LUNIUM
Can you escape your chains before the killer strikes again?
You wake to find yourself trapped in a room filled with locks and strange contraptions. Someone has locked you in here and identifying them may hold the key to your escape. Hidden somewhere are the clues you need to set yourself free, but time is running out…
Uncover the clues, unlock the chains and solve the mystery!
Features:
- Specially created art including items, locations and notes that help bring this Victorian-era story to life.
- Unique visual puzzles that will challenge your detective skills.
- Includes a helpful hint system.
LUNIUM won:
- Outstanding Mystery Game
- Outstanding Twine Game
in the IFDB Awards
If you play and enjoy this game (and would like to see more) please consider supporting the author by donating $2 – just use the 'Support This Game' button above. Thank you!
Development log
- minor updateSep 03, 2025
- Update: 1.3Jun 30, 2025
- Update: 1.2Apr 12, 2024
- Update: 1.1Feb 18, 2024
Comments
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that was an amazing, surreal experience. highly recommend. the realization at the end was.. stunning, to say the least.
omg i loved this so much! the controls, the writing, puzzle design, UI and everything are perfect. I am proud to say that I figured it out on my own without any hints and such, though I appreciate the “you’re on the right track” line for one of the locks!
this is awesome! I figured it out right at the end before I had to choose, specifically because of the summary of the scientist lol
Love this game! Well done!!! I like how players can type in their own responses in some places. More please!
Outstanding, perfect level of difficulty for a fella like me. Really enjoyed it, immersive and excellent ending. Looking forward to more games from you!
Proud to say I solved it without guessing. Some little pieces of info took me a while and seemed obvious when I reviewed some evidence I forgot to write down.
That was a pretty damn good 2 hours. Took a while but it was worth getting it right.
these kind of games are usually not my thing. but this one really kept me. well done. i found the puzzles challenging yet solvable without hints.
(note to dev: the picture in connection with the painting puzzle is flipped)
A little gamplay, a hint of critique ;)
Thanks for trying the game, really glad to hear you’re enjoying it. I hope you find time to complete it one day. I’ve now added the ‘no ai’ tag – thanks for the suggestion!
Honestly I don't think I've every finished a Twine game. But this one was so well done, and interesting! Loved it. The realization of who the killer really is over the course of gathering clues definitely put this above almost all escape the room fare. And I think it was really clever to have the situation on the face of it be very tropey 'escape the room game' at first but then actually serve an explanation for the strange locks, mechanisms and hidden clues.
Also I don't want to be too specific and spoil anything, but I appreciated having the 'date' be day first since it was supposed to be London.
Hi! I'm British and played your game. I've only just started and it's wonderful!
One important thing: the notebook found in the player's pockets says 'Perhaps someone has snuck poison into my gin?'
No! Snuck is modern(ish) American English, not Victorian British English! In the 1880s it was only just starting to be seen in print and only in the US, never in Britain. Even in the US, it was seen as rural farm boy speech; all examples of 'snuck' from that time are quotes of Ohio farmers and the like. It certainly doesn't match the educated tone of the rest of the writing. And it would never have been used by a British writer, especially not in the 1880s.
Even now in the 2020s snuck is still mostly not accepted as a word in the UK, and rarely appears in UK-based dictionaries.
For more info: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/35030/where-did-snuck-come-from
This unfortunately pulled me rather out of the game. Words do mean a lot to me and I hope you can change that word. As it's part of an image, probably not.
But thanks for making a game so good that it's inspired me to leave this detailed comment.
Hey glad to hear you’re enjoying it. When I can, I’ll try and replace that image and remove the offending word! I hope you manage to play and enjoy the rest of the game.
Awesome! Thanks!
My Overall Thoughts: I found this point and click style adventure to rather fun and challenging to say the least. I wasn't able to find the true culprit however the puzzles in the room were rather enjoyable so much so I forgot the plot haha
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8/10 - Story: I felt really invested in the investigation that was unfolding. Depsite it only being set in only one room there was a lot on my character and interactable elements around the scene that helped build the narrative even further.
I especially love the inclusion or the insentive to think outside the box, taking notes to keep track on the information I had gathered which screams escape rooms and wish that more escape games encouraged things like that as I believe it builds more of an immersion between the game and the player.
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10/10 - Mechanics: The point and click aspect worked well with no bugs or any oddities, everything felt fleshed out and built as if it was an actual escape room. I especially loved the implementation of the save system and the elimination of the hour timer allowing players to freely complete the room in whatever time they feel as well as the abilty for the progress to be loaded back at the most recent point rather than at the start.
What I would suggest as an option rather than a compulsory feature would be to ADD a timer for those players willing to go the extra challenge.
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9/10 - Visuals: Alone the style of the game looks fantastic, the items look distinct and fit the era the game is set in, there honestly isn't much more that I can say aside it does a lot from a little and sometimes that can be all a game really needs.
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27/30 - Lunium: There is a lot with this game I can praise it for however what I believe is this is the style of Escape Games done correctly on all accounts. The story was eticing and had a nice sense of replayability, the point and click aspects were a delight and thrive in these types of games.
