Hide Zog!

Agent Buckley is at the door. You have a few seconds to cram a three-and-a-half-foot paper alien with an enormous head into the trash can before his flashlight sweeps the garage, and Zog does not want to stay in there.

Hide Zog! is set in Bakerfield, Ohio, in the garage where the boys hide Zog and his ship sleeps under a blue tarp. Your friends are no help. Eddie bumps the bin over, Carlos helps Zog straight back out, Li tidies your hiding place away, and Kevin sits wherever he lands, which makes him the only useful one: a paperweight. Agent Buckley of H-ED is right about the alien. He just needs proof.

Each visit gives you a countdown and your fingers. Drag Zog, fling him, stuff him in the bin or the XMAS box, hold the lid down, or slide him behind the couch. Then comes the look: H-ED's flashlight sweeps the room, and anything sticking out is evidence, whether it's a sneaker, a hand or that enormous head. Clear the look and the next visit is harder; get spotted and the proof meter climbs until the case is made.

The puppets are paper on brads. They flop wherever gravity puts them, flutter when you throw them and get back up in character, so Zog sails past the bin you aimed at, bounces up curious and climbs out to see who's at the door. His food makes it worse and better: milk turns him invisible, a jalapeño floats him out of the bin, and a donut sets the bin rattling across the floor. Every failure plays as a gag, and Buckley's photo shows exactly what he saw.

There are four sets: the garage, Mrs. Henderson's yard at dusk, the EZ-STOP's lot and Bakerfield High's hall at night. Play endless Visits against the proof meter, or fifteen hand-built case files with their own rules and visitors: Buckley's drone, Park and Dubois on a raid, the Truth Diggers and their headlamp, Mrs. Henderson, Officer Szabo and Doug the janitor. FOR TWO is hide-and-seek on one phone, where one player hides Zog for twenty seconds and the other aims the flashlight for five. Toybox lets you play with every puppet and prop with nobody at the door.

A first-game coach walks you through your first visit. Every case file sets its own puzzle, and Today's Visit is the same seeded visit for everyone, so you can compare runs.

Hide Zog! comes from Bakerfield Unearthed, the comic novellas by Kenji Morioka. The garage, the five friends, Zog's disguise and Agent Buckley's hunt for proof carry over from the books, and the paper puppets are the cast's own.

Hide Zog! is in development as a phone game.