Games That Use Comic Panels as Something You Can Play With

In the original Genesis game, Sketch Turner fights inside the pages he drew. The edges of a panel can take a hit, and moving into the next frame is part of traversing the level. Watch for routes that split. Which panel you choose can change what you run into next.

Move the animated panels before you play the page. An action that went wrong in one sequence can work in another because the preceding panel changes what the character is doing when they arrive. This collection includes the original FRAMED and its prequel, FRAMED 2.

Each puzzle gives you a title to fulfill. Drag a setting and characters into a comic panel, then see how an earlier marriage, rejection, or death changes their behavior in the next frame. A panel can be right on its own and still be in the wrong place in the story.

Slide, zoom, and layer Jason Roberts's illustrated panels. The edge of one image can line up with another, and laying one drawing over another can turn separate places into a single scene. Try looking at a picture as a piece that can fit somewhere else on the grid.

The spaces where the three forest creatures live are broken into shuffled comic panels. Jump out of one frame and pay attention to where you land. The panel next to you on the screen can show another part of the world, so finding the route means putting the geography back together in your head.

Reorder frames and click significant objects inside them to change what they show. A change can carry into other panels depending on their position. In the strip about the self-destructive character, the alternate arrangements give you clues to the story you are trying to put together.

In the PSP original, one comic panel is a room where a fight can happen. Clear the scene to open the way into the next drawn frame. Following the page means working through its rooms instead of letting the whole fight scroll past in one strip.

In the desktop edition, follow the drawn path between panels and pick a branch when the path divides. Browse mode lets you zoom out over the story map and tap another panel to follow it from there. Where you look on the page determines which version of Jimmy's visit you read.

This mobile runner turns comic borders into surfaces to interact with. You can bounce off a panel wall to change direction or smash down into a frame below. Watch the rectangular edges as you run. They are part of the route you have to read in time to make the next jump.

A page can move from a drawn story panel into a framed section you control. The layout alternates between reading a scene and taking over inside it, sometimes in a very small space. Pay attention to where a panel hands you control before the page moves on.

On the Commodore 64, the finished frames build up a page one at a time. At certain points you pick what Steve says or does, and the next stretch of panels follows from that choice. Some branches hand you an arcade challenge to play before you see how the story continues.

In arun's short puzzle platformer, you jump from one comic panel to the next and click to activate events. Thinking about the position of the next frame is part of making the jump. The game's small scale gives you time to see how a framed picture can become a piece of a level.