Cantaloop: Book 1 – Breaking into Prison
Cantaloop: Book 1 – Breaking into Prison Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Part I: Breaking into Prison
The book's own introduction, printed at the start of Part I:
The point-and-click adventure game genre was born in 1976 on the PC. In this type of game, the player assumes the role of a character in an interactive story driven by puzzle solving and exploration. Popular titles include Myst, Telltale's Walking Dead series, and all those games about ape archipelagos that you loved as a kid, but we won't name lest we be sued. This game is a direct adaptation of these mechanics to the cardboard medium that requires no electronics to play. In other words, you are holding a classic point-and-click adventure game in book format. You will talk to characters, combine items to solve puzzles, and explore a unique world to get ahead in the story.
Components
As printed in the book:
- This adventure book
- A double-sided poster
- A deck of 60 cards
- A postcard
- A trigger sheet
- A decoder
The official Lookout Games component list additionally specifies: 1 Book, 1 Map (postcard), 1 Trigger sheet, 1 Decoder (red-foil), 1 poster, 60 Cards.
Tutorial
Printed on the page immediately following the opening story fragment:
Sorry to interrupt, but before you can dive right into the story, you should learn a few things about how to play this game. You see, most text in this book is encrypted so you cannot read it unless you use the decoder.
IMPORTANT! You may not read encrypted text unless you gain permission or are instructed to read it.
Your turn! Read the following text using the decoder (the encrypted line decodes, through the red decoder strip, to): "Easy as 3.14159265358979... [Good! Continue with the tutorial.]"
Locations
The story of this game is told in 20 different locations. Each location is a double page in this book, featuring an illustration of the location on the right and encrypted text on the left. The illustration shows you the objects you can look at or interact with; the text on the left describes the objects and what happens when you combine certain items with them.
Exits: Moving between Locations
Arrows like this mean you can move to a different location that is close by. Simply turn the page to the corresponding location.
The Trigger Sheet
The trigger sheet is printed as a grid of columns A through K crossed with rows 1 through 9 (so each box is labeled, e.g., A1, B4, K9), headed with a padlock icon. The book's encrypted text periodically instructs you to check off a specific box on this grid; the corresponding community file on BoardGameGeek describes it as "the A1–K9 Matrix for checking / unlocking the Progress." Keep it next to the book as you play and mark off boxes only when the text instructs you to.
Item Cards
The deck of 60 cards is stored inside the book's back cover in three numbered pockets — 01–20, 21–40, and 41–60 — with the cards inside each pocket kept in ascending numeric order. Each card is printed with a two-digit code. The double-sided poster serves as your inventory, listing codes you can cross-reference against the cards and the location pages using the decoder.
Official FAQ
Published by Lookout Games on the game's official product page.
Is this just another escape room game?
No. While the game mechanics certainly could be used to create an escape room style game, Cantaloop is not doing this. The game is more like a classic Point & Click adventure, known from PC.
Why are there no rules to download?
Cantaloop is an interactive book and so are the rules. The introduction of the book teaches you all rules on the fly.
Product Information
- Age Rating: 16+
- Play Time: 300+ min.
- Player Count: 1+
- Game Design: Friedemann Findeisen
- Rules & Development: Grzegorz Kobiela
- Illustrations: Kerstin "noody" Buzelan & Johannes Lott
- Graphic Design: atelier198 (Klemens Franz)
Attention: NOT A TOY! Choking hazard. Not suitable for children under three years.