Marketing Tabletop Puzzle Games on Kickstarter — A Case Study
The Best Puzzle Game & Escape Room Video Game Deals in the Steam Summer Sale 2021

The Steam Summer Sale is one of the largest annual PC Gaming events and this year it takes place from the 24th June to the 8th July! As well as hugely popular titles such as Destiny, Borderlands and Tabletop Simulator receiving discounts – it’s also the perfect time to bag yourself that puzzle or escape room game you’ve had on your list for years.
Yeah… You know the one!
Steam Sale discounts typically range anywhere from 30% off to 95% off. So… Without further adieu, here is a round up of my top picks and best discounts on escape room style games I’ve found this Steam Summer Sale.
Prices are listed in GBP £ but the discounts are usually the same internationally – so be sure to check your local currency!
I want to do an escape room, but make it digital…
You enjoy escape rooms and maybe you’re new to PC gaming but you want to see what they’d be like in a video game setting? No gimmicks, no tricky controls, these are some classic escape room style games!
THE ROOM | 75% OFF

A mysterious invitation leads to the attic of an abandoned house. In the room is a cast-iron safe laced with strange carvings and on top, a note from your distant companion. It promises something ancient and astonishing concealed in the iron chamber – you need only find a way in.
New Price: £0.99
PALINDROME SYNDROME | 40% OFF



You wake up in a spaceship with no memories. In this escape room with a sci-fi setting you will have to investigate your past solving different puzzles. Will you be able to discover what happened to you and how did you get there?
New Price: £4.31
ZERO ESCAPE : THE NONARY GAMES | 60% OFF



Kidnapped and taken to an unfamiliar location, nine people find themselves forced to participate in a diabolical Nonary Game by an enigmatic mastermind called Zero. Why were they there? Why were they chosen to put their lives on the line? And more importantly, who can be trusted?
New Price: £9.51
TESTED ON HUMANS: ESCAPE ROOM | 30% OFF



You are the test subject. In this dark environment escape room, you have to solve various puzzles to escape from the research center where you are trapped. Can you find out how you got there and escape???
New Price: £5.95
RUSTY LAKE (BUNDLE) | 58% OFF



Are you ready to serve the guests in the Rusty Lake Hotel? Solve all mysteries in this dark and eerie puzzle game. Rusty Lake Hotel is a point-and-click adventure by the creators of the Rusty Lake & Cube Escape series.
Read our review of Cube Escape Paradox
New Price: £6.52
MAD EXPERIMENTS: ESCAPE ROOM | 30% OFF



Mad Experiments: Escape Room is a multiplayer narrative escape game made for advanced players. Alone or with teammates, you have 60 minutes to explore, solve, and escape!
New Price: £7.97
TIN CAN: ESCAPE POD SIMULATOR | 34% OFF



You’ve barely managed to escape your exploding spaceship. Now in an old escape pod, you hurtle through space at the mercy of the cosmos. With no knowledge of the pod’s complex systems, your life depends on a technical manual and your own wits. How long can you survive?
New Price: £7.51
AGENT A: A PUZZLE IN DIGUISE | 90% OFF



A suave secret agent adventure game. Your mission (should you choose to accept) is to infiltrate enemy spy Ruby La Rouge’s secret hideaway and put a stop to her evil plans!
New Price: £1.54
THE HOUSE OF DA VINCI | 70% OFF



Enter The House of Da Vinci, a new must-try 3D puzzle adventure game. Solve mechanical puzzles, discover hidden objects, escape from rooms and dive into the authentic atmosphere of the Renaissance. Use all your wits to find out what’s behind your master’s disappearance.
New Price: £4.49
I want to play with a friend…
Are there 2 of you? These 2 player escape room games are also available in the Steam Summer Sale – check it out!
TICK TOCK A TALE FOR TWO | 50% OFF



You and your friend are trapped in a mystical world. As time ebbs away you must solve increasingly complex puzzles to escape. Cooperation is key as neither of you have the full picture! Play on two devices, local or remotely, all you need is a voice connection.
New Price: £2.49
WE WERE HERE TOGETHER | 50% OFF



