouse over them if you can change direction. Remember to check out your inventory with the "About Item" feature if you want to view it up close to see if you can manipulate it, and go ahead and use the save function if you want to take a break. Perhaps more usefully, however, you can use the camera you find early on to take photos of pertinent clues so you don't need to constantly run back and refer to them as you play, though you should note some clues need to be photographed in some fiddly ways. Though the descriptive text is in Japanese, you don't need to know the lingo in order to play.

These days, it seems like everyone is getting into the high-difficulty smartphone arcade game genre, and Bart Bonte's tap tap tap, free for iOS and Android, takes things in a very Bop It! direction with all the quirky, clean style you've come to expect. All you have to do is follow the directions of the voice... tap on some circles, double-tap others, drag coloured circles to matching outlines, and more. The twist, of course, is that the game keeps adding new elements and speeding up as you play, and you have a narrower and narrower window of time to execute each action before you lose. It's a simple concept that sounds easy, but can you keep your eyes, brain, and hands all working together long enough to beat your high score?

A long time ago six great heroes saved the land, so when they're called for again, it puts them in a bit of a sticky situation, since one of them very recently had an unfortunate run-in with a dragon, and now they're one member short. Luckily for them in Dragonfly Studios' free indie visual novel April Was A Fool, you just happen to bear a striking resemblance to their dearly departed party member, April. Too bad you're just a local server who really has no business running around with high-level legendary heroes, and while they assure you all you need to do is show up at the castle to fool the king into thinking all six of them are still around, you've always wanted to be a hero anyway despite lacking the qualifications, and thus begins a tale of magic, romance, adventure, and a bunch of screw-ups who can barely get their acts together and aren't as close as they once were. With a fantastic, polished presentation, eleven endings, five unique plot lines, and a loveable cast of quirky, heroic maniacs, April Was A Fool is a fun, funny, and engaging visual novel that's an absolute joy and worth replaying again and again despite many points of the narrative feeling rushed.

When you're that special sort of blue that only one hundred brightly coloured eggs will cure, Pencilkids' perpetually pouting primates know how you feel, and in the latest installment of their point-and-click puzzle series, Monkey GO Happy Eggs, you'll have to turn every leaf, stone, and suspicious part of the scenery upside-down if you want to find all the eggs you need. The yellow arrows transition you from one area to the next, and your cursor will change when it passes over something you can click on to interact with. Want to try using something from your inventory at the top of the screen? Just drag it where you want it to go. While one hundred eggs seems like the sort of thing that would keep you busy hunting for a long time, especially if you were like me when you were little and were bad enough at finding a half dozen or so, Monkey GO Happy Eggs is definitely not that gargantuan a task. Like the rest of the Monkey GO Happy games, it's designed to be a short break, and it's as weirdly whimsical as you've come to expect with its candy-coated environments and creepy-cute characters. Its puzzles are fairly logical, but you'll need to pay attention to your surroundings to crack them, so keep your eyes peeled and hop to it!

Play Monkey GO Happy Eggs

Thanks to Nicosite for sending this one in!

You've been dreading this. It's really not that you've been putting it off: in fact you saw your mom before you went to sleep yesterday. But now that you've moved home, it's like it's expected that follow all the rules you had as a kid. As if letting her know where you are at all hours of the day will help you get back on your feet as an independent adult. Sometimes, even when you don't have anywhere to go, you just need to get away. Not even away from anything. Not like, from Dad or Mom or Ben. Just... away. You even found this cool guitar pick. Maybe David will like it. But now, one of those classic Nebraska storms has burst open the sky and it's time to head back. But you'd can take this call while you drive. Three Fourths Home is a piece of indie interactive art by [Bracket] Games that's been newly re-released in an extended edition with some cool extras. In it, you play as Kelly, a part-girl part-woman driving the rural stretch between her grandparent's dilapidated barn and the old home that's recently become new again.. It's an interesting piece of narrative presented in quite the unique way

The escape game scene may be crowded nowadays, but there's always room for more. New developer SARAMEYA has entered the scene with Lodger, a curious white and black room the likes of which no ordinary house would contain. If the strangely patterned door, the pipes sticking out of the opposite wall, and the row of unusual paintings don't set the mood, the three eccentric characters waiting behind the three shutters certainly do. As delightful as your company may be, you'd really like to leave the room, so get your thinking cap on and keep an eye out for clues that could lead, directly or indirectly, to your egress.

At least some thieves go and make a name for themselves by stealing priceless artworks, legendary cultural relics, or jewels the size of fists. But the lowlife band of ruffians in Vitalii Zlotskii's Juicy Bazooka apparently have nothing better to do with their time than harass a poor, beleaguered homeowner by stealing his groceries. The nerve! Luckily for him, they didn't nab his watermelons... Or the specially-modified bazooka he fires them with! Shoot melons at felons and help him reclaim his stolen groceries in this puzzle shooter game. Just make sure no innocent bystanders get a face full of fruit! Gameplay-wise, it's a familiar song and dance, but it's hard to resist a game with such a good-naturedly goofy pretense... and such cute voice clips!

Dear loyal JIG readers, welcome to a very special edition of Weekday Escape today, with exclusive first coverage of a breaking story: Escape games, a multinational gaming obsession that has taken a worldwide audience captive and captured the attention of major corporations, legislators and research firms. As it was JIG that reported on escape games' humble beginnings, and it was here that certain celebrities would get their escape game fix, it is only fitting that we should report on new emerging data regarding the health benefits of playing these popular diversions. While this early on sources cannot be revealed or confirmed, when it's news this good, we don't want to lose precious moments not playing escape games through such time-consuming formalities as "fact checking" do we? Already the clock is ticking while we prattle on about details. All you really need to know is: This is a BIG DEAL. Already Google is inventing a new way to use self-driving cars in globalized escape games (an early prototype shows there's still much progress to be made). Rumors have surfaced on the streets of The Capitol, according to a witness who would only identify himself as "Bub", that lawmakers are now considering what, if any, limits should be put on escape game production. Our best advice: Stock up now...