Hidden Runaway

Hidden Runaway is a 2012 hidden object game developed by Pendulo Studios and published by Bulkypix. It follows protagonists Brian Basco and Gina Timmins as they retell events from Runaway: A Road Adventure (2001) to a film producer interested in their life story. Along the way, the player plays minigames and searches for objects hidden in the game's environments. Hidden Runaway marked a departure for Pendulo, as it was the company's first casual game and first project outside the graphic adventure game genre.

Hidden Runaway
Hidden Runaway App Store logo
Developer(s)	Pendulo Studios
Publisher(s)	Bulkypix
Platform(s)	iOS, Mac OS, Windows
Release	October 18, 2012 (iOS)
Genre(s)	Hidden object
Mode(s)	Single-player

Hidden Runaway was developed during a difficult economic period for Pendulo, and the game was itself a commercial failure. It remained Pendulo's worst-selling title by 2016, and contributed to a financial decline at the company. Critical reviews for Hidden Runaway were "mixed or average", according to Metacritic. Following Hidden Runaway, Pendulo stopped releasing original games for several years, until it returned with Yesterday Origins in 2016.

Gameplay and plot

The player searches a backdrop for hidden objects, aided by the object list at the top of the screen.

Hidden Runaway is a hidden object game.[1][2] The player searches static backdrops for a series of objects concealed in the game world,[3] as displayed on a list.[2] Locating enough of these objects rewards the player with key items that enable progression through the story, via either their combination or their use on the environment.[3] The key items needed to complete the player's goals are displayed at the start of each scene.[2] Alongside its object-hunt gameplay, Hidden Runaway features optional minigame puzzle sequences,[1] such as matching musical notes, piecing together a ripped ticket or playing a variant of Whac-A-Mole.[3][1] Once completed, minigames may be replayed at any time.[3]

Hidden Runaway's story retells the first half of Runaway: A Road Adventure, the debut game in the Runaway series.[1] It is set after that game's events: protagonists Brian Basco and Gina Timmins have since had a falling out, but have been reunited by a film producer to tell their life story for his new feature.[4] This frame story progresses via cutscenes between gameplay sequences; gameplay occurs during flashbacks to moments from the first Runaway.[3] The retelling concludes when Brian and Gina describe their arrival in Arizona's Hopi region. Afterward, the player encounters a minigame sequence and a teaser for Hidden Runaway 2, which was planned to continue the story.[1]

Development

Following the release of Runaway: A Twist of Fate (2009), the Spanish company Pendulo Studios retired its Runaway franchise and chose to explore other projects, citing exhaustion with the series.[5][6] Rafael Latiegui of Pendulo noted that "2–3 scripts" for Runaway 4 existed by 2011, but that no new entries were yet planned.[7] However, mobile game publisher Bulkypix revealed a new installment under the name Hidden Runaway, developed by Pendulo, at the Game Developers Conference in March 2012. TouchArcade reported at the time that Hidden Runaway would be a hidden object title that featured 12 minigames.[8] It was one of Pendulo's two projects, alongside the crowdfunded Day One, planned to follow the 2012 game Yesterday.[9] According to writer Josué Monchan, both projects came at a difficult time for Pendulo, as the commercial failure of The Next Big Thing and ultimately Yesterday alienated publishers and made funding hard to obtain.[10]

Hidden Runaway marked a departure for Pendulo. Lead programmer Felipe Gómez Pinilla called it "our first non-adventure game",[11] the genre for which Pendulo had been known since its 1994 debut.[12] Latiegui summarized it as "Runaway revisited in a casual way",[13] and studio head Ramón Hernáez noted that it was Pendulo's first foray into the casual game market. In 2012, he called hidden object and "casual adventure [games] ... two genres very attractive for us" going forward, as they were similar to Pendulo's existing work but at a smaller scale and with different expectations from buyers. Hernáez said that Hidden Runaway would be the first of several casual titles intended as lighthearted counterparts to the studio's darker Yesterday and Day One.[14] Latiegui and Monchan characterized Hidden Runaway's development as an enjoyable new experience.[13][9] Conversely, Pendulo composer Juan Miguel Marín later dubbed it "the only time that Pendulo Studios responded to the demands of the market", and unsatisfying as a result.[15]

