History VideoGame / CubeEscape

* ArtEvolution: Compare the Woman's design in [[https://rusty-lake.fandom.com/wiki/File:Screenshot_2016-04-11-13-01-58-1.png a photo]] in ''Theatre'' to the [[https://rusty-lake.fandom.com/wiki/File:WhiteDoorLaura2.jpg same photo]] appearing in ''The White Door''.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In Rusty Lake Hotel, there are three cymbal monkeys in Mr. Boar's room. But the inaccuracy is that the cymbal monkey toys we know of weren't invented until the 1950s in Japan, decades after the year the game is set in: 1893.

* AssholeVictim: The animal guests in ''Rusty Lake Hotel'' fall into this, since [[spoiler:''Rusty Lake Paradise'' ultimately reveals that Mr. Owl has a damn good reason for wanting them dead.]] Even without knowing that, [[JerkAss Mr. Boar]] definitely falls into this trope.

** The Eilander family of ''Paradise'' aren't much better, having formed a cult of sorts involving Rusty Lake.

* BirdPeople: Mr. Owl and Mr. Crow are commonly depicted as having human bodies and bird heads. That said, Mr Crow sometimes has FeatherFingers, and [[spoiler:at the end of the secret level in ''Roots'', Mr Crow sprouts a pair of wings from his back]].

* TheDogBitesBack: The bird that Mrs. Pigeon keeps for electric torture in her room in ''Rusty Lake Hotel'' ultimately assists in her death.

* MagicSkirt: At certain points in ''Case 23'' and ''The Mill'', the woman's dead body is held up in the air by the ankles. Her hair falls down, but strangely, her one-piece dress ignores gravity and stays at her knees. This is despite the fact that it has no support, and was actually seen gently blowing in the breeze in an earlier scene in ''Seasons''.

** In ''Seasons'', [[Film/{{Anchorman}} Ron Burgundy]] can be spotted reporting the Woman's death on TV.

* StealthPrequel: The end of ''Rusty Lake Paradise'' reveals that it takes place before [[spoiler:''Rusty Lake Hotel'', with the titular building built on the site of Paradise]].

** [[spoiler: In ''Rusty Lake Paradise'', the game ends with the protagonist becoming Mr. Owl, and Paradise island becoming the site of Rusty Lake Hotel.]]

** The area you find thyme in Ms. Pheasant's room in ''Rusty Lake Hotel'' is [[spoiler:on top of the clock, which keeps time]].

* BadassGrandpa: Dale's grandpa in ''Birthday'', [[spoiler: once you hand him the gun to stop Mr Rabbit from murdering his family all over again]].

* ''Samsara Room'' (a complete remake and re-imagining of the original game made prior to Seasons)

* Part 11: "Samsara Room" (a complete remake and re-imagining of the original game made prior to Seasons)

* Part 11: Samsara Room (a complete remake and re-imagining of the original game made prior to Seasons)

** The area you find thyme in Ms. Pheasant's room in ''Rusty Lake Hotel'' is [[spoiler:on top of the clock, which tells time]].

There are also three pay-to-play installments, which are set in the same universe as the free-to-play games but are lengthier and more difficult; these games typically serve to fill in the backstory of the series, as well as make sense of some of the more MindScrew-y aspects of the series. The paid entries are also available on Steam.

** ''Theatre'': [[spoiler:The man at the bar who shoots himself in the head. Might be an aversion since [[MindScrew he doesn't die/is already dead]].]]

* DrowningMySorrows: The man at the bar in ''Theatre'' only cares about getting drink after drink. This is heavily implied to be because [[spoiler:of his guilt over the murdered woman, who he used to be in a relationship with. Some of his comments hint at the fact that he was there at time of her death, as he claims to not remember what happened, and that it's all his fault]].

There are also three pay-to-play installments, which are set in the same universe as the free-to-play games but are lengthier and more difficult; these games typically serve to fill in the backstory of the series, as well as make sense of some of the more MindScrew-y aspects of the series. The Rusty Lake entries are also available on Steam.

''Cube Escape'' is a series of SurrealHorror [[RoomEscapeGame Room Escape]] games created by Dutch game site [[http://www.rustylake.com/ Rusty Lake]] and available to play for free on their website. Unlike many Room Escape games, ''Cube Escape'' is noteworthy for having a complex, ongoing, non-linear storyline with surreal themes and visual styling evocative of filmmakers such as Creator/DarioArgento, Creator/DavidLynch and Creator/LuisBunuel. As a result, players can expect a great deal of nightmarish imagery and gore.

