Ever since their terrific Forever Lost trilogy of point-and-click adventures, I've been trying to keep an eye on Glitch Games. Still, their latest adventure A Short Tale, released in February, somehow slipped under my radar. Based on the title, I assumed at first that this was because it was merely a bite-sized snack to tide us over. But no! It's a full length-adventure -- not as long as the Forever Lost games, perhaps, but you definitely won't be finishing it on your lunch break, either.
The title is a play on words, you see. Once again you play as Jason, who finds himself missing his younger brother Ben and wishes he could be small again. Be careful what you wish for, Jason! Next thing he knows, he's been magically shrunk down to doll size and trapped in Ben's childhood room, unable to reach the doorknob without some help from a few of Ben's toys, who won't offer their services without something in return. Even just reaching some of those higher shelves is going to require some ingenuity, so it looks like you'd better get busy.
While A Short Tale may take place in a single room, there's plenty to explore, and the colorful but realistic graphics make it feel more immersive than the typical room escape game. There are many clever puzzles to solve, from minigames to inventory-based challenges. You'll probably be glad to have Glitch's helpful camera/gallery feature on-hand to help you keep track of all the clues. Some of these puzzles require some definite thinking outside of the toybox, and casual adventurers may find themselves pining for a walkthrough at some points. (Fortunately, there's at least one very good one available.)
From the looks of things, Glitch's next few games will be back to the more somber tone of Forever Lost. A Short Tale combines the solid gameplay we've come to expect with a more whimsical approach that should appeal to the young and young-at-heart alike.
Windows:
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Get the full version
A Short Tale (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)
A Short Tale (Android, Android Tablet)
Quick question. Is it necessary to have a device with a microphone in order to play this game? Because I've reached a certain point and, well... let's just say I have reason to believe as such.
Never mind! You don't need a microphone.
You just need something else with a voice.
And I'm out. I was able to beat the entire thing without help-- except for one puzzle. (I swear, that "train of thought" puzzle is about as intuitive as using a cucumber as a dog whistle.)
Hint-through:
General hints:
Audio is required to solve one puzzle.
USE THE IN-GAME CAMERA! There are a ton of hints, more than you can keep up with, and being able to display multiple "photos" on screen at once is important.
Take pictures of everything, but delete the picture when you're finished with the puzzle it helps solve or else you'll find them hard to sift through.
Wait for dialogue with the characters to complete before backing up from the view
When you've helped each toy, go back and talk to them one more time to get them to agree (however begrudgingly) to help you, or else you can't finish the game even though you've done everything
Item locations:
Perfection shapes (small yellow pieces)
Diamond
Inside air vent
Triangle
Behind Balls of Light box under table to the left of the desk (front-most corner of the box is the hotspot to change view)
Bow tie
Inside the dollhouse to the right of the exit door
Semi circle
Top shelf of the closet to the left of the exit door
House
On the shelf of the television armoire, next to the Nintendo game console
Square
Open the puzzle-lock chest below the easel
Rhombus
Inside desk drawer
Circle
Inside the flower pot on the window sill
Plastic gem
Open the dollhouse treasure chest
Small wooden box
Inside the dollhouse to the right of the exit door
Soccer ball
To the left of the Magic 8 Ball under the desk, in a small alcove
You'll need to use the pump on the soccer ball to take it
Pump
In the closet, to the left of the exit door (climb up the pipes)
Gun cabinet key
Solve the crossword game on the couch below the bunk bed
Water pistol
Open the gun cabinet
Token
Solve the crossword game on the couch below the bunk bed
Sweets
Use the token in the candy machine on top of the television armoire, which you can reach after the gun cabinet is opened
ViewMaster discs (viewer discs)
Solve the stackable wooden tiles puzzle on the bottom shelf of the table to the right of the desk
Screwdriver
Inside the toolbox under the train table
Knife blade
Inside desk drawer
Use the screwdriver on the knife first
Ruler
Beside the Magic 8 Ball under the desk
Dirt
Inside the flower pot on the window sill
Use the ruler to make a bridge from the desk to the window sill
USB cord
Top floor of the dollhouse
USB fan
On the window sill
Use the ruler to make a bridge from the desk to the window sill
Gauze
Insidee the green first aid box in the glass case on the wall to the left of the train
Fly
On the window
You can't catch it bare-handed, make a net
Use the gauze...
