Windosill must be the best flash game I played so far. Brilliantly built puzzles and gorgeously animated vector graphics make it the perfect gaming experience. Highly recommended, even more so because you can play the first five of the ten screens for free.

The game was done by Brooklyn-based artist Patrick Smith (Smithpix, Vectorpark). It is available for download. For 3$ you can get the full version, which can be paid for in a seamless manner in the game. The first half is so beautiful, funny and engaging that it took me not even a second to click on the “Buy” button.

The story unfolds around a wooden car, waking up in a toy shelf. In a classic quest it has to make its way through ten screens of surreal scenery. Each screen contains another challenge until the journey can go on to the next. The scenes burst of freaky characters, otherworldly landscapes and weird machines, set in a dreamy nightly mood. Everything is drawn in vectors, animated in subtle 3D and with lots of physical interactivity. What makes this game so engaging is the quality of the puzzles with a very well balanced level of difficulty presented in breathtaking style. The complete absence of written or spoken text makes the atmosphere even more intriguing. It just draws you in and will not let go until you have seen the phantastic finale. Thank you very much, Mr. Smith, this game is pure genius!

I would suggest you play this piece of art on your own. If you get severely stuck somewhere, you can use my walkthrough below. But please, do yourself a favour and just read on if you really have to, it might take away some of the fascination.

Still reading? Ok, here we go:

Windosill Walkthrough:

Room 1

The game starts in a dark room. Some objects can be moved around (try it, great interactivity!), but before you turn on the light, it might not make too much sense. Click to lightbulb and move the cube into the hole above the door on the lower right. Open the door and move the car through it. This is the way all the doors to the next levels can be opened.

Room 2

The title screen. The key cube is hidden as the dot of the I in the title type. Use it to open the door just like in the first screen.

Room 3

Squeeze some rain out of the cloud on the upper right. Click the puddle three times to get a worm. Feed it to the bird that appears if you click the big figure’s antenna. It will give you the key cube to open the door.

Room 4

It is starting to get more complex now: Take away the upper half of the spheres on the lower right until you get a small white sphere that you can drop into the hole on the upper right. Let the bees out of the donut on the upper left. They will settle in the holes of the disc structure on the upper right. Press its post on the top. It will send impulses to the cone in the middle. Click it to let it spit out another sphere that should go into the cube in the lower left. Move it right on time to catch the sphere and you will be awarded with the key cube you need to open the door.

Room 5

Now it gets weird! Click the empty flat face until no empty spot is left. Click quickly and the last little spot will give you the key cube. Don’t miss the different mouths, eyes and what-not. Sweet sound effects here.

Room 6

Push the right pyramid block by block until you can pick up the globe behind. Move it to the top of the cone on the left. Spin the globe to control the wind. Click the illuminated levels of the structure on the left, one after the other, up to the top, until it spits out a cloud. Move the cloud so that it hovers above the tower with the arrow on the top. Turn the tower so the legs (!) are pushed out. Squeeze the cloud to get a rain of cubes. Now it gets tricky: Click one of the legs, so that it kicks one of the cubes to the front and you can pick it up. Use it once again to unlock the door.

Room 7

This is not so complex as it looks: Pick the different objects from the waves until you get a pipe. Let it roll around the front until it puffs out the key cube.

Room 8

Turn the bowling ball moon until you see the smaller moon. Turn that until you see a small baloon with a magnet below. Pull the key cube attached to it into the hole on the right to unlock the door. Then pull the magnet to the toy car and fly it above the abyss. Open the door and go right …

Room 9

Meet the Mr. Many-eyes, the chinese antlion and Mrs. Feathers: Strange folks! First, move the toy car into the middle of the stage to distract the antlion. Use the opportunity to raise his hat and find the key cube under it. Unlock and open the door. The problem is that Mrs. Feathers will pick up the car before it can reach the door. But you can pick up the big bird’s head an keep move it around! Again, bring the toy car in front of the antlion and right after that click and drag on the bird’s head. The antlion will play around with the toy car and push it through the door. Mrs. Feathers will not be able to pick it up, because you still drag her head…

Room 10

Finale time: Click on the top level’s third door from the right to make it push out a key cube. But before you do, click on the doors to activate all the things that are necessary to bring the cube to the front. You will need to activate no less than twelve different doors! Please see the image for this. The cube falls on the plank, is sent to the boot, kicked into the cannon, shot on the cloud, jumps on the umbrella, is melted by the fire, flows into the tube, comes out of the other tube, is caught by the bucket, pushed into the car, dropped on the wing, pushed to the giant finger which kicks it to the front. Whew, what a ride! When you use it to unlock the door and go through the door this time the car will not go into another room, but will climb up the tower. Go on around the tower until you reach the very top of it. (Beautifully animated!) Light the stars in the upper left and move the car beyond the night sky…

The Sky

Light up the stars on the left and activate the constellations. Go on, one after the other: The squid, the sea, the peacock, the fisher, the flower, the cornucopia. Eat all the fruits and get the last constellation: the … Ok, you need to see this for yourself, because I will not give it away.

If I missed something, give a shout in the comments!