Rusty Lake

There… will… be… blood…

When I was a kid tooling around on Nonoba and Kongregate, one of my favourite types of Flash games was point-and-click escape rooms.

The (sometimes illogical) puzzles, paired with often creepy and lonely atmospheres left me with an itch that had been unscratched for years until I discovered this week's recommendation, Rusty Lake.

The Rusty Lake/Cube Escape games, created by (), took the escape room format and evolved it.

The games spin a bizarre story of memory, trauma, time travel, tortured souls and anthropomorphic animals, all presented in a David Lynch inspired fever dream.

Artistically, the games have a consistent charming style that is instantly recognisable and fits the tone well. The soundtracks, provided by Victor Butzelaar, contain many memorable eerie tunes and earworms.

Although the overarching story is something that you'll need to piece together through the entries, each of the entries is fun as a one-off experience as well. Although some of the solutions can be eye-rollers, each of the games have their share of fun and rewarding puzzles

My introduction to the series, as well as my personal favourite, was Rusty Lake Paradise, which is steeped in Wicker Man-styled Pagan Imagery and has stages based on the 10 Plagues of Egypt.

If you want to play their games, you can find their Steam, Apple and Google Play links in their linktree.

They also have a suggested play order on their website.

Rusty Lake recently celebrated their 10th anniversary, releasing The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show as well as a few extra bits and bobs. Why not help them celebrate by checking out their games?