Demo opens door to Mindlock: The Apartment

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Full version of surreal, classic-styled point-and-click adventure coming to PC next month

We've probably all experienced the troubling sensation of feeling trapped inside our own homes sometime in the last few years, but for the star of Roof Cut Media's Mindlock: The Apartment, he really is locked inside, with no apparent way out. 

Not that Colin has a lot of reason to escape. The game's protagonist has a monotonous job he hates, and as he goes through his usual boring morning routine, this Wednesday is shaping up to be just like any other. Until the front door to his apartment just up and disappears on him, that is. In the process, the apartment transforms into a "chaotic labyrinth" filled with "inexplicable phenomena [that] shake Colin’s worldview," whether a "cryptic message written on the bathroom mirror [or] a mysterious puppet in his bedroom." What's worse, Colin now finds that "familiar faces appear as creepy characters," and "new visitors constantly appear, making Colin question his past, present and future." There's nowhere for him to go, so Colin will need to face his fears as players "dive into Colin’s complex mind and find repressed memories, hidden thought processes, and long-forgotten dreams." In doing so, you might just help him find new meaning for his life... or perhaps this is a really all just a "bizarre dream."

The creation of solo German developer Rouven Schumacher, Mindlock is a classic-styled point-and-click adventure with an eerily stunning hand-drawn art style that melds "harsh reality and mystical changes" with a dry sense of humour throughout. While the underlying premise may be surreal, the gameplay promises to be largely traditional. To free Colin of this nightmare, you must converse with a variety of "crazy" voiced characters and explore the "constantly changing" apartment for clues and household items that can be turned into "useful tools" for solving puzzles. Less conventional are the thought diversions inside Colin's mind, presented in a simpler sort of scribbled design. These present different types of self-contained obstacles to overcome, some of which involve simulated motion mechanics (though still entirely mouse-based). 

The door to Mindlock: The Apartment won't fully be open until sometime in November, but you can drop in for a quick look around right away via the playable demo available this week for Windows PC during the Steam Next Fest, which runs until October 21st.