Éalú squeaks onto Windows PC

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Cozy, hand-made stop-motion toy mouse puzzler available now for download on Steam

Being a mouse in a maze can't be much of a life... or can it? In the real world, surely no, but in the virtual one, it looks like a whole lot of fun in the newly released Éalú, by indie Irish developer Beyond the Bark.

Within a "cozy, quiet nest at the heart of a stone-and-wood labyrinth" lies a sleeping clockwork mouse. After waking from a dream about the larger, unknown world of possibilities beyond these confined borders, the little mouse tries once again to escape despite its "past failures" to do so. This being a maze, of course, with a protagonist equipped with no special abilities, the "only way forward is through." To finally succeed, the wooden toy creature will need all the "clever thinking, keen senses, and hope" it can muster in the face of the many "locked doors, cryptic puzzles, and lurking dangers" standing in its way. Persevere through these trials, however, and perhaps the mouse will finally find "an exit to a happier place." Unless, that is, it discovers that "the maze takes a darker turn" than it ever imagined.

As if that alone wasn't enough to send you into cuteness overload, the real hook of Éalú is its charming stop-motion presentation. Created by a four-person "puppet, installation theatre art and film company with no budget," the game features 512 separate video clips, each animation "captured frame-by-frame using real sets, hand-crafted props, and a physical wooden mouse," accompanied by original music and hand-drawn illustrations. The game plays out like a series of of escape rooms filled with point-and-click environmental puzzles that can only be solved with your wits and your nose – the toy mouse has wheels, and therefore not even any paws! Successfully solving puzzles will open new doors for exploration that may lead closer to freedom, a bit of cheese, or perhaps to perils unknown for a poor defenseless rodent instead. Pay attention to clues along the way, and you'll also begin to "discover the secrets of the maze – and the story hidden beneath it."

If you're up for a charming mouse adventure that should take anywhere from two to five hours to complete, then scurry on over to Steam right away, where Éalú is available now to download for Windows PC.