As we explore these frozen wastes, misfortune strikes once again. Through the fierce blizzard, a flare lights the sky, followed by a cry for help over the radio – broken, dying… No one else can come to their rescue. Can we make it back – together?
New Price: £5.14
The classic puzzle games…
You like the classics! You’ve PROBABLY already played one of these – or at least heard countless people talking about them. Well heck! There no better time than the present to invest in them on PC!
THE WITNESS | 75% OFF



You wake up, alone, on a strange island full of puzzles that will challenge and surprise you. You don’t remember who you are, and you don’t remember how you got here, but there’s one thing you can do: explore the island in hope of discovering clues, regaining your memory, and somehow finding your way home.
New Price: £7.49
REALMYST | 60% OFF



It’s been 20 years since Myst became your world, and there’s never been a better time to revisit the Ages. This newly refreshed and rebuilt version of realMyst is all-things Myst, but amazingly more real. You can explore anywhere, unfettered, and in realtime! Pick your own path through the forest on Myst Island. Listen to the crickets as the sun sets in the Channelwood Age. Relax in the falling leaves in the Selenitic Age. Spin around for a full panoramic tour of Sirrus’ throne room. Seek shelter from the thunderstorm in Stoneship Age.
New Price: £5.19
RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN | 25% OFF



Lost at sea 1803 ~ The good ship Obra Dinn.
New Price: £11.61
THE TALOS PRINCIPLE | 85% OFF



As if awakening from a deep sleep, you find yourself in a strange, contradictory world of ancient ruins and advanced technology. Tasked by your creator with solving a series of increasingly complex puzzles, you must decide whether to have faith or to ask the difficult questions: Who are you? What is your purpose? And what are you going to do about it?
New Price: £4.49
GOROGOA | 70%



Winner of Debut Game at the 2018 BAFTA Games Awards, as well as Best Mobile Game and the Innovation Award at the GDC 2018 Choice Awards, Gorogoa is an elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts.
Current Price: £3.41
Actually, I want to solve crime instead…
For all the armchair detectives and budding sleuths, here are some of my top picks which involve detective puzzles. Actually there are thousands more on Steam, but I personally recommend the following:
HEAVY RAIN | 50% OFF



Experience a gripping psychological thriller filled with innumerable twists and turns. The hunt is on for a murderer known only as the Origami Killer. Four characters, each following their own leads, must take part in a desperate attempt to prevent the killer from claiming a new victim.
New Price: £7.99
LA NOIRE | 70% OFF



Amid the post-war boom of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Cole Phelps is an LAPD detective thrown headfirst into a city drowning in its own success. Corruption is rampant, the drug trade is exploding, and murder rates are at an all-time high. In his fight to climb the ranks and do what’s right, Phelps must unravel the truth behind a string of arson attacks, racketeering conspiracies and brutal murders, battling the L.A. underworld and even members of his own department to uncover a secret that could shake the city to its rotten core.
New Price: £5.39
CYBER MANHUNT | 20% OFF



Cyber Manhunt is a story-oriented puzzle game focusing on big data, hacking, citizen privacy, and social workers. It focuses on social issues such as cyber violence and privacy breaches.
New Price: £6.39
THIMBLEWEED PARK | 50% OFF



In Thimbleweed Park, a dead body is the least of your problems. Switch between five playable characters to uncover the surreal secrets of this strange town in a modern mystery adventure game from the creators of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. The deeper you go, the weirder it gets.
New Price: £7.49
HER STORY | 75% OFF



A woman is interviewed seven times by the police. Search the video database and explore hundreds of authentic clips to discover her story in this groundbreaking and award winning narrative game.
Current Price: £1.79
TALES OF THE NEON SEA | 70%



Welcome to a world of intrigue and suspicion. Where humans and robots contend with escalating tensions and mutual distrust. And where gangster felines scheme their way to the top of the food chain. Welcome to the Tales of the Neon Sea!
New Price: £4.04
I have a VR Headset, what should I check out?
Oooh! Lucky! OK so this opens up a whole world of possibility, here are some unmissable titles:
I EXPECT YOU TO DIE | 50% OFF



