Following Freeware: July 2014 releases
Snowday!
It’s winter, and a thick layer of snow covers everything. Duncan has entered a snowman building competition, and despite his opponent’s apparent progress, he is confident that he can win the game. To do that he must warm an old lady, release a jar stuck in the ice on the lake, and talk to his uncle, amongst many other things.
Snowday!, by Carmel Games, is a short and jolly game packed with fun puzzles. It’s made in the familiar style the developer uses for all their games, with brightly colored cartoon art and some strange voices but very good voice acting. The whole game is subtitled too. The music that plays along with the action is cheerful but repetitive, though you can shut it off if you like.
The story is very simple: Duncan has to collect the things he needs to make a snowman and then build it before his opponent finishes his. In the meantime, he must solve other people’s problems too. Because Duncan is a chipper lad, this makes for a fun half hour or so. Despite its whimsical nature, the puzzles in Snowday! are not that easy. You often have to solve a small range of puzzles to reach a certain goal. Almost all of the puzzles are inventory-based. Duncan also has to walk a great deal, which can get a bit annoying. The game is played with the mouse, with arrows on the sides of the screen indicating where Duncan can go. Items in his inventory appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. In the upper left corner is a button that brings up the settings menu, and another that takes you to a walkthrough of the game.
Snowday! can be played online on MouseCity.com.
Nekra Psaria
You were just chilling out with your TV when the power went down. As the giant head that is your generator was only too ready to tell you, you’re out of fuel. A trip to the fuel depot is in order, but you don’t have a ticket for the bus, or any money to get one. Time to do a bit of scavenging to find what you need so you can get back to your sedentary hobby. Surely your neighbours, Cockroach Boy and giant hooded woman, will help you out if you do them a favour first.
This first instalment of a proposed series from Drawmaneater is a decidedly surreal proposition. Apart from the opening and closing cutscenes, the presentation uses a first-person slideshow format. A cartoon style has been adopted, with a limited palette that largely consists of dark blues and greens, giving the setting a depressing feel. Occasional splashes of other colours only serve to accentuate this. The locations themselves are fairly bizarre, with a tunnel passing through a giant fish and a field of penguins planted in the ground. There is limited animation, but it is smoothly done, though items like a living disembodied head are still disturbing. The background music is a tonal piece, which further serves to enhance the strangeness of the setting. There are also sound effects, such as the whoosh of a passing air-train.
You will need to explore the surrounding area, and will often find yourself backtracking as you obtain vital items. Control is handled with the mouse, and hotspots light up with a yellow glow when you point the cursor at them. Moving to the edges or bottom of the screen causes a bar to light up if there are exits in that direction. There are no dialogues as such, but clicking on characters will normally elicit a text bubble indicating what they want from you. The puzzles themselves are fairly simple, most revolving around straightforward object use. Whilst the immediate task is resolved in this episode, the closing cinematic indicates that there is more of the story to come.
Nekra Psaria can be played online at Play Chocolate.
All pigs deserve to burn in hell
A man wakes up in a tiny, single room apartment. He cannot remember the details of his life, though he is sure the world he’s in now is not his own. What is more, he now appears to have the head of a pig. A snowstorm covers the land and travelling far without a guide will prove fatal. Fortunately a guide is close at hand, one willing to take him to see the Doctor, who holds all the answers. It may be that the answers he seeks will not be welcome, though.
With a less-than-comforting title, this game from BSP is a strange and disturbing experience. A fully two-dimensional side view is used with a pixelated style. Despite the overall lack of detail, things like the player character’s pig head and a vase on a table are easy to recognise. These graphics are simply but effectively animated, including constant snowfall in outdoor scenes. As well as a snowbound graveyard, you will visit a narrow block of flats and a subterranean location. Background music is provided by a series of simple ambient pieces, varying from location to location. There are also dramatic piano chords that play when certain facts are discovered. There are a variety of sound effects as well, including digging and knocking on doors.
You navigate this barren world using simple point-and-click controls. Each main area is limited to a handful of locations, with the guide directing you between them when appropriate. Much is left unexplained, even by the end of the game, though some optional actions reveal more about how the lead character came to be in this position. Your greatest enemy is the all-pervading cold. When you step away from a heat source, you only have a handful of actions available until you freeze to death. Sometimes the challenge is working out how to accomplish your goal in that short time. More often you will need to make repeated short sojourns into the cold. The game auto-saves often, so little progress will be lost by misjudging the cold.
All pigs deserve to burn in hell can be downloaded from the AGS website.
Other new releases
Not all games are created equal, and freeware games especially come in all shapes and sizes. Not to be overlooked, the following list might also be of interest, though these games may be significantly shorter or less polished, more experimental titles than those detailed above, some perhaps only borderline adventures to begin with.
The Cow Flew Over the Moon by Jonny Pickton – Waking up to find your apartment chained shut is just the prelude to several nights of strangeness.
Somnium by M256 – A young boy with severe agoraphobia finds escape searching memories in his dreams in this surreal randomised adventure.
Riverside by Hyptosis – A friendly card game becomes a fight for survival when a beer run brings back zombies in this choose-your-path game.
Only If by Creability – A surreal journey through a beautifully rendered world, though with some tough action sequences.
That’s it for this month. Think we’ve missed a gem or want to tell us about your own game? Then pop in to our Adventure forum and tell us about it!
Stephen Brown and Willem Tjerkstra contributed to this article.
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