Escape House: an escape room styled puzzle game

I already marked the project as complete, but there was one mechanic I still wanted to add. This is based on the suggestions of two playtesters. The first suggestion was to let the game keep track of which clues you collected, while the second was to have a way to write notes down in-game.

Both are really solid suggestions, so I decided to combine them both into a new mechanic: the player’s journal! When you start the game you have a journal item in your inventory. As you read and inspect things in the world, the in-game character will automatically write things down in their journal. This is indicated by the little popup in the top-right corner of the screen.

This allows the player to open up the journal at any moment and reflect on the clues that have been gathered. At the same time, the player can write down their own notes on the right hand side of the journal. Simply click on the right side and start typing! This way you can write down any thoughts you have or scribble some notes on a math problem you’re trying to solve.

I also wanted to polish up the things around the game a bit more. So I created a custom splash screen when the game launches, added an icon and put together a simple logo for the game. When it’s all put together, it really improves the production quality. I’m very happy with what I ended up with.

Download Escape House v0.8.1 HERE!!

Since the last update I’ve been mainly focused on processing feedback and adding polish to the game. There have been a few more of you playtesting and pretty much every bug that has been encountered so far has been fixed since. I’ve also been writing down all the suggestions I’m getting, most of which have also been included in this build.

My main objective with the polish that I was focusing on was to add audio to the game. It was very quiet so far other than your own footsteps, so I’ve added a few audio clips. First of all some music to the menu & credit scenes. Then some more ambient sounds, some interaction sounds and finally a few weather effects to the main menu. Just to sell the whole “creepy house you have to escape from” vibe a bit more.

Even though I didn’t complete every goal I set out for myself, I am happy with the result that I got. Everyone that has played it so far seems to like it, which has of course always been my end goal. So in that regard; definitely a success. Like I stated before, I might expand on my current setup at a later date. But for now I’m calling my project officially completed!

Download Escape House v0.7.0 HERE!!

After getting some awesome people to playtest the last build I published, I got a lot of feedback. Some bugs were fixed, issues were resolved and some extra text was added to options that don’t really do anything. Because nobody likes seeing the same default text over and over again.

Something else nobody likes (well, most people) is getting stuck and frustrated. So I’ve decided to introduce a hint system in the latest build. At any point in time there are 3 levels of hints you can view based on where you are in the game. From simply steering you towards the right puzzle to telling you where to look in order to solve it. They will automatically update as you solve puzzles, as to provide you with relevant information at all points in time.

For now I’m not planning to add a 2nd room as per my week 3 goal. Instead I’m just going to polish up the current room and make sure everything works and people are enjoying the game. That said I’m not saying never and I might very well return to it later to keep building on my current foundation.

Download Escape House v0.6.3 HERE!!

After having done very little work in the past 2 weeks due to simply being busy, having no energy/motivation and just kind of being out of the flow of this project, I decided to make at least 1 more push. Since I did get pretty far with the first level already, I wanted to at least finish that, before allowing myself to even think of quitting.

So that’s what I did! I finished the first level. It has locked doors, items that can be picked up, notes that can be read, clues that must be inspected and all types of puzzle-y things like that. And you can play it, right now! I’ve included the download link in this update post, as well as in the external links of the project. Please do let me know what you think, any feedback is welcome and appreciated!

EDIT: OOPS!! I made a mistake in one of my puzzle solutions. New build here for people that were stuck on the puzzle that ends in “= KEY”.

Download Escape House v0.5.5 HERE!!

In the past few days I’ve been thinking of a few puzzle ideas and making some models but I didn’t have anything major to showcase until today. Because today I worked on a new mechanic; unlocking. I figured I’m going to have quite a few unlockable elements in my game, since it is an escape room after all, so I should make some kind of interface for it.

So that’s what I did. I replaced the “Close” button with “Unlock”, because I couldn’t really think of a good use for closing anything anyway. Also this way I can smoothly include it as just another type of interaction. Unlocking anything (provided it’s actually locked) will open a keypad panel where you can enter the code you think is right.

At this point I am pretty happy with my gameplay mechanics. Everything seems to be working very nice together and is generic enough that I can easily apply it to new object. At this point I think it’s time to start making some more models and begin putting in my puzzle ideas! I’m starting to get close to the end of my week 2 goal! Very excited!

My main focus today was to create an inventory system. I want to be able to pick up items and use them (on other items). For this I made a grid-based inventory that will store any item I (am able to) pick up. Then I can use the “Inventory” button when interacting with an object to select any items from there to use on it. Also I can inspect and read any item that’s in my inventory. This is especially useful in case I pick up a note or something and I want to read it again later on.

In the GIF below I added a temporary light source, just so I would be able to unscrew the light bulb after I turn off (all of) the light. This will be removed later when I can have a better secondary light source instead. You can already see some of the interactions happening though, where using one item changes the functionality of another. Pretty happy with how that system is working so far!

However I’m not entirely happy with how the inventory works yet as it’s a little buggy here and there. So my next step will be making sure this system is as bug free as it can be and works just like I intended. I am aware that at this point I’m mostly working on week 2 as week 1 is pretty much done already, but that’s good right?!

First off I made a few new models to play around with. More importantly though, I chose to overhaul the way I interact with objects and decided to go the classic adventure game route. In order to plan ahead, I designed a system so I can dynamically attach text and events to every action, for every object.

This creates a situation where I can very easily add new objects, make them interactable and have them interact with the environment. Currently the only connection I have is between the lightbulb and the lightswitch, but I can potentially make a lot more connections like that once I start to get more objects into the room.

My next step will be to fill out my first room some more and start incorporating some actual puzzles in it. I also want to make a simple inventory system, in order to create actual functionality behind the “Pick up” and “Inventory” buttons, so I might do that as well.

I’ve left the scale for what it is, but I did fiddle with the lighting a bit. Not only that but I decided to add in a light source model in the form of a light bulb and it does add a nice little touch to the basement.

My main goal right now is trying to create interactable models to play around with. I want to make a system that can take several verbs, like an adventure game, and apply those to any items I so choose with different results. Below you can see the design route I went with for that, but this doesn’t seem to work that well in Unity so far, so I’m probably going to tweak it a little bit.

I decided to start in the basement of my house. I’m not quite happy with the lighting and the scale seems a bit off, but I’m slowly getting a general model of the environment to play around in. Next up I’ll refine this a bit and maybe add a few interactable models to play with.