The series is currently ongoing. Games in the ''Cube Escape'' series released so far are:

* [[http://www.rustylake.com/room-escape-games/cube-escape-paradox.html Part 10: "Paradox"]] (Released alongside [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZXFaaQJb0c a short film of the same name]]; the game and film form a shared experience, with multiple connections between the two)

There are also three pay-to-play installments, which are set in the same universe as the free-to-play games but are lengthier and more difficult; these games typically serve to fill in the backstory of the series, as well as make sense of some of the more MindScrew-y aspects of the series.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[CaptainObvious Duh-DOY]]! [[spoiler: Even as things become clearer, there's still a lot that remains unknown, including how much of what the player sees is even real (as versus an elaborate metaphor).]]

** Things associated with water/liquids: boats, lakes, fish, seashells, dripping pipes, sinks...

** Flies, and to a lesser extent other insects (particularly butterflies)

There are also three pay-to-play installments, that are set in the same universe as the free-to-play games but are lengthier and more difficult. :

Not to be confused with another series of works [[Film/{{Cube}} involving cubes and escaping.]] Or games involving trying to [[CompanionCube escape with a cube]].

* ArcWords

** Balance the substance of my past lives.

** Locks and Keys

** In ''Paradise'', in the basic ending Jakob gets sacrificed and, well, dies. However, in the GoldenEnding [[spoiler:he gains access to his mother's preparatory work on the immortality elixir, and ascends as Mr. Owl.]]

* In ''Paradise'', in the basic ending Jakob gets sacrificed and, well, dies. However, in the GoldenEnding [[spoiler:he gains access to his mother's preparatory work on the immortality elixir, and ascends as Mr. Owl.]]

* AnachronicOrder: ''Seasons'' takes place in 1964-1981, ''The Lake'' in an undefined year, ''Arles'' in 1888, ''Harvey's Box'' in 1969, ''Case 23'' in 1971-1972, ''The Mill'' most likely in 1972, ''Birthday'' in 1933, ''Theatre'' in 1971, ''Hotel'' in 1893, ''Roots'' in 1860, ''Cave'' in 1972, ''Paradise'' some time in the late 1700s or early 1800s, and ''Paradox''...well, after the events of ''Cave'' [[note]]It's not immediately clear whether ''Paradox'' takes place in a year ''[[MindScrew at all]]'', due to the GroundhogDayLoop and JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind aspect; however, since [[spoiler:the Golden Cube already exists]], the game must take place following the events of ''The Cave'', when [[spoiler:said cube was created by Mr. Crow]][[/note]].

* ArcSymbol: quite a few, as you can expect from a surrealist work
** The cubes

** Flies
** Gemstones

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: [[spoiler:Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl.]] It's difficult to say what they even ''are'', let alone why they do what they do. In ''The Mill'' it is revealed that [[spoiler: they empower the lake somehow by crafting the cubes from human memories. Mr. Owl seems to prefer that they use good memories due to the dangerous side-effects of using bad ones. Good or bad, however, the memories still have to come from [[HumanResources dead human bodies.]]]]

* CallBack: Lots of them in later games, especially in ''The Mill'', ''Theatre'', and ''Roots''.

* CreepyCathedral: It's actually just a small shrine, but the church on the Lake is still one of the creepiest locations encountered so far.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''The Lake'' was the first created game in the series, and it's much more simplistic and (relatively) less surreal than the others. In addition, it doesn't specify a year or viewpoint character like later games almost always do.

* EldritchLocation: Rusty Lake is referred to throughout the games as some kind of mental health facility. It will affect your mental health, alright. The recurring settings of the small apartment and the cabin by Rusty Lake are almost certainly such locations as well.

* FaceMonsterTurn: [[spoiler: Mr Rabbit uses this trope to justify his actions in ''Birthday''. He explains that he was forced into murdering Dale's family as it is his only chance of "escaping this state".]]

* HumanPincushion: [[spoiler: Mr Rabbit in ''Hotel'' dies as this when a magic trick involving three swords goes wrong, and he is fatally stabbed.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: What you are being stalked by (Corrupted Souls) certainly qualifies and the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality possibly-benevolent]] (such as Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl) entities aren't much better.

