Buried

I'm admittedly a little late to hop on the Buried bandwagon, but no less enthusiastic. (I wanted to have time to complete the entire hunt before writing about it — and, if the mention of Buried doesn't strike a chord, then read on.) This engaging hunt, designed and developed by MadPea (in particular, story and concept by the head pea Kiana Writer, visuals by Axiomatic Clarity and programming by Fuzz Difference, with many others assisting), presents a mystery: Lily has disappeared. And it's your job to find her. As the game begins, you'll find yourself hunting for clues (they're really not too difficult) on a small gathering of islands, pictured in the three upper images here.

You'll need to purchase a HUD (it's L$300, but the price is insignificant in comparison to the return) that teleports you from one hunt location to another. If you're successful in uncovering (or unburying, perhaps I should say) the initial clue, you'll enter into a grid-wide hunt, visiting the stores of two dozen merchants (of all varieties) to search for a tiny object at each location. And sometimes it might take a while to find that for which you search — and can on occasion become baffling, in which case the MadPea chat group and many volunteers are at the ready to lend a hand in your quest. Some merchants were quite creative in finding ways to participate in the hunt, notably MiChIGaN's ShAcK!.

Now, if you're the type who thinks you can accelerate your way through the arduous search process by sneakily using something like Firestorm's area search, be forewarned that the creator, name and other attributes of the object you seek may vary from sim to sim. And when you're done, it's time to do some digging: you'll arrive at the place shown below (click to zoom in) to discover what really happened to Lily — and to claim your prizes. For more information, visit the MadPea blog here, with a list of the prizes here. Buried continues through March 31.