...on the bubble blower on top of the desk, next to the black ink bottle
Paintbrush
Inside the pencil case on the right of the top of the desk
Crayons (4 colors)
Inside the pencil case on the right of the top of the desk
Baking soda
Inside the red box in the closet
Vinegar
Inside the waste basket to the right of the B-E-N bookshelf
Soap
Spray bottle on the stairs leading up to the bunk bed
Sponge
The ball on the paddleball behind the keyboard isn't made of rubber like usual. Use a knife to cut it off
Floss
Inside desk drawer
Light balls
You'll need to turn them on first to find them
Use the app on the iPad on the bed to activate the light balls
They're in the right drawer under the couch under the bunk bed
Key
Under the floorboards of the closet to the left of the exit door. It's too dark to see, so some light is in order
Drop the light balls into the hole
Now you just need to get down there
Use the floss on the hanger bar at the top of the closet, then rappel down
It's attached to the kettle bell weight, which you can't lift
Use the soccer ball
Also use the pump on the soccer ball
Carabiner
Under the floorboards of the closet to the left of the exit door. It's too dark to see, so some light is in order
Drop the light balls into the hole
Now you just need to get down there
Use the floss on the hanger bar at the top of the closet, then rappel down
It's attached to the kettle bell weight, which you can't lift
Use the soccer ball
Also use the pump on the soccer ball
Spinner
Inside the + - panel on the stairs
Game cartridge
Find all the pieces to the Perfection game in front of the air vent, and put them into the game
Hair clip
On the top of the desk, just beyond the puddle of hair goo to the left
Use the sweets as stepping stones to get across
Needle
On the left note on the bulletin board above the bunk bed
Thread
Inside the toy cash register
Hint locations:
Desk drawer code
Solve the Simon (memory game) on top of the table to the right of the desk
Keyboard
Solve the tile-swap picture on top of the B-E-N bookshelf in the corner
Air vent
Solve the keyboard puzzle
Crossword game
Left note on the bulletin board above the bunk bed
Dollhouse door code
Rubik's cube on the couch under the bunk bed
Imagine the numbered squares on a single face
e.g., 1 and 4 are both the upper-left square
Count up from 1 to 9
Treasure chest inside dollhouse
Wooden blocks just outside the dollhouse door
Count the shapes
Do the shapes on the treasure chest remind you of something?
Clocks!
Look for three clocks with those shapes
Triangle
Top floor of the dollhouse
Remember you're looking at it from the back
Circle
Over the broken wall shelf above the train
Square
It's a digital clock
On the shelf above the bunk bed
Set each clock to the hour matching the number of shapes
Toolbox under the train table
Use the plastic gem from the dollhouse treasure chest
USE A HAMMER ON THE BOX
Do what it says, but think outside the...um...box, I guess
You can't lift the hammer to the box, so bring the box to the hammer
The small wooden box
Use it on the hammer to break the box open
Now you've done it...