** Arguably {{Subverted| Trope}}. [[spoiler:Most of the evidence suggests that the player character--The Woman--committed suicide, shortly ''before'' the Fall memory. And then DoubleSubverted since her Corrupted Soul stabs Harvey while visiting the Winter memory.]]

* JumpScare: Often finding horrible things like corpses or [[TomatoInTheMirror mirrors]] are accompanied by a sudden increase in volume.
* KidsAreCruel: In ''Roots'', Samuel and Emma make a beehive drop on their brother Albert's head, and laugh at him. The incident left a permanent scar on Albert's face. This is implied to be one of the reasons for Albert harboring a ''[[CainAndAbel very]]'' deep grudge against them even when they're adults.

* LiteralChangeOfHeart: Saving Gerard in The Sixth Plague of ''Paradise'' involves replacing his heart with a clock's.
* LiteralMetaphor: The drinks you give to the depressed man in ''Theatre''; the screwdriver cocktail causes a screwdriver tool to emerge from his mouth, for example.
* MachineMonotone: If you pick up the phone, expect to hear this. [[spoiler: Revealed in ''The Mill'' to be the voice of Mr. Crow himself.]]

* MeaningfulName: The fictional painter Lacus Fleo is probably named after Lacus Flevo, a lake which once existed in the Netherlands. The series' publisher, Rusty Lake, are based in the Netherlands.

* MoonLogicPuzzle: A number of puzzles operate on the bizarrest stretches of dream/nightmare logic. Good luck figuring out in ''Case 23'' just what you're supposed to do with the fishbowl and flies without extensive TrialAndErrorGameplay, for example.
** The bonus achievements that can be achieved in the elixir puzzle in ''Roots'' give no clear indication on how to reach them and the materials that have to be mixed together for them are very [[GuideDangIt out there]].

*** Red Vial Ending: Dale drinks the red vial, coughs up a key, and uses it to unlock the door to the room, escaping into the woods at the bottom of Rusty Lake; he then finds his way to the surface of the lake, where he witnesses [[spoiler:the corrupted soul slit Laura's throat]]. He then finds a black cube containing a memory of what just happened; in the film this seems to lead into a GroundhogDayLoop, while in the game it marks the transition to Chapter 2.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Used in ''Theatre'', [[spoiler: after you give the man a Bloody Mary to drink]].

%%Possibly, maybe not. * SamusIsAGirl: It is revealed very quickly that Harvey the parrot is a female bird.

* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: Although in Case 23, it's not exactly sealed but you can't leave until you find all the evidence.

** The [[spoiler:[[MultipleEndings Green Vial Ending]]]] of ''Paradox'' also features [[spoiler:a black cube being changed into a white cube]], this one in response to [[spoiler:Dale sacrificing himself and [[MindScrew (apparently)]] preventing Laura from dying]].

** The wallpaper in the Woman's home will be instantly recognizable to fans of [[Film/TheShining a certain film]].

* StageMagician: Mr Rabbit's occupation in ''Hotel''.
* StealthPrequel: The end of ''Rusty Lake Paradise'' reveals that it takes place before [[spoiler:''Rusty Lake Hotel'', with the titular building built on Paradise]].
* StealthPun: The best ending of ''Paradox'' (or rather, the ending most likely to lead to future games) is the one which involves [[spoiler:finding [[MacGuffin the Golden Cube]] hidden in Chapter 2]]. In other words, [[spoiler:it's the GoldenEnding]].

* SurpriseCreepy: With the exception of Case 23, which opens on the detective investigating a murder scene, all of the games in the series start off as cheerfully illustrated, well made but standard {{Room Escape Game}}s. And then things start to get increasingly weird and dark as you piece the puzzles together.

* AnachronicOrder: ''Seasons'' takes place in 1964-1981, ''The Lake'' in an undefined year, ''Arles'' in 1888, ''Harvey's Box'' in 1969, ''Case 23'' in 1971-1972, ''The Mill'' most likely in 1972, ''Birthday'' in 1933, ''Theatre'' in 1971, ''Hotel'' in 1893, ''Roots'' in 1860, ''Cave'' in 1972, and ''Paradise'' in an undefined year in middle ages.