January 2016 Archives

I.C.S or Instantaneous Combustion Syndrome is one heck of a syndrome. Stand in direct sunlight for too long and poof! Up you go in flames. With this kind of disease it would seem it would be best to stay inside with your favorite game system and spend your days in the dark. But our little hero doesn't have it so lucky. Instantaneous Combustion Syndrome 2 is a puzzle platform game that has you either running for the caverns or using your blazing self to take out bad guys before quickly diving into some water to put yourself out. Each level has its own secret box to find and open, but your main goal is to reach the doorway without turning into a pile of ash. This challenging game has you using your curse as a blessing, while also trying to avoid self-combustion at all cost. Run with either the [WASD] or [arrow] keys, jump with [Z] or use it to slide when you're crouching, and use [X] to open boxes, flip switches, and drink potions. But above all make it to the doorway when you're not consumed with flames and make it to your next little adventure.

Hosted here with kind permission by creator Eric Vaughan, Strange Magic Escape (also playable at the official site) is, as the title might imply, an escape game that's just a little weird... in a good way. You find yourself in a small room with two locked doors, though only one leads out, and you'll need to solve the puzzles around you to find the clues needed to open the final lock. There's no changing cursor to show what's interactive and what isn't, but there's also no pixel hunting either. Just click on things to examine them or pick them up, and use the arrows that appear at the edges of the screen to move around the room. If an item can be combined with another you're carrying, it'll happen automatically, and if you want to try using something, just click it to highlight, and then click again wherever you want to try to use it. Some items may take a little time to take effect, so take a step back and nose around the room a little from time to time.

Despite having restrained its initial captivating weirdness in subsequent installments, Elephant Games' Mystery Trackers has always been a hidden-object adventure series that's near and dear to my heart. In Mystery Trackers: Paxton Creek Avenger, the villain comes with his own bishi-sparkles, so you know it's going to be at least a little pleasantly crazy. Turns out he's upset at you, or at least your organisation, and as he believes the Mystery Trackers have gone about unpoliced for too long, he's abducted the leader's daughter... well, I mean, what else did you expect a Phantom of the Opera knock-off bad guy to do? Much less one uses "rascals" as a vicious insult and who sounds like he's two steps away from shouting "TUNNEL SNAKES RULE" before vanishing into the night. Solve puzzles, use powerful theater spotlight bulbs in puny handheld flashlights, and complete hidden-object scenes as you track the so-called Avenger to foil his doubtless dastardly plot!

Twofold Inc, available for iOS and Android from grapefrukt games, the creator of rymdkapsel, combines some of my very favourite things... cute robots, a sleek and simple design with a funky-cool soundtrack, and really cunning puzzles in a high-score style format. All you need to do is match coloured tiles in unbroken lines to meet the requested amounts from your robot helper for as long as you can to get the highest score possible without running out of lives. Sound simple? Well, it's actually quite a bit more tricky than its sweet and stylish appearance would imply, and every bit as rewarding and strategic as any puzzle fan looking for an addictive game with a swank soundtrack for their mobile device could hope for

One day we'll have everything we need to finally be ready to go out on the town, but for now it's Funkyland's escape game Girl's Room No. 17: Hair Clip, and no hairstyle is complete without five clips to make you look like an early '90s child star. As usual, to find what you need you'll have to solve puzzles and turn this opulent room upside-down, and in this instance, try not to get distracted by that sweet roll cake on the table. (Well, you'll try not to get distracted. I'm going to sit there and eat it and shout encouragement through a mouthful of crumbs while you search.) As we've come to expect from Funkyland, Girl's Room No. 17: Hair Clip falls into the short but satisfying category, with some clever puzzle mechanics and just the right amount of whimsy to make playing through a delight rather than a serious mental chore. So roll up your sleeves, and lets find those hair clips together... I'll even do your hair for you when we're done! It's been, like... at least several years since I've seriously injured someone with a curling or straightening iron. You'll be fine.

Play Girl's Room No. 17: Hair Clip

Fireberry Studios' adventure game The Splitting: Chapter 1 starts out with a strange dream of which your character only remembers the end. As you explore his house, you find that he is unable to see his reflection in the mirror, and that because of his lack of a reflection, he is able to travel through into a mirror world. With the help of a mysterious man named llehctiM, the split reflection of a man named Mitchell from your own world, you now embark on an adventure to figure out where your reflection has gone and why he has split from you. Use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move, and the [spacebar] to interact.

Take a sprinkle of Don't Starve and stir in with generous amounts of madcap science-fiction, oddball humour, and a whole lot of smashing, and you've got indie action adventure Crashlands Butterscotch Shenanigans, available for PC or Android and iOS, with cross-platform play when you own both desktop and mobile versions and sign up for a free online account to transfer saves. The game stars Flux Dabes, the cheeriest little space-faring delivery truck driver/barbarianess you ever did see, whose mission to deliver some packages goes awry when an evil giant head rips her spaceship apart for his own uses. Now Flux, together with her trusty robotic sidekick/supervisor/sass-maker JuiceBox, must survive on the planet while figuring out how to send a message to the Bureau of Shipping to get her packages delivered. With fantastic humour and character design, randomly generated terrain, and an entire alien world to craft, fight, tame, and eventually even mod your own stories in, Crashlands is a powerhouse of an adventure that's worth every second of your time.