Now you have a smaller hammer you can use on the glass box next to the train
Gun cabinet
Use the key from the crossword game
Rotate each piece of the key to make it fit the lock
Puzzle-lock treasure chest
This is essentially a slider puzzle, and the empty space will be in the ten o'clock position. You're on your own for actually solving it
Stackable wooden tiles
To solve this, you must first solve another puzzle with six elements
The encyclopedias at the bottom of the B-E-N bookshelf
The hint for this is inside the puzzle-lock treasure chest below the easel
Once the book positions are set, you have the heights of each stack, left to right
Pencil case
Use the viewer discs in the ViewMaster
The symbol inside of each gear corresponds with a symbol on the pencil case
Count the number of gears for each symbol
Spin the outer ring to show the correct number of dots for each symbol, in the order displayed (not the order from the ViewMaster reel)
iPad unlock code
Reveal the secret message on the marked paper top of the desk
That symbol appears three places in the room: the paper on the desk, the poster on the wall, and
The bottle of ink on the desk
Dip the paintbrush in ink, then use it on the message
Spilled soda
The pop-up ad on the iPad gives cleaning instructions
Baking soda
Then vinegar
Then soap
Then warm water
You DO have a water pistol...
...which isn't warm.
Try the hair dryer?
Yes, that probably would melt the water pistol. What about another container?
The water glass from the shelf above the bunk bed
Squirt the water from the pistol into the glass, then warm the glass with the hair dryer
Then a sponge
Now it's clean! ...ish.
Easel drawing
The test paper on the bulletin board above the bunk bed
First, you need to get up there, but the arm of the bucket loader won't stay up
There's that hole on the button shroud that something might fit into
Use the needle
Use the crayons to color in the drawing
Red box in the closet
Solve the easel drawing
+ - panel on the stairs
Clean up the spilled soda
It starts with 0 and each number is 1 more or less than the one before it, so use the + to increase and - to decrease, keeping up in your head
Spinner box
Use the spinner from the + - panel, and the hint sheet from the same location. Each flower shape must have a spinner rotated around to show it in its viewer
Money box
This one is, as the kids say, a doozy. Do kids say that? The hint comes from the TV, after entering in the correct code on the game console
For this, you'll need a couple of items
The game cartridge
The hair clip
And a couple of hints
The cheat codes from the right drawer under the couch under the bed
The note from the shirt pocket at the top of the closet to the left of the exit door
Got all that? Here's what to do:
Plug the game cartridge into the game console, and turn it on.
The TV is voice-activated, using the small Amazon Fire remote to the left of the game controller. You can hold the speech input button all you want, but you're too small to be heard.
Use the hair clip to hold the button down
Now to find something else that makes noise (this is where you need audio to solve a puzzle)
Apart from the snoring Magic 8 Ball, the noisiest thing in the room is the keyboard
If you've played around with the keyboard, you'll have noticed it says "On" when you power it on, the number of the mode when you change modes with the three buttons in the top-center, and speaks letters in modes 2 and 3
Switch to mode 2, then find the keys for T and V, and press them in succession, then power the keyboard off and then on. If you've done this right, you made the keyboard say "T V On" and, since you used the hair clip on the Amazon Fire remote, the TV will now be powered on
We're interested in the game, so you want the TV on channel 3, so use the keyboard to issue that command
From mode 2, press the keys for T and V in succession, then switch to mode 3. The keyboard should have said "T V 3" and now you will see the Nintendo's game menu on the TV.
Once the TV is on and tuned to the game channel, enter in the correct cheat codes
The sequence is on the cross-stitch hanging on the wall above the stairs
Enter the cheat codes, in order, for unlimited love potions, all weapons, invincibility (be careful not to enter the code for invisibility instead), and unlimited lives.
The Konami code doesn't work here. I tried. Once you get them all entered in, the correct code appears on the TV.
The top shape is for the dial on the left, the bottom for the dial on the right.
Toy cash register
Half of this hint is through the telescope, reached from the window sill. Each moon phase has a shape on it that you can zoom into. The other half...
...is from the TV channel 1
The TV is voice-activated, using the small Amazon Fire remote to the left of the game controller. You can hold the speech input button all you want, but you're too small to be heard.