Bookmark this game thats all I can say
Very well done devs :)
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Thanks so much for the review! Really glad to hear you enjoyed the game – but sorry you didn’t get to see the true ending (it’s worth going back for another try at guessing the culprit, you can guess more than once). Thanks for playing!
May do that sometime :)
Keep up the amazing work
Fantastic escape room puzzle! I managed to get all the way through without hints.
The only time I got stuck was when I forgot to check my pockets for items… so if anyone else is stuck, CHECK YOUR POCKETS AND ITEMS!!
I liked the aesthetic! The writing on the wall was really cool too.
I got the correct answer at the end, but I totally entered this at first. LOL
I did notice something that seems like a pretty big oversight, but should be a semi-easy fix! My next comment will contain SPOILERS for those who haven’t finished the game.
ASTRO SPOILER
Not sure if this little markdown thingy will work, but the Lunar Almanac is incorrect. The moon’s shadow actually moves from Right to Left, not left to right as shown in the game.
So, just switch “Waxing” and “Waning” in the Almanac, then the labels of “First Quarter” & “Third Quarter,” and it will be correct!
This means that the Moon code would have to be changed to 2947 rather than 6122.
Hey, that's a really good point – well spotted! I'll try and redo the almanac so it's 100% correct and update the game.
Ok, that's now updated - thanks for spotting that!
Wow that was fast! My struggling with getting the HTML to spoiler was worth it hahah. Thank you!!
whats the code to the notebook,i tried using the playthrough but its too blury i cant see it
The walkthrough is a PDF, you can zoom in to make it clearer.
To be honest, this is a masterpiece! Great story with great puzzles, only one thing was missing. Music. But we fixed that. Other then that well done!!
Hey thanks! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Love the music!
Thank you!! :)
I'm usually skeptical of interactive fiction because I'm trying to play a game, not read a book but this was perfect.
Thanks - glad to hear you enjoyed it! My next one is a bit more 'story', and a bit less 'puzzly' – but still worth a try! Will release on itch this coming weekend.
IFs are mainly interactive books. If you don't want to read, IFs are a genre of games you mighttt wanna avoid in the future
i'm aware of that. I literally said that in my comment
It's just kinda funny to me to be skeptical about the selling point of an entire game genre. It's like being skeptical about shooting games because it has shooting in it. But hey, maybe give visual novels a shot if you haven't already since it's a mix of gameplay and writing. Some recommendations: Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, 999, The Letter, Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.
I was attracted to the puzzle aspect of the game in the description because I like puzzles. I'm not averse to reading and I've played IF on itch before but that's not really what I'm looking for on here. I just played this creator's latest IF that he mentioned and it's great. I left my comment for people in the future who are looking for a puzzle game but may be driven away by the IF tag.
Lunium is a more visual than most IF (ideally appealing to a wider audience!). I totally get why many might be a little skeptical about the genre. Thanks for the active discussion, recommendations (and for the review!).
enjoyed it a lot, made me feel like a smart guy for not using any hints
i was bored beyond belief and used the pointless sites site to maybe try and relieve myself. i found a game by another author and found the interactive fiction competition by browsing her games. i just aimlessly looked through the site and found out this is a whole thing! it's so fun!!!
i looked through the winners for 2023 and found your game. i swear this has been the highlight of my week, just below another totally unrelated thing.
about the game, it's good. like very very good. i don't have a ton of other games to compare it to because, like i mentioned, i found out about this today, but man, the thought and time put into it just blew my mind.
i've already opened your new game up and i'm about to play it. i even made an account here to comment. this is a brand new world for me and i'm glad your game was one of the first i played.
i appreciated the artwork and the hints. i even opened a notepad and made my own scrapbook of hints and notes. i got really immersed into the story, the whole aesthetic is topnotch. love me some steampunk shenanigans.
anyway its 3am now and i'm going to watch the sun rise cause i'm not about to stop.
this was such a fun experience, i ended up writing notes on a post-it and it felt like i was adding to the detective's notebook. really good bait and switch too, i was fully on board trying to solve the mystery as it was presented until the very last second and then everything hit me at once. a new favorite for sure!
a lot of fun and a great challenge, nice twist at the end and I was able to play through the entire game without any hints. the only issue I had was that it did get repetitive having to re-light the match every time I needed to look back at the darker areas of the room, but I'd love to play more games like this from you!
I almost, ALMOST got through everything without using hints, I was feeling so proud of myself but there was one lock that made me use all hints available, I left it for last cause i thought I didn't have enough to figure it out, it was the only one where I used hints too, the clue was staring me right in the face the whole time, I'm so upset! But this game is amazing, I usually don't like escape rooms but the logic in this one actually made sense for me.
I'm often skeptical of escape rooms in text, because there's only so far clicking links will get you, but you've done an excellent job with combinations and fill-in-the-blank clues. And most of all, the writing: the art as well, but the writing really evokes "Victorian-era detective". Glad I played this!