It is Wednesday, and it... has... RISEN. Summoned by an offering of changing cursors, door locks, and random items with seemingly random purposes, Weekday Escape oozes forth from the bowels of the Earth! This week! Vitamin Hana locks you up with a dubious and demanding companion. Primera at least leaves out some refreshments to go with your puzzle solving. And Nagamochi Games puts a dragon under glass somewhere pretty in pink.

TomaTea's escape game Miro Clue isn't sad, but it sure is blue. To open the locked door and make your way to freedom, you'll need to solve your fair share of puzzles, and of course use the items you pick up and spot the clues hidden around you. If a puzzle informs you that you don't know how to solve it, that means there's something you haven't seen yet to crack it, and the tip of your in-game cursor will glow when it passes over something you can click on to interact with. Miro Clue has a very abstract art feel to it, apart from its stately soundtrack that makes you feel like the king is about to burst in and demand some hossenfeffer any moment, though the puzzles themselves are pure TomaTea through and through. There are puzzle pieces to assemble, a whole host of coded locked drawers to solve, and some clues to corresponding puzzles that are juuuuust a bit maddeningly vague when compounded with the silent judgement of wooden models. Just remember to pay close attention to your surroundings, examine items in your inventory by clicking the little "i" when you mouse over them, and if you get stuck, well, try looking at the bigger picture.

Play Miro Clue

Our famous thief... er, um, treasure hunter, is back to try again! Super Dangerous Dungeons has some old, some new, and a much tighter control system that will have you rage quitting purely because of the difficulty and not any flighty controls. The "third" in this small series is not really a sequel to Tiny Dangerous Dungeons, but more like a version 2.0 of the original Dangerous Dungeons. Adventure Islands' new action puzzle platform game is a solid improvement on the first with just enough tweaking that even the levels that taken from the previous game are different enough you'll notice. Work your way through the dungeons using only the right and left [arrow] keys and your steady jump that goes higher the longer you hold the [spacebar]. Get the key and then get to the door to go deeper into this dungeon. Race against bosses to win the treasures and do everything you can not to die. With new levels spread throughout you'll be happy to know as well that this high difficulty challenge can go with you wherever you go as it's also for iOS and Android. So now you can find secrets, collect treasure, and rage quit all to your heart's desire while waiting in line or, let's be honest, sitting on your porcelain throne.

One of the saddest things to hear is a young voice calling out for their beloved, missing puppy. What's even sadder is to find out all the puppies in your neighborhood have gone missing. But what tops all of that off is finding a delicious smell coming from your neighbor's house only to discover it's Puppy Stew! But hey, not to worry. Eva, your neighbor, is still in the process of cooking and all the pups are still yapping around. Now your witch of a neighbor (not an insult, she's an actual witch) is hankering for some puppy stew or some sweet tears of defeat from your other neighbor Vila. Vila is the Queen of the Witch Games, but for every minigame you defeat her in, Eva will release one of the puppies to you. This platformer by Justin Leingang is all about the minigames which vary from you stomping on poor squirrels, playing keep away, racing to the top of the highest tree, and many many more. Defeat Vila thirty times to gain all the puppies and become the Heroine of all dogs around.

[Mica: Apoptosis is still in development. As of this writing, the prologue and first three chapters are available, with more coming soon.]

[This game contains subject matter that may be upsetting to some individuals.]

There once was a Goddess who saved Man from the evil Things. She was kind and gracious and full of power. When the children of the Goddess show that they have control of her power is it seen as a blessing or a curse? Soyasushi Productions' Mica: Apoptosis is a free indie horror adventure game told from three different points of view of our main heroes. Each one seems so vastly different from the other yet it seems their lives are fated to intertwine. Princess Micaiah holds the power of the Goddess and must use it to keep her people safe from the Things that roam outside her castle walls. Lenine is her right-hand man and head servant in her household. Mika is a young girl also blessed with the Goddess' power, though in her mind and those around her it is a curse. With a corrupted church trying to gain control, foul zombie like beasts always trying to destroy human flesh, and mysteries surrounding every character, all three of them must find their inner strengths. But are these heroes we are watching be born or villains?

Why is it that whenever the protagonist's car breaks down in the middle of the night they go to the only house with no lights on? And then they just invite themselves inside as if they owned the place. Serves them right when the door snaps closed behind them. Forgotten Hill: Fall has you in such a predicament, but even a rude person like yourself doesn't deserve what's awaiting you in this house. FM Studio's point-and-click escape horror game doesn't waste any time giving you the chills as you solve puzzles to venture deeper into the house hoping to find the way out. Death could be, and is, one click away so be careful where you go poking your nose. Sadly, that's a must for escape games, so be ready for some jumps, deaths, and a very appreciated automatic save system.

