Escape From Classroom

Escape from Classroom is a locked room game, that's pretty much all you need to know. The genre is self explanatory, you're in a locked room and you need to get out; everything that will enable you to get out is contained within the room you are locked in. The mechanics are always the same in this genre, one thing you find will lead you to finding another thing which leads to another until you find the item or object that will allow you to escape.

The thing that differentiates games in this genre from each other is the set up, why are you locked in a room? It's not something that tends to happen a lot in the real world so an explanation is needed to enable the player to get behind the character in their escape attempts. In this case it's a mixture of negligence and duty; negligence on the part of the teacher and duty from the janitor. The basic premise is this, you're a school child. You've got a reputation for falling asleep in class and your teacher decided that rather than take his responsibility as a teacher seriously and try to work out why one of his students is not getting enough sleep and has to make up the debt in his class, he decided to teach him a lesson and simply leave him sleeping in class whist everyone else goes home. That would have been fine, albeit unprofessional, except that the janitorial staff at the school, unlike the teacher actually does take his job seriously and after finding an unlocked classroom when it should be locked, he locks it, unwittingly trapping the student inside. Though sticking his head in to check if there was someone inside was an oversight on his part, but without it there wouldn't be a game.


If you want a job done right....

This is a good set up for something with a horror feel, but that unfortunately doesn't materialise. There is no threat to this student, no pressing need to leave the room, other than the fact he is trapped. The school isn't haunted by the ghosts of mistreated youths, the room isn't a science lab with dangerous chemicals that are mysteriously leaking, it's not a biology class with a range of venomous snakes or poisonous arachnids that can escape and terrorise the student. The school isn't on fire or subject to some other natural or man-made disaster. He's just stuck, and he wants to go home so that he can go back to bed and sleep some more. Seriously this kid could just as easily pull a few chairs together a make himself comfortable because the worst that can happen is he has to wait until morning to be rescued or his parents are going to come looking for him and get him out in time for supper. There is no threat inherent in the game, no pressing need to get out of the room. Also what high school student in what is obviously a first world country given the set up of the classroom doesn't have a mobile phone?

Oh, right no phones allowed in class...fine.

The game maker is Vietnamese so English is not his first language and it does show in the mistranslation of certain phrases, but given that restriction the language isn't mangled too severely and comprehension doesn't suffer. It is most evident in the absence or misuse of articles and conjunctions, the title of the game being a case in point. Still in such a short game it doesn't build to a breaking point, at least not for this player. There is a small glitch in that the chair doesn't reset with 'c' as indicated in the instructions but with 'a' still it's easy enough to press a few keys until the right one works.


Because everything is there for a reason, kid.

The puzzle in itself isn't badly handled, with a natural progression from one item to the next and a tricky final puzzle to decipher the password that will get you the final information you need to get out of the room. There were two possible interpretations of the clue but in the end it was the more obvious one that turned out to be correct which is a little disappointing.

With the exception of the child's face the graphics and music are all straight RTP, but they've been used competently and I've never had an issue with a straight RTP graphic set, so it's neither a detriment nor an advantage. One thing that is custom is the window skin, it's a blackboard and the arrow at the bottom has been replaced by a spinning piece of chalk, it's a small element but I really appreciate the attention to detail

The game itself takes about 10 minutes to complete and you are given a score out of 100 at the end, most of that seems to depend on you making sure the room is clean before you leave, so I think the score is given by the trusty janitor. If you want to get 100% you'll have to be careful about the objects you use to progress as there is at least one choice that will ensure you can't get a perfect score, but since the game is very short it's easy to go back and do it again if you feel like taking the time.

There is quite a lot of scope for the developer to expand on in this game without actually adding any additional maps, there are only two, or indeed a lot of extra content, he just needs to provide an impetus for the player to want to get the child out of the room, a feeling of threat or danger that will make solving that puzzle an imperative rather than just something to do because the kid is bored.

For what this was, a short escape the room game, it's not a bad foray and as it is the developer's first game I'd say he has some potential to explore if he can spend a bit more time fleshing out his back story and run his script past a native English speaker.