In the occasional but always brilliant category of “games that sound like someone scratched a lofty concept into their shoulder while closing the pub with the sharp corner of a pack of Frazzles” is Assassinvisible – a stealth game about an concealed killer who is so concealed to the player I don’t know where are they. That’s right, games like Invisigun I’ve experimented with this compelling concept before, but Assassinvisible puts it in a different frame – the entire game exists as scribbles in a bored student’s notebook. Here is the Tres tray:
This will be very quotable because I’m still trying to think about it myself. The Steam page describes Assassinvisible: “A cute little puzzle and stealth game set in the margins of a bored student’s notebook. You are an invisible killer. Sneak past the guards to reach your target and wipe it out!”
The idea, as far as I can tell, is that you’ll trace your own movements through a hand-drawn puzzle, square by square, trying to reach your target and eliminate them. Thanks to the framing, you will also learn more about the student drawing you. Here are the features that contain the word “complicate” in themselves:
- Hand-drawn levels (made by a kid, definitely not us) with complicated, unique and compelling situations – absolutely no filler.
- Original gameplay in which the character is concealed to enemies, but also to players!
- A touching story told through a student’s diary.
- Your ultimate revenge for all those years spent being bored (and having fun) in class.
It comes from the French studio Zaatar Café and will be released on December 13. Until then, the studio has a few smaller releases on Itch.io that you can check out find here. My favorite of these is the “elusive portal snake”, which Zaatar Café didn’t design but recreated from memory after deleting the previous Portal and Serpent mash-up they played on Itch. Double-story!