When the world relies on one hero to save them all from a terrible beast you had better hope he's got more to his arsenal than just jumping and swinging his weapon. Well, that's all this one has got, but in these different colored worlds, some helpful creatures show him some new powers that will help him bring hope and light back to his people. Imperil, by Henrik Sahlin and Erik Swahn, is a platformer where each new area comes with a new weapon in your arsenal. Whether it's building platforms under your feet or altering the world around you, you can guarantee it's going to be the exact skill you need to win against this nameless blight. Move and aim spells with [WASD] or the [arrow] keys, and use [Z],[X],[C] or [K],[J],[H], respectively, for jump, attack, and your special. With really not too much story to focus on your goal is to kill, find the many hidden secrets to buy health upgrades, and enjoy the retro feel in this action packed game.

Funkyland's beloved escape game series almost feels a little more regal than usual with Alice House 2 No.06: Humpty Dumpty, where you're searching a courtyard for five items with Humpty Dumpty on them. There's no changing cursor to show what you can click on, but because of the small area the game takes place over, diligent Wonderlanders shouldn't have much difficulty finding what they need. Funkyland has basically perfected the snack-sized escape game, and Alice House 2 No.06: Humpty Dumpty is no different, with just the right amount of puzzles and whimsy to brighten your day, and no frustrating pixel hunting or illogical solutions... as long as you remember some objects can be used more than once. So go ahead and crack this one open... just let all the Kind's horses and men know when you're done.

Play Alice House 2 No.06: Humpty Dumpty

Save the world, one tile at a time, in Red Winter Software's turn-based roguelike strategy game Dungelot: Shattered Lands, available for iOS and on Steam later this year. In this continuation of the addictive Dungelot saga, unchecked mana mining has made the world unstable and caused it to split apart, while monsters appear from strange portals across the land. Packed with a wide variety of challenging encounters, useful items, surprises, satisfying strategy, and some eye-catching visuals, Dungelot: Shattered Lands is one formidable roguelike that will monopolize your free time in a big way.

Do you like mahjong? Like... a lot? Then with nearly a thousand levels, Legendary Mahjong is fluttering its handkerchief coyly your way. Angry about being forgotten, the gods have set out to punish humankind, but luckily the "God of Unbridled Happiness" is going to help you restore their temples and avoid their sullen wrath. Legendary Mahjong is low on bells and whistles, but full to bursting with simply satisfying levels, different game modes, special tiles and more that will keep you busy for a long time.

This title is available in Pay What You Want format, including free. If you enjoy this game, please consider paying the developer what you think it's worth!

Of all the mysterious things that could suddenly appear in your apartment and be the cause of worry, a potted plant isn't that high up on the list. But that's because you've never seen a plant like this before. The Ceramic Uncertainty, a Crazy Knuckles Production, is an interactive fiction game about how you deal with such an anonymous gift. With loads of branches to the story, a simple choice can drastically change your narrative from a lighthearted adventure to a daring fight to stay alive with terror possibly around the corner. How it goes depends on which choices you select as you read. With over a 40,000 word count and 80 different endings, this Twine game will for sure show you there is a lot more to this little curious plant than just watering it daily.

In Dancing Dragon Games' indie RPG Echoes of Aetheria, knight Lucian, the adopted son of a Duke, is caught in the middle of a bizarre conspiracy... specifically, kidnapping the royal bride-to-be at a wedding ceremony that was supposed to bring peace between two warring nations. Lucian's been branded a traitor and a terrorist, but with the help of clever mechanic Ingrid and the not-so-damsel-in-distress-y princess Soha herself, he might be able to prevent a plot to incite war... provided they can all clear their names and avoid getting assassinated in the process. Echoes of Aetheria is a gorgeously presented and professionally polished JRPG-style adventure with engaging combat and snappy writing that may have some familiar tropes, but seeks to elevate them rather than merely dress them up or call it "good enough".

Cat Manning's Invasion, with art by Kerstin Hall, is an unsettling text adventure about a young woman on the run at the end of the world. Pursued by creatures able to imperfectly imitate other humans and out to devour her, she's doing what she needs to in order to survive, scraping by day after day with only her memories for comfort... if only the things on her heels didn't want to glut themselves on those, too. To play, just click the words that appear bold and slightly larger than others. This can advance the story, but you may also need it to make decisions from time to time. Invasion is short, but still manages to paint an intriguing and thoroughly unsettling snapshot of the apocalypse through the use of solid writing that conveys its imagery and desperation very well. In between feverish running and scrabbling to survive, you learn a little more about our heroine through brief but evocative flashbacks to the people important to her, while the tidbits of life after the invasion itself, and the creatures within it, though you'll likely be left wanting more no matter which of the abrupt endings you get. It won't take you very long to read through, though there's room to replay and try out other options, most of which unlock other memories or are largely cosmetic, but if you prefer your science fiction and horror to be grounded with people, Invasion is more than worth the time.

Play Invasion

Divided into two worlds with their own set of rules, test subjects must find a way to pass the test and accomplished their shared goal. Isolated Subject, by Crneumre, is a platform puzzle game where you must figure out what is the special action in each of the worlds, and then switch between the rules to succeed. Nothing is explained to you, and you must experiment to find out what the secret action is. You only have movement keys of [W] for jump and [S] and [D] to go left or right respectively. In some worlds you can double jump by pressing [W] twice. In others, you can remove blocks by walking into them, and in still others even more clever and diverse tricks exist. Within these worlds is the exit door that must be powered by the glowing blocks. This is a case of a team effort that is spread very far apart in complete isolation. Are you clever enough to figure out the tricks?

