Late Night at the Mall

In this game, you are a teenager who was so focused on playing arcade games in the mall that you ended up locked in after hours.

It seems set in the 80s, with the arcade having Galaga and the character not having any cell phone (looking back, the game description actually says this explicitly). It includes other 80s signs like a poster of Madonna.

Gameplay is mostly classic adventure gameplay, moving objects, searching, codes, etc. The game is coded well, and the abandoned mall vibe has some great moments, especially with encountering things that frighten you.

It kind of felt like the protagonist was getting more and more into trouble, starting with just being in an area they shouldn't be and ending up being a kind of teenage vandal, in a funny way. It would make for a pretty good TV episode.

I did feel a bit frustrated with the lock, as it's intended that you brute force it (once you get some more info), but other than that the puzzles were fair.

Everything in this game feels robust. Efficient use is made of relatively concise descriptions to create immersion; good liminal space vibes. There are 'useless' rooms but not so many as to get overly confusing, the puzzles are all logical, we get small hints of characterization from the protagonist but that's clearly not the focus.

There's definitely several points where I feel more X blurbs could have been implemented - starting with the working bits of the gate at the beginning. Then again, I'm a stickler for background detail being examinable. There's one puzzle that in my opinion was unfair - (Spoiler - click to show)sitting on the bench. It didn't need better signalling, but more than one verb should have worked there.

It's not a giant game but it does a good job of translating a real location into an immersive experience and fitting some relevant, logical puzzles into that location.