Trapped Series

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Not to be confused with the similarly-named adventure game series by Patrick Majewski, Rodrigo Roesler's Trapped series is a Point and Click Game trilogy that focuses on "dream logic" puzzles and the mysterious building and circumstances that the protagonist finds himself in.

Said protagonist is David Green, a man who wakes up after the night his wife Becca leaves him for unspecified reasons to find himself in a house he has never been in before with a dead man lying next to him. As David explores the house and solves its puzzles, he gradually learns more about why he was brought here and what he must do (or at least thinks he must do).

The series has three parts: The White Rabbit, The Dark, and The Labyrinth, with walkthroughs for each part available at Jay Is Games.

Tropes used in Trapped Series include:
  • All Just a Dream: One possible interpretation of the game's plot. Maybe. Probably not.
  • Art Shift: The first two parts use an unique 3D isometric third-person perspective, but the third part has more traditional perspective/artwork.
  • Batman Gambit: Maureen wrote down the final entry in Jack's diary to make David believe that Jack is the one planning to kill Becky and hence kill him instead of Maureen. An impressive ploy, considering that she was stark raving mad at that time.
  • Creepy Child: Becky, who seems to know more about the house's mysteries than David does.
  • Despair Event Horizon: The death of Becky's terminally ill brother Mike caused her family to begin breaking apart and at least one of them to suffer Sanity Slippage.
  • Easter Egg: Each part has a hidden coin engraved with the part's titular motif. Collecting all three of these coins unlocks the path to the alternate ending in the third part.
  • Follow the White Rabbit: The subtitle of the first part. Rabbit statues are also crucial to solving at least one important puzzle in each part.
  • Foreshadowing: Tons of it. The most notable examples are how the story of the Queen switching places with the King when she senses the Assassin hiding behind the curtain that you read in the first part and the "mom - mum - mud - mad - dad" doublet puzzle/song reference that you can find in a book in the second part turn out to be integral pieces of information in the alternate ending of the third part.
  • Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: The keys you obtain in the third part fit in any door equally well and take you to a different room depending on which key you use, with the exception of the Sick Man's key which doesn't fit in any lock (possibly because according to the story, the Sick Man is too ill to do anything useful).
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: You probably won't have any idea of what's going on until well into the second part and even then, you need the third part (and ideally the alternate ending) to understand most of the plot.
  • Lampshade Hanging: David's choice of wishes at the wishing well in the second and third parts make generous use of Breaking the Fourth Wall and Shout Outs to various other games. Additionally, trying to dial 911 with the telephone in the second part causes David to point out that he woke up next to a dead man in a strange house that he has no idea how he came to be in and that it isn't exactly a good idea to call the police in a situation like this. The second part also gives you several phone numbers for things that would be exceedingly useful in your situation, only for all but one of these numbers to not work because it's the middle of the night when most businesses are closed.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: You have to make a dead frog come back to life in the second part with this method.
  • Literal Genie: David's wish at a wishing well in the second part for the game to end leads to a "The End" screen until he yells "Hold it!" and comments that obviously, he's dealing with a very literal well here and is sure that he saw this kind of joke in some other game.
  • Living Statue: The archer rabbit statue in the first game is heavily implied to be this, as it changes its pose after you solve the puzzle involving it and you find the arrow that its bow was originally equipped with in the bathroom.
    • It reappears in the other two parts, looking different each time.
  • Lost Forever: Each part contains a hidden coin that is only available for a certain window of time. The coins are not necessary to complete the game, but are necessary to get the alternate ending, so you'll need to replay from the first part if you missed any and want to get the other ending.
  • Mind Screw: The game appears to have been inspired by the works of Jorge Luis Borges (who's actually referred to in the second part) and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. That said, you do get some concrete answers over the course of the parts, especially if you get the alternate ending, but you'll probably still be left with a couple of unanswered questions when all is said and done.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: The puzzles were deliberately designed to invoke "dream logic" and hence can be difficult to solve if you don't get into the right mindset.
  • Motif: The ensemble of King, Queen, Sick Man, Assassin, etc. play important roles in each part. They appear on coins in the first part that you must use to unlock the "rabbit hole", are revealed in the second part to have originated from Becca's drawings from when she was a little girl recovering in the hospital; they represent her family and the killer she saw in her "dream", and appear on keys that open to different rooms symbolic of that person (e.g. the Assassin key takes you to Becky's room where the dead man lies, the Dog key to the backyard where the doghouse is, etc).
  • Multiple Endings: You can get an alternate ending that reveals the truth behind Becky's fateful night if you find the Easter Egg in each game.
  • Secret Diary: You find one for Becky's father Jack in the first and second parts and also one for Becky's mother Maureen in the alternate ending of the third part.
  • Skeleton Key Card: You have to open a door with one in the second part.
  • Songs in the Key of Lock: A secret door in the first part can be accessed only by playing a certain tune on a piano and water-filled crystal glass accompanying it.
  • Time Travel: David learns that he's traveled 18 years in the past to Becky's childhood home to either Set Right What Once Went Wrong or create a Stable Time Loop. Leads to Timey-Wimey Ball in later parts.