Rise and shine, my little escaperinos! The world didn't end while you slept, and that means another week filled with bug bites, mixed up coffee orders, ATM fees, and bills. But it also means another week on this beautiful blue ball with friends, family... and escape games, naturally, which I think is all anyone really needs. This week! I'm starting to think Vitamin Hana doesn't actually want these dogs out, because they keep getting locked up again. Esklavos sends you sailing through the sky, after you've corralled your hot air balloon, of course. And Detarame Factory brings a little colour into your day with an escape that's as cute as it is weird... and it's really weird.

Franceso Del'anna Muja's interactive comic tale about the undead gets a revival with Zombie Society - Death After Death 1/3, a remake of the original peppered with more interactivity, though the story remains the same. In it, the dead are walking the Earth, but, well, that's okay, because we're following zombie sleuth Detective Margh. Even though everyone is dead, that doesn't mean there isn't any crime, and when Margh's friend Acka loses a portion of their farm in a mysterious explosion, he's on the case! Just click to advance panels and text, and click the dialogue balloon of your choice when given options. When magnifying glasses pop up, click them before they vanish to spot clues that may open more choices. The game feels like it moves a little more smoothly now, allowing players to read at their own pace, and some of the text has been cleaned up as well to flow better, though the biggest change is that you feel more active in the story by being able to make more decisions and spot clues. Zombie Society - Death After Death 1/3 is a fun, cheeky little zombie adventure where the dead guys are all right, and well worth reading through.

Play Zombie Society - Death After Death 1/3

Alice seems aptly named for a blonde little girl who finds herself in a strange wonderland. Except there is a lot less wonder and a lot more terror. But our brave little heroine is a lot more confident as she strives to find a way out of this horror story. Red Book: Discordia Tales, a remake of a game made three years ago, is a free indie game that has you solving puzzles and on your toes as everything here seems ready to kill Alice. Inspired by The Witch's House and Grimms' fairy tales, you can bet there are going to be a lot of jump scares, deaths, and gore for all those daring enough to open this book. The [arrow] keys are your source of movement, [Z] is interact, [X] is to cancel, and your inventory is found with [ESC]. Oh and [shift] is dash, which you'll soon find a very useful button to press if you wish to make it out alive.

After years of peace, the evil Queen Amethyst has called her minions (everything from giant eyeballs and mushrooms, to your more typical zombies) out from under whichever rocks they were hiding under to try to take over the realm of FellCrest. Call the heroes out of retirement to fight with weapons and spells in BattleHand, a strategic card battle game by Another Place Productions. I hear out of work heroes like to hang out at taverns, so maybe you can recruit some there?

In Bad Viking's point-and-click adventure The Curse of the Mushroom King, also free for iOS and Android, Bad Viking himself as run afoul of the titular Mushroom King, and unless he can gather the (eclectic) items he needs to break the curse, he'll never enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich again! To play, just click on anything to interact, or anywhere on the ground to walk there. Many items you find can be combined, so drag them on top of one another in your inventory to experiment. If you get stuck, well... try to think outside the box! And maybe that box's box, too. It's a weird one, but that's why we like it.

Villainy is afoot in FlashChaz and CKP Entertainment's randomly generated strategic puzzle game Welcome to Winkletown, where there's new crime to solve every day. Using a series of clues, it's up to you to pick out the guilty party from a bunch of Winkles. The information you're given probably won't be enough on its own to figure out who dunnit, so you'll need to question Winkles. Doing so costs you one Action Point, which you have a limited number of, forcing you to figure out what clues you're given are reliable enough to figure out the culprit's identity. You don't want to accuse the wrong person, after all. Figure out the guilty party before you run out of Ability Points to keep your successful crime stopping career going. It's a relatively simple game of deduction and logic, though its difficulty will depend on the clues you're given. Once more map locations open up, you'll have a lot more Winkles to choose from in different places, making picking the right one even harder! Cuter than a whole box full of buttons, Welcome to Winkletown proves crime doesn't pay, but it's still pretty fun.

Play Welcome to Winkletown

Utopix, available free online through Facebook or on iOS and Android with cross-platform play to save your progress from mobile to desktop and vice-versa, is a stylish little puzzle game about flipping tiles and matching pictures. The goal in each level is to make the playing field look like the grid on the left by clicking a tile to flip both it and all other immediately adjacent ones. Doing so will swap the colours of those tiles according to the progression on the right side of the screen, such as from green to orange and back again. The kicker is that you only have a limited amount of moves per level to make your grid match up with the goal, and when multiple colours to cycle through get added in, well, it's not as easy as it seems!

