✨ The Steam Spring Sale is here, which means all our premium games are now 33% OFF 🙌

So book yourself, or your loved ones, a stay at our mental health facility, The White Door, now 33% OFF for the whole duration of the Steam Spring Sale!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since we released our first ARG, The White Door’s Mental Health and Fishing.

We were eager to try something entirely different after the crossover with Cube Escape: Paradox and the Paradox short film. One of our prototypes stood out and became The White Door- a game with a unique style in the Rusty Lake universe: split-screen, mostly black-and-white graphics, no inventory and a focus on creating an emotional narrative. In the game, you play as Robert Hill, a man with severe memory loss who checks himself in a mental health facility. Explore his dreams and help him uncover forgotten memories while navigating the facility's strict routine. The White Door was also the first game co-published by Second Maze, our new label to help publish and fund other indies with their passion projects.

Halfway through development, in the Summer of 2019, our intern, Romane, pitched the idea of an ARG to amplify the release of The White Door. We loved the concept of adding an extra layer of immersion, so we quickly decided to go for it. Our base idea was to hide a telephone number within the game and that players who called them would be led to a secret website.
On January 23, 2020, 2 weeks after the digital release of The White Door, the website: mentalhealthandfishing.com went live. This 90’s inspired website set the stage for an intense puzzle hunt triggered by fans who already got the URL from the telephone number. Players had to “hack” the site, find physical cubes in real-world locations, and connect them with the game to unlock The White Door’s secret Basement ending.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

It became one of the most stressful yet exciting events we’ve ever experienced. We had to carefully plan and set up everything: the website, a video to kick off the event and additional social media accounts for characters you uncovered throughout the ARG. What we didn’t anticipate was just how many people from all over the world would jump into the ARG and participate in the physical cube hunt. We expected it to take at least a month to solve…but events transpired quite differently! The puzzle-solving power of our community, particularly on Discord[discord.gg], was mind-blowing. Watching it unfold was impressive, but it also meant we had to rush to wrap up the event in a satisfying way.

Nearly 20,000 people participated. The website crashed at launch, and in no time, players were racing across the globe to find black cubes in cities from San Francisco to Tokyo. Fans in South Korea were searching for a cube in a local barber shop, and in China, where COVID-19 just hit, we had to caution players to stay safe and not travel too much. Funnily enough, the final cube was hidden in Amsterdam[x.com]. Mr. Crow revealed the last cube, and all locations were made visible on the world map on the website. Players who filled up our contest form and the winners of the cubes were added to the Mental Health and Fishing Hall of Fame.

This ARG was one of the highlights of our community engagement, and we want to, once more, thank everyone who took part. You all did an incredible job that day, and who knows… your help might be needed again in the future!

5 years ago we released Rusty Lake’s The White Door! What is your favorite memory of the game? ▪️▫️🚪

Please check our socials[linktr.ee] or Discord[discord.com] to win a The White Door t-shirt!

Winter is here and the snow and ice bring forth the Steam Winter Sale with chilling Rusty Lake discounts!

So book yourself or your loved ones a stay at our mental health facility, The White Door. It's now 40% off for the whole Steam Winter Sale! We hope you'll enjoy bringing colour to Bob's life! 🎨

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

Enjoy the autumn season with a cosy stay at The White Door now 33% 0FF! And while browsing the Steam Autumn Sall you'll notice that all our other premium Rusty Lake titles are also on sale!

Survive the strict daily routine and bring back colour to Robert's life. 🚪

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

Ps. Follow the meaning, the latest game published by Second Maze is out now for an introductory discount of 25% off!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2720280/Follow_the_meaning/

We highly recommend you try it out, and maybe you'll even find the secret Rusty Lake achievement! And if you do decide to join detective Paul Trilby on his bizarre investigations, please consider leaving a review or nominate the game for the Steam Awards after playing! Thank you all for your amazing support!

Follow the Meaning is a debut point-and-click puzzle adventure game from new indie developer HiKing Mind Studio, published by Second Maze. The game is available for €/$4,99 full price with a 25% launch discount in the first two weeks!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2720280/Follow_the_meaning/

Join detective Paul Trilby as he works to unpick the mystery of a peculiar town, not unlike the one from Bob's dreams. So if you're in the mood for a colourful classic point-and-click adventure with subtle surreal undertones, inspired by the Rusty Lake series, we highly recommend you try out Follow the meaning! And don't forget to leave a review after playing to help out a brand new indie game!

Celebrate the spooky season with a nice trip to Rusty Lake with a 50% discount on all our games! 👻

🎃 While there, you can book a stay at The White Door to try and survive the strict daily routine and bring back colour to Robert's life. 🚪

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

Ps. Follow the meaning, a point-and-click puzzle adventure we're publishing through Second Maze, is coming to Steam on November 15th! We think many people who enjoy Rusty Lake will also enjoy this adventure so make sure to wishlist.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2720280/Follow_the_meaning/

Hey everyone! All our premium games, including The White Door, are now on sale in the SteamSummerSale for 44% OFF! And to make the summer sale even better, our Rusty Lake Bundle is 52% OFF!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

And with the sale, we bring forth some insights into our plans at Rusty Lake:


Lately, we have been very busy with our first physical escape room: Rusty Lake’s Black Cube Exhibition which went live during TwitchCon Rotterdam. The experience turned out to be a huge success, so we hope to bring it to other future conventions, if possible.
 Read more on our blog[blog.rustylake.com]!


For the past 2 years, we’ve also been working on our first pen & paper, tabletop, escape room: Rusty Lake Untold. We are thrilled to release our first adventure: The Lab for free later this month: on July 24! Make sure to sign up here[www.rustylakeuntold.com] and read how to play.


We are also collaborating with Hiking Mind studio to release their debut title Follow the meaning through our publishing platform: Second Maze. The game is a premium point-and-click adventure with beautiful graphics and playtime of around 1.5 hours. They aim to release in Q3 and we think a lot of people who enjoy Rusty Lake will also enjoy this adventure so make sure to wishlist.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2720280/Follow_the_meaning/



Of course, we are also working on new game projects, but unfortunately, we cannot share anything about those plans just yet!

Stay tuned!

PS. All our Second Maze games are also 44% OFF in the Steam Summer Sale!

It's our birthday! We are celebrating our 9-year anniversary at Rusty Lake and Mr Owl would like to invite you all to a week-long celebration including our very own Anniversary Sale page on Steam!

And of course, the sale includes The White Door which you can now download and play for 66% OFF!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1145960/The_White_Door/

Part of our profits from our sale will go towards supporting the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Ps. Check out our latest Underground Blossom trailer and board the metro to the latest secret station to explore more of Rose Vanderboom's story.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2291850/Underground_Blossom/

And when you've thoroughly explored The Lab: Research Facility use the hints you find there to access the secret The Past Within update we've sneaked as part of our anniversary celebrations!

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/1515210/The_Past_Within/

Thank you for celebrating with us and stay tuned for more announcements coming up as part of our anniversary festivities!