Escape Game : A New Point-and-click Game You Might Not Have Played

Time passed quickly, soon we will have to face the final exam so this is going to be the last article I write for the writing class this  semester. Today, I want to introduce my favorite online game which is called "Escape the room" or "Escape game".  It's a type of point-and-click adventure game which requires players to escape from imprisonment by exploiting their surroundings. All you have to do is finding clues and trying to escape away from the room.

Most escape games are subdivided into two categories, with plots or no plots. 

For the games with specify plot settings, there are a storyline and more than 1 switch scenes in the games. Players will have to focus on the storyline since the clues are hid in not only the scenes but also the plots.



Dr. Stanley's House 1: 7 keys
(Stanley博士的家1:七把鑰匙)

Dr. Stanley's House 2: 6 stones (Stanley博士的家2:六顆石頭)





When it comes to escape games, there are a lot of names most escape fans think of right away and Dr. Stanley's House is the game that you won't want to miss. It's created by a Chinese named James Li in 2005. The game has a great storyline, art, and puzzles. It's hard to believe that the whole game was made by one person only.

In the game, you're play a role of James, a detective who is invited by Dr. Stanley for a visit to his house. But he find a series of strange things happen as he entering the house: Dr. Stanley's disappeared, all the doors in the house are locked, and someone is hiding and targeting you all the time. You then find Dr. Stanley in the house, but he's acting weird and asking for your help. After discovering the thing that is hid in the house you start to wonder, what's the big secret of Stanley?

here are the links:

Dr. Stanley's House 1 / Dr. Stanley's House 2 

You are invited to Dr. Stanley's house

Stanley is hiding some big secret...

You must find for the keys and clues in Dr. Stanley's House 1

Now is the time for the no plots settings games. This kind of no storyline settings is the prototype of all the escapes games. It's usually shorter than the one I had mentioned in the previous paragraph and has no sequel since it doesn't have any other characters and narrative form in the game.

The Submachine Series

The Submachine Series is a escape game series created by Mateusz Skutnik. It is one of the most successful and well-known escape game series in the world. There are 10 episodes in the main Submachine series but they don't really have concrete storyline. It just simply sets up a situation and locks you in the room. The design of art and puzzle in this game is the most complicated one I have ever seen.

The scenes in the Submachine games:

If you are looking forward to trying some other games, I will strongly suggest you the Samsara Room, You Find Yourself in a Room, Alice is Dead 1 2 3, etc. However, there are still many great escape games in my lists, and if you still want to know more about it please leave a comment to let me know.

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Tips For Making Magazine Layout

I know everyone are working hard to complete the magazine project recently, and it is not so easy to come up with ideas from the magazine cover design and format. So today, I'm going to tell everyone some tips and the software that can help you deal with your layout design quickly.

1.Take Good Pictures For The Magazine

What's the definition of a good picture for the magazine cover? It's mean to take pictures that are focus on one topic only. Therefore, try to remove other things away and keep only the dish you want to take picture on the table. This will help to save enough space for the title and subtitles, otherwise your cover page will look like a mess after you adding words on it.

Don't use this kind of photos for cover design because they are messy and hard to read

Beside keeping your photos clean and simple, color contrast is also an important element in photography. The food's and the background's colors play an important role in the layout since high color contrast not only can highlight the dish but also provide better readability.

Color contrast make the color of the cake richer and the subtitles better readability

2.Using Pinterest to save ideas

To design a magazine layout, first of all, you need to decide and 
unify the style of your magazine. In this case, all you need is Pinterest. It's a web that provides platform allowing users to upload release their pictures, designs or art works. If you never heard of Pinterest before, take a look at it here. 

3. Search For A Specific Term

Search for a specific term can help you find for the information faster and easier on Pinterest. This is the page you will see if you search for "food magazine" :

Click on a certain one and it will show you how a professional designs a magazine layout from the cover, content, article to the back cover page.

There are thousands of different layout styles in the Pinterest's gallery so you can start the magazine design by choosing the one which you like the most and following its layout.

3. Find a graphics editor (e.g. Photoshop)

You need a good graphics editor to make a good magazine. In my opinion, I suggest using Photoshop Adobe. First of all, you don't need to buy or download it, there is an online Photoshop editor which you can find on the internet here. Second, since it's widely used around the world, there are a lot of photoshop tutorials on the internet you can search for, so I sure it will not be a big problem to use it.

So these are some tips I have learned from my own experience. Thanks for reading. I hope it will be helpful to you!

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