Adult Swim's definitely-not-for-the-childrens cartoon series Rick and Morty is one of those shows that will leave you either aghast, horrified, and repulsed, or aghast, horrified, repulsed, and delighted. The misadventures through the multiverse of a brilliant but self-destructive scientist and his perpetually sweaty and put-upon grandson have proven themselves funny, unapologetically violent and profane, but also smart, touching, and insightful when you least expect it. And, well, now it's on your phone, in a way, in Pocket Mortys, free for iOS and Android thanks to the talents of Adult Swim Games and Big Pixel Studios. It's an interdimensional RPG adventure that looks fantastic and is easily accessible by just about everyone, though fans of the series might long for a little more meat on its bones thanks to some seriously toned down content and a simplified RPG formula.

Whether you're rising and shining, or just shuffling around while making inarticulate grunting sounds, you know that the only way to start your Wednesday off right is with Weekday Escape... but I mean... if you want to hit a girl up with some waffles for breakfast, that's pretty cool too. This week! Amajeto celebrates the New Year with a handful of puzzles and a familiar aesthetic. Vitamin Hana locks you up but arms you with a pretty useful tool. And Esklavos strands you somewhere warm you'll need to build your way out of... if you can find everything to click on.

[1/12/2016: The Room Three is now available for Android!]

It starts with a box of a very ordinary sort, at least as ordinary as a box that appears out of nowhere on your train ride can be, but what's inside is, oh, so much more than that. In The Room Three, a stunning puzzle adventure from Fireproof Games for newer iPads and iPhones and Android, it seems you've attracted the attention of someone calling themselves The Craftsman, and they'd like your help unraveling the secrets of what lies between the cracks of the world... if you can prove yourself, of course. What follows is an immersive and atmospheric trip down the rabbit hole, as, challenge after challenge, you are drawn deeper and deeper into curious places filled with curiouser mechanisms. You'll need to think hard in order to overcome the obstacles in your way, exploring each new area with the sweep of a finger to look for clues as to how to solve every new puzzle you come across. With multiple endings and hours of gameplay, The Room Three is just begging for you to pick up and play, but be warned that if you do, you might not be able to put it down until you're finished.

Allen Jay Roldan's short free indie horror game I'm Alright will probably make you flinch, and that's the point. As it opens, when you wake up in what appears to be a quiet and comfortable hospital, the sun is streaming through the windows and birds and singing outside, but things go wrong in a hurry. Suddenly, you have to escape, but with quick reflexes needed to sneak by enemies who can kill you with a touch, you'll find the game's handful of levels a definite challenge. Use the [arrow] keys to move, jump, and crawl, and hold [S] to hide in certain places. You'll need to figure out how the creatures you're trapped with work in order to get by them, but if you die, you'll just respawn at the entrance to the level you're in.

Eilo Landa has brought us some great logic games, like Sum Tracks and Finite Moves, and their newest simple twist is Wise Turn holding all the great puzzle logic we love, but without the math some of those other games require. Wise Turn is all about knobs and turning them in the right direction... that direction being "up". You'll know you got it right when the little arrow is glowing all warm and fuzzy like. Set up on a grid system, the puzzle part comes in when turning one will turn the whole row or column. Red turns clockwise, blue turns counter-clockwise, and some will take more than one click to move. You'll need to think a few steps ahead or end up turning in circles. With its invigorating soft music, relaxed feel, and all levels open to play so you're free to skip around, Wise Turn is the casual gameplay great to have to unwind from a long day.

Most bullet h-e-double-hockeysticks style action games have you firing back against the hail of seemingly impossible bullets, but in Rhete's challenging platformer Bullet Phaze, all you can do is dodge. You control a little pixel out to save his friends after they were sucked into a portal, and while every level is full of dangerous traps, lasers, projectiles and more, all you can do is switch your colour. See, if you're blue, red things won't hurt you but blue objects are dangerous, while the reverse is true when you're red. Use [WAD] or the [arrow] keys to move and jump, and the down [arrow] or [S] to swap between red and blue. If you get hit, you'll need to start the whole level over again, so quick reflexes are a must. You may need to use springs to bounce, alternating colours quickly between hails of bullets, or find keys to unlock the door, though rescuing your friend on each stage is optional. It goes without saying that you'll need to enjoy a challenge to get behind this game, and while I experienced zero lag myself, if you're encountering any you may want to try closing any extra windows and programs. The levels are vicious but cleverly designed, so if you don't mind exploding a few dozen times, fire up Bullet Phaze!

Play Bullet Phaze

Volch's new resource management incremental simulation Endless Expansion lets you start out mining stone and hewing trees, gradually working your way to facilities enabling you to produce technologically-advanced goods and materials like plastics, solar panels and power transmitters. Unlike Factorio and certain other games we could mention there are no hostile aliens, creature mobs or indigenous peoples to come between you and perfect idyllic planetwide resource-processing efficiency. Slap a few basic resource-gathering facilities where appropriate, connect them up to a storage unit or something that uses whatever it produces, attach power where appropriate, and you're ready to gather enough resources to build the next, more advanced, construction types. There are even Outposts that let you expand your available territory but you'll soon find that it's not how far you can spread out your empire that's important, it's how and where you prioritize your available resources that matters the most!

