Waffles' Cranked Stories warming up for PC release

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Collection of cross-genre games coming to Steam, including current Playdate-exclusive Chance's Lucky Escape

Pretty much every adventure fan knows that Goloso Games has released a pair of charming Inspector Waffles games, and that Julia Minamata launched her debut adventure, The Crimson Diamond, to widespread acclaim in 2024. What many probably do NOT know is that the two joined forces to create a game together earlier this year. 

Inspired by "80s cartoons and absurdist comedy films," the game in question is Chance's Lucky Escape, about a dog named Chance who is called upon to rescue the "evil genius" Snowball. Normally that would be easy enough for "the "luckiest dog in the world," but on this day it seems the only luck bestowed on Chance is bad luck. First his car blows a tire, and when he's left blocking traffic right in the fast lane, the "dog-sniffing officer Jane" sets after him in pursuit. Will Chance be able to shake his sudden string of strange misfortune and escape his predicament? 

It sounds like entertaining fare for a light adventure game, so why is it that so few people have heard of the game? It's because Chance's Lucky Escape was released exclusively for Panic's Playdate handheld device. As with all Playdate games, this one is presented entirely in black-and-white, with intuitive d-pad and button controls that allow the gameplay to function in a traditional point-and-click fashion. 

The good news for those who don't own a Playdate is that it won't be an exclusive forever, as Goloso Games plans to adapt the game for mouse control and re-release it for Windows PC on Steam. The not-so-good news is that we'll need to wait until 2027 to play it, but the reason – back in the good news ledger – is that it will come bundled with other games as well in a compilation called Waffles' Cranked Stories. The precise number of games is still to be determined, and not all of them will be adventures, but along with Chance's Lucky Escape it will include an original new game set "just after the events of the first Inspector Waffles," which the developer describes as "more of a fetch quest adventure game" than its predecessors.