Felix the Reaper

The death-themed puzzle game Felix the Reaper is currently free to claim for Windows and Mac — 100% free to keep — in a limited-time Epic Store’s giveaway! Take advantage of it, because Felix The Reaper normally costs US$9.99!

Felix the Reaper is an indie puzzle game where you control Felix, a suspiciously dancing physical embodiment of Death, and must solve environmental challenges to guide the living toward their final moments. It was developed by Kong Orange and first released on October 16, 2019.

In each level, Felix must navigate a series of spatial puzzles without ever stepping into sunlight, what requires manipulating the environment using various mechanics to create safe paths that lead the protagonist to the end of the stage so he can complete his missions. These involve causing fatal “accidents” by using elements in the level’s environment to bring about the demise of a non-player character.

Published by Daedalic Entertainment and released for Windows Apps, Xbox One, Windows, Macintosh, PlayStation 4, Switch, Blacknut, and iOS, Felix the Reaper received mixed reviews from critics. At least as of the time of this post, the game holds hundreds of “Very Positive” reviews on Steam, while on GOG it sits at a 3.5/5 rating.

You can get the game here!

Trailer

About the game

Felix works at The Ministry of Death, and he’s in love with Betty The Maiden from The Ministry of Life. He believes that going to the human world as a field reaper will enable him to one day meet her, so he’s taken the job of making sure people die—and taught himself to dance, in order to impress the love of his (un)life.

Since Felix only moves in the shadows, he needs to tread carefully through this strange world. Luckily, reapers like Felix are able to turn the sun and shift the shadows, creating the paths necessary to navigate the land of the living. He does so to solve puzzles and make sure people die according to ministerial plans.

Each level unlocks a hardcore version of itself for the motivated ministerial go-getter. You can also collect skull achievements that further unlock bonus time trials for the most resourceful employees.

Features

Challenge yourself to original puzzle game mechanics
Experience a gruesomely sweet story and beautiful world
Choose your own tunes from a selection of 10+ indie music artists on Felix‘s Walkman
Collect skull achievements that unlock bonus time trials
Watch Felix develop his dance moves—as created by professional dancers!
Take on the job as The Reaper and make sure people die.
Make sure to stay in the shadows. Light is the domain of life. Not good.
Control the shadows to reach your target.
Enjoy a framing narrative of dangerous love and peculiar characters.
Dance along with Felix to an original soundtrack from 10+ indie music artists.
Unlock time trials and hardcore levels for an extra challenge.

Background of death

Felix The Reaper sprang from a fascination with the sprawling, humorous and grotesque art history of Death. Many themes have emerged in the cultural identity of Death, including The Dance of Death or Danse Macabre and Death And The Maiden. We sort of mashed those two themes together in Felix The Reaper.

For the character himself and the world around him, the inspiration was more diverse: We took cues from the ancient TV show The Twilight Zone, medieval painters like Bruegel and Bosch and the cartoon characters of Adventure Time and Hayao Miyazaki.

Another important inspiration for Felix The Reaper was the amazing artistic collaborators in the production. We worked with dancers, a long list of music artists and history scholars.

The Dance

Several dancers contributed to the game’s production, and eventually Gunilla Lind and Raphaël Ferdinand Eder-Kastling improvised the final moves that ended up in the game.

The Music

Of course a game with a dancing protagonist needs great music—why else would he be dancing? We designed the game in a way that lets the music artists be themselves. We wanted them to add to the game through their personal artistic expression, rather than ask them to be what we want them to be. This made for a varied and strange combination of music. But since the gameplay is a non-stressful puzzler, you actually have time to appreciate and enjoy the weirdness while playing.

The Art History

The idea for the game itself stems from art history. We actually started with The Danse Macabre and Death and The Maiden as a basis, and then asked ourselves: How can we make a game about this? Eventually and through several different prototypes, we ended up here.

Alongside the production, a history scholar was diving into the art history of Death across more than 10 centuries for a book manuscript he is working on, and every time he hit upon something interesting he told us, and we tried to put it into the game if it fit. There are five different articles by this historian Søren Hein Rasmussen within the game—you can unlock them as you progress.

Felix The Reaper is a challenging single-player puzzle game.

You take on the role as Felix, whose job is to make sure that people die. To do this, Felix must work in the shadows and rearrange faith so that death is always the end result.

At its core, the game is about manipulating shadows so that Felix can set up his targets safely covered by the shadows. The core gameplay has a Hitman Go’ish, Monument Valley‘ing and Sokoban-like simplicity running through it.

There are three rules you have to master to become a successful Reaper:

Rule #1: Stick to the shadows – Each level is set on a grid-based platform. The squares of the grid are either lit up or in shadow, and Felix has to do his job in the shadows.
Rule #2: Control the shadows – Felix has the ability to rotate the sun, and move objects, to create new pathways for him to reach his target.
Rule #3: Make sure people die – The end goal of each level is to set up your targets and have them meet their maker. To add something extra to this core game experience, we wrapped it in deep layers of storytelling, death, dance, art history, love and comedy. That way you get to enjoy a wholesome story world, while boiling your brains on complicatedly straight forward shadow puzzles about Death.