Crimson Room is a Flash game/adventure/puzzle/mystery which was created in March 2004 by Toshimitsu Takagi. The aim of the game is to escape from a mysterious, locked, red-painted room, where you have woken up after drinking too much the previous night.
The room is presented to you in sparse, cel-shaded 3D polygons. The red walls are featureless red polygons and the other features of the room - a bed, a CD player, a window, a door - are similarly simplistically rendered. The game is played entirely from the first-person perspective and no part of your body ever appears on screen. It is controlled by using the mouse to click on various (unflagged) areas of the screen to look a bit more in that direction, look underneath this, examine that, use the other. You have a small inventory of items which is initially empty but expands as you hunt around the room for clues or aids to your escape. Thus the user interface is kept to a minimum of clutter.
Text in the game is also kept to a bare minimum. What little there is is in English, translated a little eccentrically from Japanese. It is nevertheless as informative as it needs to be - in fact, it adds a little to the mystery. Indeed, mystery abounds. Where is this room? A look out through the curtains reveals very little. Who put me here? What lies through the door?
The game is undeniably hard. Certain necessary items to your escape are very, very difficult to find - to the point that even searching carefully for hours might reveal nothing. Moreover a little bit of lateral thinking is needed to pick up on some of the more subtle clues. Ultimately however the difficulty level adds to the sense of achievement when you make a little more progress.
Crimson Room's simplicity, almost unique graphical style, elegance and difficulty made it incredibly popular once it was released. The latter has also left a whole lot of people hunting for hints or complete solutions to the game; mine is at the end of this node.
The original location of Crimson Room no longer exists, having been replaced in May 2004 with the game's follow-up, Viridian Room. However, Crimson Room can still be found at http://www.ebaumsworld.com/crimsonroom.html.
Takagi accepts donations for the creation of future rooms. 10% of these go to UNICEF.
The solution
This wouldn't be much of a node if I didn't include a solution. However to protect the innocent I have encoded it using the E2 Rot13 Encoder. Trust me, for the most part it is much more fun to figure this stuff out for yourself.
There are two particular bits that people tend to get REALLY stuck on. I have put the solutions to these in bold. You should be able to figure out the rest yourself...
- Pyvpx naljurer gb yrnir gur prvyvat ivrjcbvag naq trg gb gur svefg fperra.
- Pyvpx ba gur evtug jnyy gb ghea naq snpr gur jvaqbj.
- Pyvpx gur phegnvaf bapr naq cvpx hc gur fvyire xrl ba gur jvaqbj yrqtr.
- Pyvpx gur phegnvaf n svir zber gvzrf naq fbzrguvat jvyy qebc bhg bs gurz. Cvpx hc gur guvpx evat.
- Pyvpx gur phegnvaf ntnva naq gura gur cvyybj (obggbz-evtug) gb ghea gbjneqf gur orq.
- Pyvpx gur cvyybj naq cvpx hc gur tbyqra xrl.
- Fgvyy ba gur orq ivrjcbvag, ybbx ng gur qvntbany rqtr orgjrra lryybj naq juvgr ng gur obggbz yrsg bs lbhe fperra. Pyvpx whfg gb gur lryybj fvqr bs guvf yvar gb or gnxra gb n ivrjcbvag qbja gur fvqr bs gur orq. Cvpx hc gur zrgny fgvpx.
- Pyvpx gur cvyybj ntnva gb erghea gb gur orq ivrjcbvag.
- Pyvpx ng gur sbbg bs gur orq gb snpr gur oynax jnyy.
- Fgvyy ba gur oynax jnyy ivrjcbvag, ybbx ng gur qvntbany rqtr orgjrra erq naq checyr ng gur obggbz yrsg bs lbhe fperra - gur bar arnere gur prager. Pyvpx fyvtugyl gb gur checyr fvqr bs guvf yvar gb frr nabgure cneg bs gur orq. Cvpx hc gur onggrel.
- Pyvpx gur erq jnyy gb or gnxra gb gur purfg bs qenjref ivrjcbvag.
- Pyvpx gur funqbj haqre gur purfg bs qenjref gb ybbx haqrearngu vg. Cvpx hc gur pnffrggr.
- Pyvpx gur purfg bs qenjref gb tb onpx gb gur purfg bs qenjref ivrjcbvag.
- Pyvpx gur tbyqra xrl naq hfr vg ba gur yrsg-unaq xrlubyr gb bcra vg. Bcra gur qenjre naq gnxr gur cbjre pnoyr.
- Pyvpx gur fvyire xrl naq hfr vg ba gur evtug-unaq xrlubyr gb bcra vg. Bcra gur qenjre naq gnxr gur erq obk.
- Pyvpx gur qvfu gb ybbx pybfre ng vg. Cvpx hc gur guva evat.
- Pyvpx gur fcrnxre ba gur yrsg gb ybbx ng gur PQ cynlre. Pyvpx gur cbjre pnoyr naq hfr vg ba gur PQ cynlre. Pyvpx gur cbjre ohggba (gbc yrsg) gb ghea vg ba. Pyvpx gur PQ qenjre gb bcra vg. Cvpx hc gur guveq xrl.
- Pyvpx gur erq obk. Chg gur guvpx evat va gur pvephyne ubyr ba gur yrsg, gur guva evat va gur ubyr ba gur evtug, naq gur zrgny fgvpx va gur ybat ubyr. Pyvpx gur yvq gb bcra vg.
- Chg gur onggrel va gur fcnpr arkg gb gur bgure onggrel, gur pnffrggr va gur pnffrggr-funcrq ubyr, naq pyvpx gur yraf gb cynl n ivqrb.
- Jngpu pnershyyl guebhtu gur ivqrb. Gbjneqf gur raq, gur zna jvyy fgbc qnapvat naq cbvag ng n fznyy nern ba gur fperra. N gval pebffunve jvyy synfu urer frireny gvzrf. Cbfvgvba lbhe zbhfr cbvagre bire gur pebffunve naq jnvg sbe gur raq bs gur ivqrb.
- Pyvpx gur bgurejvfr haerznexnoyr nern bs jnyy jurer gur pebffunve jnf guerr gvzrf. N erq fdhner jvyy bhgyvar vgfrys ba gur jnyy. Pyvpx vg gb bcra vg naq erirny n fnsr.
- Pyvpx gur fnsr gb ybbx pybfre ng vg. Pyvpx gur ahzoref gb frg gur pbzovangvba gb bar-avar-avar-sbhe. Hfr gur guveq xrl ba gur xrlubyr gb bcra vg. Cvpx hc gur fperjqevire.
- Pyvpx gur erq jnyy ba gur evtug gb erghea gb gur purfg bs qenjref ivrjcbvag. Pyvpx gur oyhr qbbe (obggbz evtug) gb ybbx ng gur qbbe. Pyvpx gur qbbe ntnva gb ybbx pybfre ng gur qbbexabo.
- Hfr gur fperjqevire ba gur qbbexabo gb erzbir vg. Pyvpx gur ubyr vg yrnirf oruvaq gb bcra gur qbbe...