In Bromoco's text-based adventure Buried: Interactive Story, available for iOS and Android, an average day as a logger takes a turn for the bizarre. The last thing you can remember is an explosion, screaming... and now you've woken up, hours later, alone in the woods at night surrounded by devastation and silence. Something is clearly very, very wrong, and as you search for your fellow crew members and try to find out what happened, your choices over the course of five chapters will decide the outcome. Just tap the choice you prefer when one is offered... the rest of the time, the text advances on its own bit by bit. If you close the app, the game will automatically pick up right where you left off unless you choose to restart. Supremely creepy and well written, Buried makes for a great evening's read, though a single-file save system and an inability to manually advance the text makes it feel a little slow.

Functu knows how to bring the funky, as point-and-click puzzle game Easy Joe 4 shows. The goal is to guide our neon, abstract little bun-bun safely through each level by finding what you need to click on in the proper order to open the way forward. If you look at the world of online gaming as a buffet, Easy Joe 4 is the handful of candies you filch from the dessert bar... not particularly filling, but tasty and sweet nonetheless. It's going to be a little too easy for some, but hey, it's right there in the title, and at least this time you'll get a weird little quick-time-event arrow battle for Joe to Matrix his way through to boot, though it needs to be said... Joe is kind of a jerk.

Play Easy Joe 4

Is it beginning to look a lot like Christmas as you read this? Who cares! Fire up Eyesteam's physics puzzle platformer Mr. Splibox: The Christmas Story, and then leave it on the title screen while you dance in your chair to that infectious music for a minute or ten. When you're ready to play, you'll discover X-Mas World has been overtaken by the wicked Snow Boom, so it's up to Mr. Splibox to save the day again. Move with [WASD] or the [arrow] keys, but Mr. Splibox can't jump, so you need to absorb the tiny Spliboxes (don't worry, they want to help) by pressing the down key, then tapping the up key to spawn them beneath Mr. Spilbox to boost him up. You can only build as high as you have Spliboxes to reach, but you'll find more to help as you go throughout the game. You can even throw Spliboxes at far away things by standing next to them and pressing [C] or the [spacebar]. Just watch out for enemies... use the Spliboxes to fight your battles for you, though with spikes, timed switches and more, you'll need quick reflexes to pull everything off. Mr. Splibox: The Christmas Story isn't substantially different from its predecessors, but it looks and sounds great, making it a fun little game whether you have eggnog in your fridge or not.

Play Mr. Splibox: The Christmas Story

This title is available in Pay What You Want format, including free. If you enjoy this game, please consider paying the developer what you think it's worth!

Ever had a night out with friends in nature, enjoying the sounds of the fire, staring into the night sky and willing to talk about anything since you're so bored and the last bits of good gossip was shared an hour ago? Longest Night is exactly that as a group of friends turn towards the constellations to help pass the time with one another. While recounting the history from long ago of the very odd world they live in, we may even learn a few things about their own past. Finji's indie experimental game is more of a mix of super short stories with some semi-surrealism mixed in than a real game. Connect the stars on the patterns by using your mouse to click and drag a line between them, and then get a brief conversation with the characters below. Occasionally the character Mae will have a choice between responses as shown by arrows on their dialog, and then selected by clicking on the words you want her to speak. As a small glimpse into their full game, Night in the Woods, coming later in 2016, The Longest Night isn't there to have you achieve anything except for maybe some creativity shared and nostalgia of times past with close friends.

"Long ago, in the Middle Ages," begins Elefun Games' hidden-object adventure Witches' Legacy: Awakening Darkness, a witch straight-up shanked another witch, because things were way more hardcore back then, and they didn't have time to wait for more than ten seconds into the opening cutscene to start murderin'. In present day, or at least as present day as 1995 gets, our hero Jack is visiting his mother and little sister for dinner, but arrives to find a garden gone wild and his sister possessed, though on the upset, technically this always makes him the good sibling just by default. Turns out Nikki's body has been commandeered by an ancient witch, who was murdered by her fellow spiteful apprentice, and it's up to Jack, and a transmogrified wannabe witch, to save Nikki and put a stop to things. With the option to play a memory matching game instead of hidden-object scenes, customiseable difficulty, and a whole slew of gorgeously bizarre locations, Witches' Legacy: Awakening Darkness is refreshingly magical and creative, though... not particularly easy to take seriously.

Ugh, weekdays. Ugh, responsibilities. Ugh, not being able to play three free online escape games in a row handcrafted by three different developers. ... wait, that last one doesn't apply to us at all! Muahaha, take that, productivity, procrastination wins again! This week! Nagamochi Games gets very tricky with an escape game where you can't take anything at face value. Vitamin Hana is so over doors and wants you to get a workout to break free. And Choko-Chai gives the kitties a rest for a wintry little treat.

As someone with a deep and abiding terror of large bodies of water and a healthy fear of the dark, playing Lazy Monday Games' indie horror puzzle platformer Reveal the Deep, also available on Android with iOS coming soon, was maybe not the best idea. You control a little deep sea diver, exploring a creaking, groaning, sunken hulk, with your only illumination coming from your diving helmet. If you're playing on Android, as I was, then you swipe left or right to start moving in that direction, tap anywhere to stop, and swipe down and up to crouch and jump, respectively. Double-tapping anywhere turns your light on and off, which is not just unnerving, but a key mechanic. See, some areas don't just look different with your light off... they are different, and swapping back and forth between the two can help you move forward. Deeper...