Hidden Runaway was developed for both computers and iOS devices,[11][8] and was initially scheduled for a May 2012 release.[8] The game remained in production by August, at which point it was undergoing the final stages of development, Latiegui said.[13] Bulkypix launched Hidden Runaway for iOS via the App Store on October 18, 2012.[16][17] In Germany, its computer version debuted in retail stores during August 2013.[18]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 65/100[17] Review scores Publication Score Jeuxvideo.com 10/20[1] Pocket Gamer 6/10[19] HobbyConsolas 82/100[3] Vandal 8.5/10[2] IGN Spain 8.5/10[20]

Josué Monchan of Pendulo Studios called Hidden Runaway "a complete disaster" financially.[10] According to Juan Miguel Marín, it was the company's worst-selling game by October 2016.[15] Combined with the poor performances of The Next Big Thing and Yesterday, and the failed crowdfunding campaign of Day One, Hidden Runaway contributed to Pendulo's financial decline.[10] After its release, the company entered a multi-year period in which it launched no original games,[10][21][22] and instead ported its back catalog to iOS in an attempt to survive.[10] Pendulo ultimately returned with the game Yesterday Origins in 2016.[22]

Metacritic calculated Hidden Runaway's reviews as "mixed or average".[17]

References

1. Jihem (December 19, 2012). "Hidden Runaway Test - iPhone/iPod". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Archived from the original on December 22, 2012.
2. Fontanet-Bel, Fernando (November 19, 2012). "Análisis de Hidden Runaway para iPhone". Vandal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on November 27, 2012.
3. Hernández, David Alonso (November 28, 2012). "Análisis point and click de Hidden Runaway". HobbyConsolas (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 10, 2019.
4. Conditt, Jessica (October 21, 2012). "Hidden Runaway celebrates 10 years of point-and-clicks from Pendulo". Joystiq. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012.
5. Staff (May 25, 2011). Videorreportaje De La Visita A Péndulo Studios En Hobby News. Hobby Consolas (Video) (in Spanish). Retrieved August 11, 2020.
6. Fernández, Mireia (May 17, 2011). "Entrevistamos en exclusiva a Pendulo Studios". OnGames (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 17, 2012.
7. García, Enrique (May 27, 2011). "Pendulo tiene "un proyecto nuevo que no dejará indiferente a nadie"". MeriStation (in Spanish). Archived from the original on May 20, 2019.
8. Patterson, Blake (March 6, 2012). "GDC 2012: A Host of Titles on the Way from BulkyPix". TouchArcade. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012.
9. Otero, César (March 26, 2012). "Day One y Hidden Runaway, los nuevos proyectos de Pendulo Studios". MeriStation (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 10, 2019.
10. Monchan, Josué (December 6, 2014). Trial, Success, Error, Restart: Twenty Years of Pendulo Studios. AdventureX. London. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
11. Conditt, Jessica (April 2, 2012). "'Brunchstorming' is Spanish for 'work,' if you're Pendulo Studios". Joystiq. Archived from the original on August 14, 2013.
12. Garin, Manuel; Martínez, Víctor Manuel (May 2015). "Spain". In Wolf, Mark J. P. (ed.). Video Games Around the World. MIT Press. pp. 521–533. ISBN 9780262527163.
13. Allin, Jack (August 15, 2012). "Day One - Pendulo Studios Interview". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019.
14. Team Adventure Corner (May 21, 2012). "Interview with Pendulo Studios (Englisch)". Adventure Corner. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012.
15. Rodriguez, Lara Isabel (October 16, 2016). "[Charlando] Pendulo Studios nos habla de Yesterday Origins, de su pasado, presente y futuro" (in Spanish). Game. Archived from the original on July 12, 2019.
16. García, Albert (October 18, 2012). "Hidden Runaway disponible en la App Store". Eurogamer Spain (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 12, 2013.
17. "Hidden Runaway for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015.
18. Kleffmann, Marcel (July 27, 2013). "Hidden Runaway: Wimmelbild-Adventure mit Brian und Gina". 4Players (in German). Archived from the original on August 14, 2020.
19. Slater, Harry (October 22, 2012). "Hidden Runaway". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on January 30, 2013.
20. Tost, Gina (October 24, 2012). "Hidden Runaway Análisis". IGN Spain (in Spanish). Archived from the original on March 28, 2019.
21. Alonso, Álvaro (December 9, 2014). "Pendulo Studios trabaja en su nueva aventura gráfica". El Diario (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 12, 2019.
22. Staff (August 2019). "Retro Hobby; Pendulo Studios: Pasión por las aventuras gráficas". HobbyConsolas (in Spanish) (337): 96, 97.