It’s the night of ghosts and ghouls and hiding with the lights off, because you suddenly remembered that you forgot to buy candy for the trick-or-treaters this Halloween (oops!). And what better way to proclaim the moment than with a royal haunted area caper à la Play and Watch from Papers, Please and Obra Dinn writer Lucas Pope?
The lavishly titled Moida Mansion is currently available to play on itch.io, challenging players to slip into the titular ghost house and find their fellow Journey Club contributors, who have been trapped below by following their pet turtle inside. . “Now it’s up to you,” reads the gloriously retro style guide. “Sneak in and rescue them before it’s too late!”
In terms of gameplay, Moida Mansion is pretty straightforward, tasking players with moving from room to room and cycling through the pieces within to explore them all. Looking outside might find one of your Journey Membership friends, or reveal a hidden hallway, or perhaps a handy key. Or all that rummaging might attract the attention of the mansion’s “monsta,” in which case you’ll both want to sneak away or, if a month of rampage is in the offing, run away.
Yet despite its simplicity, Moida Mansion is strangely compelling, and I happily spent the last 20 minutes dodging Monsta and wandering through the house to uncover its secrets. It’s also oddly atmospheric (and just a little anxious) for a game with a rudimentary LCD-style eyepiece, almost 0 animation, and minimal toning. What’s more, Pope creates a remarkable amount of variety from a slightly limited selection of visual elements, and better yet, the mansion adapts each game. I would buy this in a heartbeat if it were real!
Of course, this isn’t Pope’s first goal at Game & Watch; the acclaimed seamstress created a sovereign version of Papers, Please endmost day, at the dystopian mystery report’s 10th year birthday party. Most recently, he saved his Playdate-exclusive puzzler, Mars Upcoming Midnight, a “lovely, silly game about community,” as Christian Donlan said in March.
