Edna & Harvey: The Breakout

Edna & Harvey: The Breakout is an adventure game in the same vein as LucasArts' pre-1994 games created using the SCUMM engine. The game screen shows a two-dimensional cartoon world where Edna, the playable character, is incarcerated within a mental hospital. The player is able to talk to objects and people, use items, and interact with things in the environment. The bottom edge of the screen contains a list of actions the player can perform, which must be clicked on before the player clicks on an item within the environment in order to manipulate it. During gameplay, expensive in-game objects such as cars can be defaced by the player; this does not affect the game in any tangible way but instead serves to represent an act of rebellion.{{cite web| url = http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-01-edna-and-harvey-the-breakout-review| title = Edna & Harvey: The Breakout Review| author = Walker, John| publisher = Eurogamer| date = 2011-02-02| accessdate = 2012-01-25| author-link = John Walker (journalist)| archive-date = 2011-11-26| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111126083450/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-01-edna-and-harvey-the-breakout-review| url-status = live}}

Edna awakes in a padded cell with her toy rabbit, Harvey, who she talks to throughout the game. She has no recollection of how she came to be in the cell and must escape. In order to do so, she navigates along the ventilation shafts and gathers friends (other inmates) as well. Such friends include two people in one sweater, one trying to become an energy being, and another who can make keys to any lock. While there, she decides to clear her father's name, although he was killed for murdering asylum owner Dr. Marcel's son. Harvey then gives Edna the ability to relive certain events in her past, called 'Tempomorphing'. After escaping in Dr. Marcel's car, they crash in a swamp and go separate ways, the 'Keymaster' following Edna. He wanted revenge on Edna for releasing 'someone who should never be released', meaning himself. After escaping a Church that he locked both Edna and himself in, she finds herself at her own house where she learns that she was the one who committed the murder of Dr. Marcel's son by pushing him down the stairs and that her father took the blame. Dr. Marcel then arrives and asks her to come back with him so he can have her memory erased, as her father asked him to do. Though he succeeded several times, Harvey always brought her memories back. Edna is then given two options: Destroy Harvey and have her memory erased permanently, or listen to Harvey and push him down the stairs like she pushed his son. If she listens to Dr. Marcel, she cuts Harvey to pieces with scissors, is renamed, and given house chores to do for the rest of her life, which she then adores doing. If she listens to Harvey, however, she knocks Dr. Marcel down the staircase with a mallet from his office and is never heard from again, the only clue of her fate being the remains of Harvey found by the ocean.

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The game was originally developed as a university project by Jan Müller-Michaelis (known as Poki), co-founder of Daedalic Entertainment.

Jan Müller-Michaelis created his own game engine using Java to implement the game.{{cite web| url = http://www.gamona.de/games/the-whispered-world,vieles-im-adventuregenre-laeuft-falsch-der-edna-entwickler:article,1499346.html| title = The Whispered World - "Vieles im Adventuregenre läuft falsch" Der Edna-Entwickler packt aus| author = Grimm, Matthias| publisher = Gamona| date = 2009-06-29| accessdate = 2009-06-29| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160527110729/http://www.gamona.de/games/the-whispered-world,vieles-im-adventuregenre-laeuft-falsch-der-edna-entwickler:article,1499346.html| archive-date = 2016-05-27}}

According to Daedalic's Carsten Fichtelmann, Valve rejected Edna & Harvey and A New Beginning three times from its Steam platform "on the grounds that their target audience did not care about the game". However, Daedalic went on to achieve success on the platform.{{cite web | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318083611/https://www.golem.de/news/daedalic-goodbye-deponia-hallo-adventure-verkaufserfolg-1310-102318.html | url=https://www.golem.de/news/daedalic-goodbye-deponia-hallo-adventure-verkaufserfolg-1310-102318.html | title=Goodbye Deponia, hallo Adventure-Verkaufserfolg | date=October 23, 2013 | author=Steinlechner, Peter | work=Golem.de | archivedate=March 18, 2016 | url-status=live }}

{{Video game reviews

| 4P = 88/100{{cite web | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080712050150/http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/PC-CDROM/Test/9296/59223/0/Edna_bricht_aus.html | url=http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/PC-CDROM/Test/9296/59223/0/Edna_bricht_aus.html | title=Edna bricht aus | author=Wöbbeking, Jan | date=June 12, 2008 | work=4Players | language=German | archivedate=July 12, 2008 | url-status=dead }}

| GStar = 76/100{{cite web | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629103137/http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/edna-bricht-aus/test/edna_bricht_aus,44326,1946245.html | url=http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/edna-bricht-aus/test/edna_bricht_aus,44326,1946245.html | title=Witziges Adventure à la Day of the Tentacle | author=Matschijewsky, Daniel | date=June 15, 2008 | work=GameStar | language=German | archivedate=June 29, 2011 | url-status= }}

| PCG = 82%{{cite web | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080701210555/http://www.pcgames.de/aid,649556/Test/Review/Wertung/Adventure/Test_Edna_bricht_aus_-_zurueck_in_die_guten_alten_Zeiten/ |url=http://www.pcgames.de/aid,649556/Test/Review/Wertung/Adventure/Test_Edna_bricht_aus_-_zurueck_in_die_guten_alten_Zeiten/ | title=Test: Edna bricht aus - zurück in die guten, alten Zeiten | author=Weiß, Thomas | date=July 1, 2008 | work=PC Games | language=German | archivedate=July 1, 2008 | url-status=dead }}

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Edna & Harvey: The Breakout garnered a Metacritic score of 56, representing "mixed or average reviews".{{cite web| url = https://www.metacritic.com/game/edna-and-harvey-the-breakout/critic-reviews/?platform=pc| title = Edna & Harvey: The Break Out - Critic Reviews| author = | publisher = Metacritic| date = | accessdate = 2012-01-25| archive-date = 2025-05-10| archive-url = https://archive.today/20250510144249/https://www.metacritic.com/game/edna-and-harvey-the-breakout/critic-reviews/?platform=pc| url-status = live}}

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{{Daedalic Entertainment}}

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Category:2008 video games

Category:Application Systems Heidelberg games

Category:Daedalic Entertainment games

Category:Point-and-click adventure games

Category:Single-player video games

Category:Video games about rabbits and hares

Category:Video games about toys

Category:Video games developed in Germany

Category:Video games featuring female protagonists

Category:Video games set in psychiatric hospitals

Category:Windows games

Category:Windows-only games