The Escapists is free on the Epic Games Store

Just in time for island living spin-off, The Escapists is free on the Epic Games Store.

During Tuesday’s Indie World Direct, Team 17 announced The Survivalists. It’s an island survival game coming in 2020. Now, Epic is offering the first entry in “The Escapists Universe” for free.

The Escapists, from developer Mouldy Toof Studios, was released in 2015 to mostly positive reviews. It spawned a sequel, The Escapists 2, in 2017. I never played either, but I’m into the series’ sim-heavy emergent gameplay pitch, if not its very basic pixel art aesthetic.

This is the part of this article where I normally tell you what free game Epic will be offering next week. But, I don’t know! Instead of the typical store page, the website currently reads: “tune in Dec 19 for more free games!”

There’s some precedent for this mysterious approach. Earlier this year, Epic revealed that an upcoming package had something to do with Batman, but listed “???” in the place where the game would usually be revealed. That mystery ended with users getting six free Batman games.

So, we don’t know what next week has in store. But, if I was a betting man, I would wager the mystery has something to do with something that will be revealed at The Game Awards tonight.