Winterish Room
So what do we do whilst waiting for the next Tesshi-e or Robamimi game to hit? If you thought it involves pizza, cage fighting, whipped cream, small rodents, and locking each other into tight, cramped spaces you'd only be partially right. What we like to do is sift through a seemingly endless amount of room escapes each week, searching for a glimmer of gold amongst the sand and gravel, something to satisfy our loyal followers. Did we strike gold this week? Yes, indeed we did, so once again we are welcoming a new room escape designer into the fold, the wonderful 4an and their latest effort, Winterish Room, a charming and slightly chilly effort packed full of pretty scenery and (more importantly) fun puzzles.
Winterish room takes place in a large, comfortable room that echoes the season of the title. Navigation is the usual bars at the sides of the screen, and as with most escapes you know the drill: pick up everything that's not nailed down, attempt to use these found objects, and solve a lot of puzzles. Maybe you'll make your way out, although this is a pretty comfortable looking room, and it looks so cozy many folks might prefer to stick around for a while. However, this is Weekday Escape, not Weekday Lounge Around, so eventually you might want to figure your way out the door. The puzzles are an equal mix involving numbers, letters, and colors, and the game is a nice balance of using items from your inventory and pure logic. The inventory control is pretty intuitive, and the backgrounds are gorgeous, the only thing that's missing to create atmosphere is some sort of music clip or other accompaniment. A save feature would have been nice as well as a changing cursor, although the lack of clutter keeps the pixel hunting to a minimum.
4an has included the quirk of not being able to "force" solve a puzzle that is often seen in Tomatea games. You can pull up the various locks present in the room, but unless you've seen the clue to solve them you cannot enter any solutions, a feature that some enjoy and others will dislike. Despite the pixel hunting and the sometimes awkward clickable areas, though, 4an is a nice addition to the array of room escape designers that we enjoy. Winterish Room is not exceedingly long or difficult, but there's enough puzzle solving involved to keep you busy for a few minutes at least, and the game shows great promise, so we're expecting really good things in the future from this developer. Take a chance on a newcomer to this column and enjoy escaping from the Winterish Room.
Wow, didn't even get slightly stumped. I proclaim this one easy.
Yes, way too easy. Where are the hard escape games?
That was nice. It took me awhile to realise
that there were icicles outside the window to melt. I realised I was going to need to melt somthing but thought I had a ladder to climb down and get some snow to melt. But that would be pointless because then I'd be out anyway!
As you say, Grinny, it's nice to see newcomers appearing on the scene with a deft touch and a good sense of logic to the puzzles. Admittedly, it doesn't add anything to the genre, but with such a solid start I hope we can expect good things to come.
Ok, I hate getting stuck on the "easy" ones, but it seems to happen every time. I must be missing or over-thinking something.
How do I open the window? the only thing left in my inventory is the paper with the pink and blue flame, and I don't seem to be able to open anything else. Did I light the candles and the fire too soon?
Oh man, POP again. *facedesk*
Yes, I must admit that I too am stuck on what is supposedly a very easy game.
I placed the grate, pot and magazine in the fireplace so I have nothing in my inventory. I opened the colour drawer, and I found the code for the letter drawer which doesn't open though, probably because I need to remove the plank, but I have no screwdriver. And I can't find anything else to pick up.
I'm stymied at the same point as ThemePark is, and utterly embarrassed that I'm stuck on what's apparently a very easy game. :x
Ah, I just found out that there was something I hadn't clicked on yet.
Turns out that you can click on the lamps on both sides of the fireplace. I was able to unlock the right center drawer with the code I got and light the fireplace and get a paper with a flame symbol on it.
However, now I cannot figure out
why I cannot light the flame paper with the fireplace. I've tried using it with the fireplace and lighter, to no avail. Do I need to do something else first? I also can't enter anything for the drawers I haven't opened yet, presumably because I don't have enough info to solve them yet. :/
I, too, am stuck in the same place as ThemePark and Jade. And getting to this point involved quite a bit of pixel-hunting. I expect better from Weekday Escapes.
@ThemePark,Jade and Reka:
did you try to "play" with lightbulbs?
@justforfun
Yes, I did, but now I cannot figure out why
I'm apparently not allowed to enter codes for any of the locked drawers, even for the 4-digit code one after figuring out how to properly burn the flame paper.
So yes, I'm stuck again at a slightly different place than I was before. :/
Jade, thank you so much! :D As for your problem.
Notice the colours of the flame? You don't need the fire of the fireplace but of something else, which can be a bit tricky to light but click the top of it.
Ohhh, I got it.
It was because I used the flame paper on the pink candle only; I didn't realize at first that I had to use the paper with the blue candle after that.
