Arttu, a swell guy who helped with the editing of the Iron Sky demo/teaser, is a really active fellow. Now he’s been involved in the design of an intriguing online game called Swell. Well, maybe calling it an online game gives the wrong impression. The designers themselves call it a “web riddle”.

Swell is a collection of clues – mostly visual ones – making up a set of “levels”. The goal is to discover the way to the next level until the end is reached. (I’m told there is an end, but it’s not easy to reach, and anyway the game is expanding.) Advancement generally happens by figuring out the URL of the next level, or finding a link and thinking of a password. There’s a social aspect, in that there’s an IRC channel dedicated to discussing Swell.

While it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, Swell is pretty much guaranteed to hold your interest if you’re into puzzles and brain games. Personally, I fell for the Finnish geocaching/riddle game “Tajunnanvirta” (a version of Igor Naverniouk’s Funny Farm) some time ago, so if you like those, you might get a kick out of Swell as well. If not, well, you should try everything once. It seems that something… familiar can be found later on…

The address where Swell resides is http://swell.kapsi.fi.