In Daily Magic Productions' hidden-object adventure Sable Maze: Soul Catcher, twenty years ago people went missing in the little town of Sullivan River, your brother being one of them. You've been having dreams of him "trying to tell you something" (pointing repeatedly at a big sign is actually pretty clear as far as Signs From Beyond go), and on the 20th anniversary of his disappearance, you've come back to town to fix up his memorial, though getting sucked into the Underworld probably wasn't on the itinerary. Either way, you've got nowhere else to go but forward, stumbling through an enormous maze in hopes of reaching the Tree of Life at the center, and hopefully finding your brother along the way. A mysterious but totally trustworthy stranger promises to help you, but an even mysterious-er stranger seems determined to thwart you at every turn. With stunning art design and top-notch production values all around, Sable Maze: Soul Catcher is one comely little adventure through strange lands, though chances are many will find it far too easy.

Simple arcade game Agar.io, created by Matheus Valadares and also free for iOS and Android, is one of those weird little games that's hard to really pitch to someone. You're a dot. You eat little dots to grow bigger. You want to be the biggest dot you can! But everyone else, because this takes place online, is also a dot, eating other dots, in a quest to become the biggest dot... and they're trying to eat you! Avoid other, larger dots while eating other, smaller dots, and try to get the highest score you can. Your dot follows your cursor, and since the smaller you are, the faster you move, so if you need to zip off, consider hitting [W] to poot out some mass. You can split your dot in twain with the [spacebar], and all dots created like this will move with you in unison, and though this makes you much more vulnerable, crafty players can use the size change and numbers to their advantage... or their downfall if they get cocky. The big, green spiky dots (the word "dot" has now lost all meaning to me) are viruses, and if you're bigger than them, they'll split you apart if you collide... something that you may be able to use to save yourself if you're being chased by another, bigger player. You can play in a free-for-all against other players, choose team mode to work together, choose party to generate a link to play with your friends, or try experimental mode, which offers new gameplay elements. The game does offer optional microtransactions, which allow you to buy more of the coins you earn by leveling up, and these in turn can be spent on cosmetic skins or temporary experience point or starting mass boosts. Agar.io is one of those games you either find fiendishly addictive like a good chunk of the population, or just don't get the appeal of. If you've ever craved an action game that'll leave you breathlessly racing from a giant pink dot painted to look like a banana, this is the game for you.

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Agar.io (iPhone, iPad, iPodTouch)

Agar.io (Android, Android Tablet)

In Dragosha Games' action-packed platformer Baron's Door, which follows Baron's Gate and Baron's Gate 2, and presumably eventually to be followed by Baron's Foyer and Baron's Kitchenette, you're busting out of prison and fighting your way through a castle packed with evil creatures to give the local wicked baron a good stabbing. Use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move and jump, and click to attack, swapping between weapons with [Q] and [E]. Your health is represented by the red bar, and once that's gone, you'll have to respawn from the start of your current room with all enemies reset, though the blue shield bar will absorb incoming attacks as you replenish it. You can find all manner of helpful automatic spells and potions by smashing crates and barrels, or from dropped enemies, but don't destroy too much of the environment... you may need to use something to weigh down a switch! Most of your time is going to be spent hacking monsters into mulch, though you'll want to keep an eye out for stars to make sure you can unlock all the stages. So watch out for spikes and fireballs, don't let too many skeletons skewer you, and make your way through Baron's Door to Baron's... Throne Room? Baron's En-Suite? Baron's Crawlspace? Hm!

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Made in just three days for Ludum Dare, Jezzamon's Tamamystery is a deceptively innocent throwback to older, Tamagotchi-er days as you handle the care and wellbeing of a tiny virtual critter. The are only two buttons... left can be triggered with [A], [Z], or the left [arrow], and the right button with the [S], [X], or [right] arrow. Hit both buttons at once to enter or leave buildings. There's more to Tamamystery than its clever papercraft design, as the title implies, but talking about what, exactly, would definitely spoil it even though the big twist comes a few moments in, though you may take a clue from looking at the game's rating if you're concerned about content. Though a little clunky to handle, Tamamystery is creative and clever, not to mention a fun spin on the "two button" and "growing" themes of the competition. Check out the official Ludum Dare page here, and when you're done, you can join me over here being crushed beneath the guilt of all those Tamagotchis we all begged for as kids, swore we'd take care of, and left to starve until their batteries died years ago after a week. Yaaaaaaay.

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Ah, GameHouse's casual time-management Delicious series. How whimsical. How cheerful! Entrepreneur and restaurateur Emily is always working hard but having fun, like the time she built a new business while renovating her home, or went on a cruise, or planned her wedding. What lighthearted shenanigans will she get up to in Delicious: Emily's Hopes & Fears? Let's see... uhhh... hm. Seems Emily and her husband Patrick are having marital problems, while their little girl is... stricken by an incurable disease. Wow! Okay! Sounds... cheerful! But if you know Emily, you know she isn't going down without a fight, and she'll travel the world to find a cure for her baby girl with the best family and friends a woman could want at her back... and of course run a mean restaurant while she does it, too!