After that, everything progressed pretty easily.
It's a nice little game, if a tad short. I wouldn't really say that there was pixel-hunting in here; my major problem came from assuming that some certain things were just scenery and couldn't be interacted with. Other than that, it really wasn't too hard.
Jade:
There are TWO colours in the flame on the paper. And then you need to have seen how to translate the paper to numbers. Then you should be able to enter a 4 digit code.
@Jade
colours on "flame paper" show you where you can use it ;)
@ThemePark and justforfun, your advice came a little late, but thanks anyway. :)
Nicely done, this one. The puzzles were quite logical, and I rather appreciate the Tomatea-esque "no forcing your way through" style.
The lack of pixel hunting was a nice touch as well...enough margin of error to not need a changing cursor just made that aspect pretty well perfect.
All in all, I'd say the only thing this could have really used was a bonus ending, but that may just be Tesshi-e spoiling me on Happy Coins. XP As is, I definitely can't complain. Nicely done!
That hardly lasted through my coffee, just getting warmed up and there it was finished.
Nice scenery, and no real pixel hunting but way too short.
Nice, easy one.
Don't know if it's a bug, but after few clicks on cabinet, I see few puzzles at once.
@voqo: Yeah, back up and they'll go away.
A nioe quick escape, very reminiscent of Tomatea. My biggest problem was
one of scale; I forgot how small the "ladder" was after I picked it up, so it took me a while to twig that it was actually a potstand!
Quite easy, but I still enjoy a good room escape game regardless.
stuck:
i have the fireplace lit, both candles lit, the stand and pot in place. however i have nothing left on my inventory and i cant work any of the remaining drawers codes yet, what am i missing? i cant seem to find anything else to click.
nevermind:
i found the papr on the bottom of the floorborad
walkthrough in the works?
An easy one =)
Wow, flew through that one. This is somewhat rare for me.
My only problem was the same as Daibhid's;
I thought the potstand was a ladder so it took me a while to think of using it on the fireplace!
Other than that, pretty simple but in a nice way. I enjoyed this one a lot!
And out! I got stumped with
The window
But when I figured it out, it was really simple. Good little time waster.
Walkthrough:
1st scene:
Zoom in the wall "cupboard" and notice a key is needed.
Take the bowl from the table and the "ladder" from the floor.
2nd scene:
Take the lamp of the right spot and put it on the left and click the purple button to switch it on.
Click in the lighted spot on the floor,move the logs and note 4 letters and notice the screwed panel.
Notice the fireplace and the candles on it.
3rd scene:
Notice on the cupboard the 4 coloured balls and statue.
When you click the statue you get the order of the colours,so open 1st drawer-2nd row and take times magasine.
Open right drawer-2nd row with the 4 letters (clue from 2nd scene)and notice coloured numbers and take the SD.
4rth scene:
Notice the window needs a handle
2nd scene:
Open the panel with SD,take the key and click the wooden plate to take a note.
1st scene:
Open the wall cb with the key and take a lighter.
2nd scene:
light the candles and put the note(open it first) on top of the pink and then on top of the blue,so you see 4 colours.
3rd scene:
Find the 4 numbers and open the 1st drawer-3rd row using the note and coloured numbers from right drawer-2nd row,and get a handle.
4th scene:
Put the handle on the window,open it and take the ice from top right corner.
2nd scene:
Fireplace:put the "times" on the wood,the 'ladder' and the bowl on the "ladder".Put the ice in the bowl and light a fire with the lighter. Zoom out and then in and take the bowl with boiling water.
3rd scene:
Put the bowl on the mirror and see the clue for the bottom right drawer (click the "x"s),take the binoculars.
4th scene:
Open the window,use the binoculars and see a 3 digit number.
3rd scene:
Use the number you saw in the middle top drawer and take the KEY.
Zoom at the door ,use it and CONGRATULATIONS!!
not really stuck, I know the numbers but I can't seem to make the numbers move on the drawers. Is this a glitch, or am I missing something?
ehhh. kudos to 4an for trying. I'm sure it
takes alot of work to design the puzzles and
write the code for the graphics.....but..imHo,
let's leave the room escape genre to the
professionals:Tesshi-e,Neutral,Robamimi, et al.
I appreciate the effort but after waiting weeks
to sink my teeth into a new room escape game
and getting something so quick and..well,
unchallenging - I sort of feel like John
Bobbitt's girlfriend: highly disappointed.
@wildflower12
The game is designed that you cannot complete a puzzle until you have fully accessed the clues to said puzzle. Maybe you've missed a step elsewhere?
i posted a walkthrough above,wildflower.
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