Play as a secret agent armed with telekinetic abilities on a mission to stop Zoraxis, a nefarious global weapons and pharmaceutical corporation.
New Price: £5.49
THE ROOM VR: A DARK MATTER | 33% OFF



The British Institute of Archaeology, London, 1908: The disappearance of an esteemed Egyptologist prompts a Police investigation into the unknown. Explore cryptic locations, examine fantastic gadgets and uncover an otherworldly discovery which blurs the line between reality and illusion.
New Price: £16.74
ABODE | 50% OFF



Abode is an escape room puzzle game. You will have to find, combine and utilize tools and furniture in the room to unveil all its secrets.
New Price: £3.49
Less puzzles, more story!
You’ve solved the puzzles, now for a bit of gold old fashioned mystery! Explore these worlds, and uncover secrets at a leisurely pace.
WHAT REMAINDS OF EDITH FINCH | 65% OFF



What Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state. As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she’s the last one in her family left alive.
New Price: £5.24
NIGHT IN THE WOODS | 50% OFF



College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren’t the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades.
New Price: £7.49
GONE HOME | 60% OFF



June 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM. You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something’s not right. Where is everyone? And what’s happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.
New Price: £4.35
FIREWATCH | 75% OFF



Firewatch is a single-player first-person mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness, where your only emotional lifeline is the person on the other end of a handheld radio.
New Price: £3.74
That was a bit deep, something more lighthearted please…
Okay, okay. Here are the funnies. Great picks for when you want to take a break from saving the world, solving crime, and escaping from locked rooms:
THE STANLEY PARABLE | 50% OFF



The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end.
New Price: £4.99
DUDE, WHERE IS MY BEER? | 25% OFF



An old school point and click adventure game about finding a pilsner in the confusing world of unnecessary craft beers and snobby hipsters.
New Price: £8.54
JAZZPUNK | 75% OFF



Jazzpunk is a comedy adventure set in an alternate reality Cold War World, plagued with corporate espionage, CyberCrime, and sentient martinis. Gameplay is inspired by spoof comedy films and cartoons of yesteryear, with a focus on weird gadgets, exotic locales, and open-world style exploration.
New Price: £2.74
Surprise Me!
I’ve not played any of these yet, but they seem like really interesting concepts. They’re definitely on my to-buy list this year. Why not give them a go too and let me know what you think?
HYPNOSPACE OUTLAW | 35% OFF



Hypnospace Outlaw is a ’90s internet simulator in which you scour Hypnospace’s wide variety of weird and wonderful websites to hunt down wrongdoers, while also keeping an eye on your inbox, avoiding viruses and adware, and downloading a plethora of apps that may or may not be useful.
Current Price: £10.06
HACKNET | 80% OFF



Hacknet is an immersive, terminal-based hacking simulator for PC. Dive down a rabbit hoIe as you follow the instructions of a recently deceased hacker, whose death may not have been the accident the media reports.
New Price: £1.43
UNHEARD | 50% OFF



What if you could hear every word spoken at the scene of a crime? “Acoustic Detectives” wanted for testing our new device! Return aurally to crime scenes and use the voices you hear to identify potential suspects and solve the mysteries. What is it that’s connecting these seemingly unrelated cases?
New Price: £2.54
INFRA | 70% OFF



INFRA puts you into the boots of a structural analyst on a routine mission. Quickly though, your task turns into a fight for survival, all caused by deep-rooted schemes of the past. Your tools are simple: your camera and the wits to navigate a labyrinth of debris.
New Price: £7.13
Well, that’s a wrap! Did I miss any? Are you filled with anger that I didn’t include your favourite game – or worse, included a terrible game? Come fight me (not really) on Twitter or Instagram or by email at mairi@theescaperoomer.com
This article contains NO affiliate links and is based off the research and opinion of the author, Mairi.
2 Comments
I had a lot of these already and bought a load more of them in this new sale. Now I just either need to invent cloning or time travel in order to have the time to play them all. Any tips for that?!!! 😀
Definitely some of these games will teach you the basics of time travel, but I’ll have to get back to you on that one! Haha! 😂
[…] the Steam Summer Sale I picked up 30 new titles I’d never heard of before, and Old Man’s Journey was one of […]