The world of Creepy Crawlers E10

A night drawn in dots

Everything in the game is drawn in tiny black and cream dots, the way old computer games were, with greys made from dot patterns. A few warm colours glow out of the dark: orange for pumpkins, candle flames, lit windows and lamplight, and purple for the night sky, moonlight and mist.

Old street lamps throw cones of light down through the drifting mist, and inside a beam the neat dots turn fizzy, like dust in a torch beam. Far away on the skyline stand the City's towers, with blinking lights for planes.

There are nine places to get through, all real places in and around Leyton, played one after the other. Each has a checkpoint lantern or two, and one hidden golden pumpkin.

Who's going out?

At the start you pick one of seven trick-or-treaters, each in a Halloween costume:

• a grim reaper in a long hooded cloak, with a friendly skull face and a big scythe
• a ninja whose white headband tails fly out behind
• a clown in a baggy spotted costume, with a ruffled collar and a little pointy hat
• a vampire with a high pointed collar, a bow tie and little fangs
• a fairy whose wings flutter faster when she jumps
• a witch in a tall bent hat, who rides her broom when she jumps
• a mini skeleton, much smaller and rounder than the rest, with short legs that toddle

Everyone walks on foot, and everyone can slide along rails on their shoes with sparks flying.

The nine places

1. Leyton E10

A Leyton street on Halloween night. A white LEYTON E10 street sign stands at the start, and behind you runs a row of Victorian terraced houses with bay windows and chimney pots, a few with a pumpkin glowing in the window. Mist creeps along the pavement.

There's a graveyard with gravestones, crosses and candles, bare trees with crows in them, spiders going up and down on their threads, and bats crossing the moon. Ghosts and skeletons walk the street, spiky iron fences hurt, and the big zombie lumbers along the long flat stretch after the graveyard. Slide along the rails, mind the holes, and you finish at home: a terraced house with its bay window lit and the front door open. Home safe!

2. Bonfire Night

A Leyton park on the fifth of November. Fireworks burst orange and purple over the rooftops, lighting up the misty air for a moment each time. There are hay bales to climb, sparklers fizzing in buckets of sand, a willow by the brook and a big dark yew tree.

Embers hop about: little glowing sparks from the bonfire with a flame for hair. Land on the rocket box and BOING, it shoots you up high while a rocket whooshes off and bursts above you. You finish at the big bonfire, safely behind a rope, and the sky does a grand finale.

Two secrets: steer right after the rocket box to land on a high rail with a toffee apple, and jump into the leaves of the dark yew tree, where something twinkles.

3. Willow Brook

A primary school at night, redrawn from the real one. Outside there's the school gate under a WILLOW BROOK sign with the school's crest in pixels: a purple shield with gold willow leaves, wavy bands for the brook, and a small green griffin on top. Then comes the playground with hopscotch, a climbing frame and an orange slide, the yellow-brick school with tall white sash windows, and a red-brick tower whose windows flash with the disco.

Gold willow leaves drift down as you come near: catch them in the air. By the railings stands a grey stone griffin on a plinth. Come close and it wakes up with a grumble and a shake. It's the boss here, and while it's about, the traffic lights by the tall school railings stay red. Beat it and the lights go amber, then green, and the railings fold open.

The beaten griffin turns friendly, with a little heart over its head. The brook is too wide to jump, so the griffin picks you up and flies you over on its back. Past the brook, the school's glass hall glows amber, with giant green letters spelling WILLOW to climb up and over.

Then you go in at the foot of the tower, into an old school by candlelight: a corridor of portraits whose eyes follow you (a lady with her hair in a bun, a gentleman in a top hat, and a black cat), a classroom of old desks to hop along, and a library where the tall shelves are ledges. The ghosts of the old headmaster glide along the corridors. Climb the tower stairs past a bell rope to the Halloween school disco at the top, with a spinning mirror ball and children dancing in silhouette.

