Houm
The MacVenture games were just a little before my time (not you, Shadowgate PD), but I did play a lot of Myst. I, like most people, never actually beat Myst without a walkthrough, but it was so interesting to wander around in this world that I couldn’t even begin to understand and see things I’d never seen before. Now, I’ve still never really “beaten” Myst, but I do love to collect the different versions of it. I have… six ports of it? And I’m still fairly certain that the Jaguar CD version has a lighthouse puzzle that’s unsolvable because of the flashing graphics and how CRTs work.
Houm is a lot like Myst, or Deja Vu, or Shadowgate, or Uninvited. It’s a point-and-click graphic adventure with lots of puzzles to solve and items to collect that you’ll then use on other items in interesting ways. You explore an old house, looking for treasure, and the style is so old-school that it could be confused for a port of a game from the 80’s. Luckily, since it is actually a brand new game, some (but not all) of the puzzles are a lot less obtuse than the style of the time. It wouldn’t really feel “of its era” without the occasional chicken/pulley puzzle, but the logic is a lot more modern and sensical for the most part. There are still scenes where you have to “Examine” something that on the Playdate screen feels even smaller than it would on a big monitor, but most of the time the game is about exploring a big house and touching/using items on whatever you come across.
Luckily, the developers know how much of an ask playing one of these games can be, so they made a GameFAQs walkthrough that launched alongside the game, and it’s fairly spoiler-free. Personally, I would’ve never been able to beat the game without it, and there is at least one puzzle that I still don’t understand the “why” of how it works (even with the walkthrough, the clock puzzle got me good), so this was a great public service. Of course, if games like these are your bread and butter, there’s no need to cheat. Just remember that every room has SOMETHING you’ll need to do in it, and sometimes new things will appear where there wasn’t something before.
It’s very true to the style and feel of these old games, down to the command-based navigation and short loading screen between every scene. Despite that authenticity, I would love it if the loading screens weren’t there (if that’s even possible — they may actually be for loading), especially when you have to go back to the other end of the house to find/search for the next clue. It’s not always clear where you should search next, either, so there can be quite a bit of wandering around. However, there were some surprising points that I really liked (the fan bit in particular: terrific, and I would’ve loved more little touches like it). The whole game has a sort of unnerving, eerie feeling, and it always seems like there’s a chance you could die, even though (unlike many games like this) there’s no way to die that I could find. This is great, because it really rewards looking at and poking everything you see, and it’d be a shame to punish that.
All in all, this is the kind of game that’s not quite for me, but I was still able to complete it with some help, and I’m glad I saw the whole story. The fact that there are still people making games in this style (especially on the PLAYDATE) is honestly a gift that I will never stop appreciating. It’s the kind of game you’ll sit in a big armchair at your grandparents’ house and play all afternoon, with nothing else to worry about. It’s not easy, but it’s really neat and so different from most other gaming experiences out there. A worthy addition to Season Three.
(Released October 15, 2026, as part of Season Three.)