GAME PROFILE

Nella & Smudge

Nella's dad worked nights in a big office building, and one night he didn't come home. From the drawings he left, she built the building again on her bedroom floor, out of card, paper and tape. The night she glues in the front door, somebody inside turns on the lights.

Nella & Smudge is a single-player stealth-horror adventure seen from above. Explore the paper building room by room, follow Dad's chalk marks, solve its puzzles and stay out of sight of the Manager, who still walks the building at night.

Two characters, one team

Press Tab to switch between Nella and Smudge at any moment. Each can do what the other can't.

Nella carries Dad's torch. She searches desks and cabinets, unlocks doors and levers stuck ones open, climbs and vaults, and makes tools at Dad's workbench.
Smudge sees in the dark. It jumps up onto furniture, crawls through vents and under desks, shoves boxes into place, presses buttons Nella can't get to and knocks things down from high shelves.

Leave Nella hidden under a desk while Smudge slips through a vent to open a door from the other side. The Manager pays no attention to a cat, but will come to see what made that noise.

Hide and survive

You can't fight the Manager. You can only stay out of the Manager's way.

Keep quiet. The Manager hunts by sight and sound. Running, a light switch, a door forced open or something knocked off a shelf can bring the Manager to you.
Mind your light. In the dark, your torch gives you away. Switch it off and you are harder to see, and so is the way ahead.
Hide. Get behind a counter or cabinet, or under a desk. The Manager stops to look into every hiding place on the way past, so choose when to move.
Outwit the Manager. Lure the Manager away with a light switch, or set a clamp in a doorway on the Manager's round. The trap won't stop the Manager for good: torn free, the Manager rebuilds itself from loose paper, and that is your moment.

Caught? You go back to your last checkpoint, not to the start.

Puzzles with light and darkness

The paper building changes with the light.

A walkway over a fallen floor that is only there while your torch beam is on it.
Stacks of index cards that block the way in the dark and are gone when the lights come on.
Dad's chalk marks, which only show in your torch beam. Switch it off and a pale echo of Dad walks the way ahead.
Doors that stay open only while something heavy stands on their plate, vents that lead into locked rooms, and boxes Smudge can shove into place.

Search, gather, make

Search desks and cabinets for keys, battery cells and materials.
Keep the torch alive: cells run down, so carry spares.
At Dad's workbench, make what you need: a holder for a spare cell, a pry bar for a stuck door, a clamp to trap the Manager.
The card model of the building on its table is your map.