4. Jubilee Park

Back out in the park on Halloween night. You go in under a JUBILEE PARK arch, past tall poplars and plane trees with orange leaves drifting down, an outdoor gym with bars and rings, two football goals and a picnic bench with a candle in a jar. An egret wades in Dagenham Brook and a kingfisher sits on a post.

The park is busy: a little park cafe shut for the night with fairy lights on and a cake board outside, a kids' football class with cones and a coach with a whistle, children flying night kites with lights on their tails, and a basketball hoop.

At the end stands a big wooden pirate ship, and a spooky one: a torn sail with a skull whose eyes glow, a ragged skull-and-crossbones flag, broken planks and lanterns swinging on ropes, with fog creeping round the bottom. Climb the boarding net onto the deck, where the pirate captain waits. Beat him and the crow's nest opens, and its lantern lights up.

5. Blondie's

A rock-and-roll hall in an old brick furniture factory, with a hand-painted sign and glowing open doors. The walls have skulls and lightning bolts painted on them and loops of light bulbs. Inside are shiny tanks to climb, two pizza ovens glowing orange, parked motorbikes with their headlights on, guitars leaning on amps, a pool table, karaoke with a bouncing ball, and a rail of old jackets.

Best of all is the row of bouncy castles. They go BOING and throw you about six blocks up, and the first one is the only way over the tallest tank. Blondie's has two bosses, one after the other. First a metal guitarist rocks out on a little stage, then the bartender rings her bell and hops out from behind the bar. Beat them both and the stage curtain opens: climb up under a banner with a skull and two crossed guitars, with the spotlights sweeping, and rock the stage.

6. Match Night

Match Night at the E10 football ground. The level walks you to the match in four parts, each with its own colour. First the street, in warm streetlight orange: terraced houses, a chip shop, fans in scarves all walking the same way, the team bus at the kerb (you can jump on its roof), a steaming hot dog stand and a police horse with its rider. Out here the sweets are hot dogs.

Then the turnstiles, in cold blue: three narrow gates, each with a ghost peeping out of the dark window above. When the gate clicks round, the ghost swoops down for less than a second, so time your walk. Then a quiet tunnel under the stand with blue strip lights, and as you come out the crowd roars.

The pitch is floodlit white on green, with striped grass, the dugout, waving flags and blocks of flats in the corners of the ground, their balconies full of people. The home crowd cheers every time you jump. Footballs lie on the pitch: run or jump into one and it flies forward and knocks out the first monster it hits, and the scoreboard on the roof keeps count: you against the MONSTERS. Run into the goal past the corner flag, and a friendly dragon mascot waves and hops while the crowd sings.

7. High Road Leyton

The high road at night: a long row of small shops with flats above, busy and full of life. There are chicken shops with made-up names like STAR CHICKEN and GOLDEN WINGS, a phone repair shop, a barber with his pole turning, a mini market with fruit crates outside and a launderette with one machine spinning. Shutters are down for the night, signs flicker a letter now and then, and roadworks barriers blink by the holes.

Pigeons peck on the pavement and flap up over the rooftops when you come close. Urban foxes nose round the wheelie bins. Get past two ghosts, a skeleton and the big zombie to the entrance of Leyton station. Mind the gap! The golden pumpkin here hides in a bin.

8. The Kebab Shop

A kebab shop on the high road, late on Halloween night. You start in the yard round the back, with wheelie bins, lit back windows, fans puffing steam and a fire escape. Foxes sit and watch you, flick an ear and trot off: they can't hurt you.

Then in through the kitchen's back door, past steel worktops and hot charcoal grills. Jump over the grills, because touching one costs a life. Grab the chilli sauce to run fast, and finish at the shop counter, where the meat turns on its spit under a menu board. Chips and chilli sauce all round!

9. Leyton Library

Last of all, the quiet. An old red-brick library with tall arched windows full of moonlight, bookcases all round, QUIET PLEASE signs, reading tables with lamps, and piles of books for steps.