How does a helmet with no visible extremities of any kind move and wield a sword? You might call it magic, but I call it Nitrome, and they call their free iOS and Android turn-based puzzle game Rust Bucket. Our hero, a tiny horned helmet, is out to rid the world of badness, one swipe at a time, for as long as you can last in Endless Mode moving from room to room. The game has a handful of fun and well-designed tutorial stages to walk you through the finer points, but the basics come down to swiping up, down, left, or right to move a single space in that direction, and planning your movements so that you don't get swatted. See, Rust Bucket is turn-based, and when you move, so do enemies. If you move into a square within range of an enemy during the same turn, they'll smite you in an instant. But, if you can use the terrain to your advantage and make them come to you, you'll be able to strike them down instead. Throw in locked doors, peasants in peril, fire traps and more, and you have a simple but addictive and strategic puzzle game that fits in your pocket.

Wild Wastelands, by Crionuke Games, Anised Games, and Kirill Kashur, takes the arena shooter to the post-apocalyptic battleground, as you fend off waves of mutated baddies and big bosses. Your character automatically follows your cursor, and fires at whatever is closest, with the [spacebar] being used to open the upgrades menu to spend your valuable radioactive waste on enhancing your abilities or unlocking new characters, and click to activate your special ability. Each time you die, you'll have to start the assault over from the beginning, making it a bit of a grind since you only have a single hit point until you unlock a new character, so prioritize upgrading Loot drops to get more for upgrades faster. The crazy chaotic boss fights are the best part of it all, so it's a shame there aren't more of them, and an optional checkpoint system to allow players to start from anywhere they've already cleared would not have gone unappreciated. Still, if you're looking for a bright but simple shooter that gets more chaotic as you go, Wild Wastelands is a solid bet.

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"I Object?!" Nobody ever really expects to hear that at a wedding outside of cheesy rom-coms, but in this short free indie adventure from Indrah, MakioKuta (April Was a Fool), and Racheal, the Dark Lord's son has gone off to elope with his true love, and as an iron-fisted overlord, naturally this disrespect cannot stand. Sasha, Nikka, and Dimitri are sent to bring the lovesick lad back home, but they're, um... not exactly tactful. Or stealthy. Or... well, let's just say I'm sure they have other talents outside of crashing weddings. But there's a magical barrier keeping them from their task, so our intrepid trio will need to scour the castle for a means to bring it down. Use the [arrow] keys to move, the [spacebar] to interact, and [ESC] to open the menu where you can save the game. It's a gleefully silly, funny little adventure that definitely deserves your RSVP.

The cat is back, and you know what that means... it's time for a Lo.Nyan's escape game, Lo.Nyan's Room Escape 15! The room you're trapped in this time seems pleasantly mellow, with relaxing decor and beautiful sunny windows, though of course we're not here to admire the aesthetic. Just click on things to interact with them, and use the transparent bars that appear at the edges of the screen when you mouse over them to move around the room. Don't worry, you don't need to be able to read Japanese to solve the game, but you will need to keep an eye out for clues, because this seemingly ordinary and fashionable room hides plenty of puzzles and secrets. You may have to look at something a different way, and as usual, once you find the camera, you'll be able to use it to take photographs of any clues you find so that you can refer to them in your inventory whenever you need to. Handy! So resist that urge to curl up on that cozy couch in a sunbeam... we've got a room to escape from!

Lo.Nyan's Room Escape 15

Made in just three days for Ludum Dare, Sort the Court! by graebor, Amy Gerardy, and Bogdan Rybak is a simple sim about a king making all the hard choices to raise your kingdom to a population of 250 by presiding over the decisions people bring to you each day, though you can only answer Yes or No (type [Y] or [N]) to each of them, and you won't always know the consequences right away. Sometimes it might be as simple as loaning some cash to a fisherman, while others might have you deciding whether to potentially gamble away some souls for the chance at some extra cash. Decisions can impact your money, population, and happiness positively or negatively, and with 37 different characters and over 150 decisions, Sort the Court! is extremely charming with its cute art filled with lovely little touches and surprises. Help your kingdom grow, and check out the official Ludum Dare 34 page for Sort the Court! to vote!

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In Xaychru04's aptly named challenging action game Bloodungeon, you play a kid on a "hover"board who, in their attempt to beat their friend's best time racing through an old temple, has inadvertently awoken and annoyed the ancient force within the dungeon itself, who is super annoyed with your racing antics. Now, your board has a bomb on it that will go off after ten seconds, resetting after you clear each room, so you've got to speed through all manner of deadly traps and pitfalls before time is up. Use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move, and stay away from anything dangerous, since a single hit will make you explode into a pulpy mess and force you to retry the room again. It's like a more violent Duke Dashington, and definitely the sort of game you need to enjoy fast-paced reflexive death to want to spend some time with, though if you experience any lag, make sure you don't have other browser windows open with resource-intensive content, since a second can mean the difference between success and literally losing your head!

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