I played Exit/Corners, created by Moon Moth Games. It is available for free on itch.io, and I played it in a browser on my laptop. The game is structured into 29 chapters, and I played the first two. The age rating is not listed, but based on the themes and the difficulty of the puzzles, I would probably say it is appropriate for ages 14+.
The story begins with five strangers waking up in an abandoned hotel that is set to collapse in 24 hours. You have been trapped by a kidnapper who goes by the name “Sent,” and the only way to escape is to work together to solve a series of puzzles. You play as Ink, one of the trapped participants, and make decisions through his dialogue. I enjoyed playing as Ink since he was also a college student, so his perspective and way of speaking seemed relatable. I liked how the game alternates between narrative and puzzle sections. It made me genuinely want to keep going to find out more about the other characters (Aether, Rae, Beth, and Liza), their backgrounds, and why each person (including myself) had been chosen. Even after just two chapters, I found myself invested in the mystery and curious about what secrets each character might be hiding.
One of the mechanics I found especially interesting was how the game handles hints. Instead of having a generic hint button that pulls you out of the story, the game handles hints through asking other characters for help. This felt much more immersive. For example, if you spend a while stuck on a riddle, you could pick another character to ask for help. The responses they gave also were in line with their personalities. For example, Beth is older and doesn’t know much about technology, Rae is very analytical, and Liza is bratty but usually says helpful things anyways. In addition, each puzzle brings you one step closer to exiting the room, and each puzzle has its own introduction through a pre-recorded video by Sent. It made the puzzle solving feel like part of the narrative instead of a separate mini game.
The puzzles themselves were riddle based, and I appreciated that they required actual thinking and not just clicking around to find hidden objects. It often involved small twists on the obvious answers, like making use of negative space instead of positive space or interpreting phrases in different ways. For players who don’t enjoy language based puzzles or don’t speak English fluently, these puzzles might be much more difficult.
I really enjoyed the visual novel format and was pleasantly surprised by how well the characters were written. They all felt distinct, and their personalities came through in both the narrative and the hint giving sections. I think this is something my group could draw inspiration from in our own project. Incorporating some amount of character development or personal backstory can really help make a mystery feel more compelling.
In terms of ethics and accessibility, I noticed that Exit/Corners makes several assumptions about the player’s background knowledge. The puzzles rely on wordplay and logic riddles that assume fluency in English and familiarity with certain types of puzzles. For example, the first two puzzles both relied on using negative space to rearrange tiles, and the second one also relied on the player knowing the 26th letter of the alphabet is Z. This could be a barrier for non English speaking players or players who have not been exposed to these kinds of puzzles. Even though the character-based hint system makes solving the puzzles a bit easier, there are no other accessibility options available, such as a text-to-speech mode or difficulty settings. However, Exit/Corners was created by a very small studio, and updates to the game are still being pushed, so hopefully in the future there are some accessibility updates. Most of the characters also rely on certain stereotypes. Beth is a senior citizen, so she is often confused by technology, but seems very kind. Liza is a spoiled brat. Rae is a loner coder, and rude but smart. I think the creators did this to establish characters that start out very different from each other and fight with each other, but eventually become friends. I did appreciate the diversity in personalities, but perhaps relying less on very clear stereotypes from the beginning could be good.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing Exit/Corners. I thought it was a very creative combination of narrative and puzzles, and the hint system was very unique. The story pulled me in, and the puzzles were challenging without being unfair. I might play even more chapters.
