The Academy: The First Riddle

Release Date: June 19, 2020

Puzzle, TPP, adventure elements, indie games, urban fantasy, singleplayer

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An adventure game with gameplay focused on solving puzzles and exploring the available land. The Academy: The First Riddle is set in an elite academy for the best students, who in addition to learning, are encouraged to learn its many secrets.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

The Academy: The First Riddle is based on solving numerous puzzles and discovering the secrets of the school the main character attends. The whole thing does not shy away from the elements of science fiction, and the graphics are kept in a drawing style slightly reminiscent of The Sims series. For the developers of the game, Pine Studio, this is the biggest game released so far. Their previous games were based on a similar scheme, but they also have experience in darker climates, which they proved through SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell.

Plot

The story of the game tells of numerous secrets hidden by Arbor's Academy, an elite school for outstanding students. Some of them concern very mundane matters, but the protagonist will also find those that many would prefer to keep a secret. This will make the coming semester one of the most significant in the history of the academy, founded 500 years ago by Baron Alistair Holloway. The decision to fund its construction was made after the death of his wife, Leticia, besides learning, which was the greatest love of his life. Only those who can match the Baron's love of learning are accepted into the ranks of the students, which distinguishes the school from other such establishments.

As the plot progresses, we will meet exceptional characters of different character. It is our actions that will determine their positive or negative attitude towards the hero, which may help him or prevent him from discovering the secrets of the school.

Mechanics

There are about 200 more or less complicated puzzles available in the game. Some of them are realised as mini-games, often inspired by traditional games such as circles and crosses, chess or dominoes, and some require skilful use of the environment for our purposes. During the game, we have to face the dangers of a habit of harmful gases, flooded rooms (which we are only able to stay with special diving equipment) or mysterious devices constructed by generations of people connected with the academy. When dealing with some of them one should be very careful - their action may have seemingly supernatural effects, which will not necessarily have a positive impact on our actions.

We move freely between different sectors of the academy. There are both indoor locations, such as a library, classrooms or workshops for experiments, and outdoor locations, i.e. the membrane and parks that also serve as a school gym. Most of the time we observe the action from the third person perspective, but while solving some puzzles the view may change.