Every monster here starts asleep, with Zzz floating up. Land too hard from a big drop and THUD: the screen shakes and every sleeping monster nearby wakes up and comes after you. Small hops and stepping down the book piles are quiet. Shh! Reach the desk with ASK HERE over it to get your library card stamped.

Monsters

Everything that can hurt you has a pale glowing edge, and flashes red when it gets you. Jump on most monsters' heads to send them off.

• Ghosts float along with their arms held out, going "ooh". Jump on one's head and it goes poof.
• Skeletons rattle along with a clacking jaw, jiggling ribs and swinging arms.
• The big zombie is a block and a half tall and slow, lumbering from foot to foot with both arms stuck out and a messy dribbly chin. He takes two jumps on the head: the first makes him dizzy, with stars round his head, and the second finishes him. He's a cartoon, not scary.
• Embers hop about on Bonfire Night. Jump on one and it goes out in a puff of smoke.
• The ghosts of the old headmaster drift through Willow Brook's corridors in square hats with orange tassels, little round glasses and big white beards, each with a book under his arm.
• The turnstile ghosts at Match Night swoop down into the gateway when the gate clicks.
• Sleeping monsters doze in Leyton Library until a THUD wakes them.

Bosses

A boss shows little hearts over its head for the jumps it still needs, and its eyes glow orange when it's waiting: that's the moment to jump on it. Every boss takes three jumps on the head, and keeps the way out shut until it's beaten.

• The stone griffin (Willow Brook): half eagle and half lion, green, holding a shield, like the one on the school's crest. First it's a statue, then the boss, then a friend who flies you over the brook.
• The pirate captain (Jubilee Park): a big black hat with a skull on it, an eye patch, a curly beard with one gold tooth, a long orange coat with gold buttons, a hook for one hand, a wooden leg and a cutlass he waves about.
• The metal guitarist (Blondie's): a made-up cartoon rocker with long grey hair, a studded black jacket and an orange electric guitar. When he lifts his guitar high and his eyes glow, he strums it down and a slow sound-wave rolls along the floor: jump it! Beaten, he bows and gives you a thumbs up.
• The bartender (Blondie's): a made-up cartoon lady with big blonde hair, a band T-shirt with a skull and a grey apron, flicking her tea towel round and round while she waits.

Friendly creatures

Not everything out tonight is after you. None of these can hurt you:

• urban foxes behind the kebab shop and on the high road, and pigeons that flap off as you come near
• crows in the bare trees, bats crossing the moon and spiders on their threads
• the egret and the kingfisher on Dagenham Brook
• the portraits at Willow Brook, whose eyes follow you
• the griffin, once you've beaten it
• the police horse, the fans and the singing crowd at Match Night

Treats and their rhyming slang

In East London you can say something that rhymes instead of the word, so when you grab a treat its rhyming slang pops up.

At Match Night the sweets on the street are hot dogs. Every place hides one golden pumpkin, often inside a wall you can walk through, and it twinkles now and then to give itself away. The win screen shows a row of nine golden pumpkins, with the ones you found filled in.

Powers and helpers

• Checkpoint lanterns: an iron post with a lantern, dark until you touch it, then lit with a warm flame. Lose a life and you come back there, blinking for a moment while nothing can hurt you.
• Chilli sauce (the kebab shop): a squeezy bottle. For five seconds you run half as fast again, with steam puffing out of your head and orange streaks flying behind you.
• The griffin ride (Willow Brook): once it's friendly, the griffin flies you over the brook on its back, and flies back to wait in case you need it again.
• The witch's broom: a broom bobbing in the air with sparkles. Grab it for a double jump for ten seconds.
• The rocket box and the bouncy castles: BOING, they throw you up high.
• Rope nets on the pirate ship: jump up through them and stand on top.
• Rails: slide along them on your shoes, with sparks.
• Footballs (Match Night): run into one and it knocks out a monster.