vApe Escape: one monkey's case against ending up a vape dispenser

Twenty minutes of playable comic, with a print-your-own comic book at the end — and the single write-up on file admits it took a step-by-step guide to finish a game it calls easy.

The monkey who would rather not become a vape dispenser

Somewhere out in space, a cargo ship is hauling vape dispensers to the universe's wealthy hipsters — and every one of those devices used to be a living monkey. You take over the body of one such animal, with just enough time left to dodge the fate the rest of the species has already accepted. The science fiction here is not about ape heroes winning any war: it is one creature, alone, trying to get out while he is still an animal and not a piece of plumbing for flavoured smoke.

The studio calls the result an interactive comic. The adventure unfolds across two locations inside the ship and closes on one of two endings, depending on how you play. Twenty minutes or so is all it takes to finish. At the end, the game lets you print your own run of it as a comic book, to shelve and show your friends — a gesture from something fully aware of how slight it is, and determined to get the joke in first.

Same character recipe, another humiliating job

vApe Escape was not Gamechuck's first outing: the studio already had a playable comic on its books, All You Can Eat, and days after this one shipped it was announcing the next, The Lot — about a self-employed parking attendant who dreams of a permanent contract and watches the plan collapse when an entitled customer turns up. The character recipe simply repeats itself: someone small, in a job that demeans them, trying to get away.

On September 24, 2019, the studio itself described the game as a satire on how little society cares about animals held in captivity, told from the point of view of a monkey imprisoned aboard the ship. When it launched, the official notice spelled it out: if the thing froze on your screen, the fix was to sit tight and let Steam update itself.

Easy, once the guide was open

The one write-up the dossier holds on vApe Escape is Brazilian, dated September 1, 2019. Its author played for an hour and called the game easy — then, a paragraph later, owned up to stumbling plenty, and to sorting the whole thing out only after following a step-by-step guide.

That is the voice the dossier keeps, with hours played and a date attached, and even on its own it does not sit at odds with the wider mood: among those who have weighed in on Steam, a thumbs up is the usual answer, that recorded stumble notwithstanding. You may come in assuming point-and-click will carry you; the record that exists says it pays to have a guide within reach, just in case.

For readers after a snack, not a meal

vApe Escape is for anyone who wants a science-fiction gag wrapped up in one sitting, with no guilt about opening a guide at the first sticking point. You can close it in an afternoon and walk away with a printed comic book to keep, if you like. It is a snack, not a meal — and it says as much from the start.

It is not for anyone who likes to crack a puzzle unaided: the one account on file comes from someone who needed a step-by-step guide to finish a game sold as easy. Nor is it for anyone after staying power — the two locations and the two endings fit into an afternoon, and after that there is nothing left to find there.

In this universe, every vape dispenser was once a monkey — and laughing at that simple idea is the real reason to load the game.