Use the hair clip to hold the button down
Now to find something else that makes noise (this is where you need audio to solve a puzzle)
Apart from the snoring Magic 8 Ball, the noisiest thing in the room is the keyboard
If you've played around with the keyboard, you'll have noticed it says "On" when you power it on, the number of the mode when you change modes with the three buttons in the top-center, and speaks letters in modes 2 and 3
Switch to mode 2, then find the keys for T and V, and press them in succession, then power the keyboard off and then on. If you've done this right, you made the keyboard say "T V On" and, since you used the hair clip on the Amazon Fire remote, the TV will now be powered on, and on channel 1
If you need to change the channel back to 1, it's the same as when you switched to channel 3, except you use the mode 1 button on the keyboard instead of mode 3
Train car
On the secret message poster to the left of the exit door
Your paintbrush won't work here, though, so you'll need another way to get ink up there
You'll need to have cleaned up the spilled soda first, because you need an empty water pistol
Which you're immediately going to fill with ink from the bottle on the desk, and then shoot the poster
Helping the toys:
The alien
He'd like his three kids back.
Kid 1:
Inside the air vent, stuck to the spider web. The spider wants food in exchange
What do spiders eat?
Flies. Give her yours.
Kid 2:
In the dark spot under the floorboards in the closet to the left of the exit door. Pick him up when you retrieve the key and carabiner
Kid 3:
Inside the spinner box
The Roomba
He is sad. What would give a vacuum cleaner purpose?
Dirt. Put dirt on the floor, to the right of the Wet Paint sign, then go talk to him again. Important: do not back up before the conversation ends, or he won't go to the dirt pile.
The train
He's missing track pieces
Track piece 1:
In the left drawer under the couch under the bunk bed
Use the key from underneath the floorboards in the closet to open it
Track piece 2:
Inside the toy cash register, underneath the desk behind the spot where you took the soccer ball
Teddy bear
He'd like his eyes back
What do teddy bears often have for eyes?
Buttons!
Button 1:
Use the knife to cut the button from the shirt at the top of the closet to the left of the exit door
Button 2:
It's in the train's middle car
They'll need to be sewn back on, so you'll need your needle and thread. Just use a button item on his eye holes
Magic 8 Ball
He'd like a few things
He'd rather watch paint dry than help you
Dry that wet paint!
The Roomba needs to have been helped already for this to work. Plug the USB cord into him if you haven't already (takes two tries, because it's a USB cord) and then plug the fan into the USB cord
He needs his DVDs sorted from best to worst
His DVDs are on top of the television armoire, to the left of the candy machine
Use the ratings from the TV guide behind the keyboard to sort them from best to worst, top to bottom. 8 and 9 are not in his collection, so skip those in your rankings
He's lost his train of thought
This was fairly obtuse, but the keys here are "train" and "thought"
The weird symbols on the train's middle car kind of look like letters
Spell "THOUGHT"
If you don't see it, the up arrow is the T, the H is what you may be confusing with a lower-case n, the O is the diamond, and the G is a lower-case g
Robot
There is a map to his closet. Two maps, really.
One is beside the stairs to the bunk bed. The other is above the crossword game on the couch under the bunk bed. Use these in tandem
If you use the map from the couch as your guide, start at the teepees on the wall map, and follow the trail from there
To get from the teepees to the skull statue, you go right. So press the right arrow once. From the skull, you go to the lake, so press the down arrow, and so on until you reach the treasure chest, which in this case is a robot's closet
Now you can dress him up like his favorite hero, who is...
From his vantage point in one corner, he is looking directly across the room to the opposite corner, above the desk
Climb up the desk and cross the hair goo
Use the sweets from the candy machine as stepping stones
Climb up the paper chain and smooth out the poster on the wall to see what the robot has been staring at
Dress him up exactly like that using items from his closet
Once you get all the parts on, he says there is still something missing
His hero has a hook for a right hand, but there's no hook in his closet
Use the carabiner on his right arm
How did you submit this game.
I just emailed Jeff at [email protected] (as he invited us to do in the previous review), and he set me right up.
Update