My son has spent a lot of time listening to Jaroslav Foglar’s books, and I often read them aloud to him too. That gave me the idea of making a game where he could join Rychlé šípy on an adventure of his own.
The result is Rychlé šípy: Hledání ježka v kleci, a Czech adventure game that runs in the browser. I built it for a phone or tablet held in landscape, with spoken dialogue and simple touch controls so that a young child can follow the story without having to read everything.
A new mystery in Stínadla
The story starts with a chance meeting in an old city park. A brother and sister join Rychlé šípy as the club follows a clue about a possible second Hedgehog in the Cage, the mechanical puzzle connected with Jan Tleskač’s story. The original is still safe with Otakar Losna, so the rumour raises an obvious question: what exactly has someone seen?
The whole club is there: Mirek Dušín, Jarka Metelka, Jindra Hojer, Červenáček, and Rychlonožka. Along the way, the children also meet Losna, the mysterious Široko, and the troublesome Brotherhood of the Cat’s Paw. New characters include a young Vont named Matěj and a boy named Petr, whose connection to the mystery gradually becomes clear.
The trail leads through fifteen locations: from the park and hidden passages into Stínadla, through Tleskač’s workshop and underground corridors, and eventually beyond the city. I wanted an original story that draws on familiar places and characters, with clues, discoveries, and a little mischief. Both children take part in conversations and make discoveries that help the group move forward.
From the park to the underground passages
The opening locations ease the player into the journey. An old map in the park points towards U Tří luceren, a forgotten gate provides a way through, and a witness remembers a boy carrying a mysterious package. Small discoveries gradually turn a walk through the city into an investigation.
Inside Stínadla, the places become more closely tied to Tleskač’s past. A message near the square’s pump leads the group towards his workshop, where tools, a workbench, and an empty hiding place suggest that someone has been there recently. The Hřbitovní chodba underground passage then changes the pace: the group needs a found map to navigate towards the Church of St James.
Later, the garden of the Ginkgo Worshippers brings a meeting with Losna and Široko. The partly demolished Modré ulice expose old courtyards and traces of the neighbourhood’s history. From there, the trail eventually leaves the narrow streets for an old loading yard and a quarry outside the city. I wanted each place to offer a different discovery while remaining part of one continuous journey.
Simple controls, different kinds of puzzles
Most actions need only a tap: examine something, talk to someone, or move on. Useful items are used automatically, and a hint button helps when the player gets stuck. The puzzles include picture tiles, locks, and simple mechanisms, with no time pressure or punishment for trying the wrong thing.
For example, the map in the park is a picture puzzle: tapping rotates individual tiles until the map fits together and reveals the street name. At Tleskač’s workshop, the player works with a three-dial lock. In the underground passage, sliding bolts open a cabinet containing a map. These activities ask for different kinds of attention—recognising a picture, arranging a mechanism, or following a route—without requiring complicated controls.
The hint button can also outline the available targets, and correctly placed picture tiles stay in place. An illustrated city map makes it easy to return to places already visited. The aim is to keep exploration moving even when a child needs a little help.
The characters speak Czech, so the story can be followed by listening. Progress saves automatically, making it easy to leave the game and return later. I wanted attention to stay on the mystery rather than on learning how to operate an adventure game.
Giving the old streets their atmosphere
I generate the artwork with AI, using shared style prompts and character references to keep the scenes consistent. The look is inspired by older illustrated adventure books: dark ink outlines, muted colours, and textured backgrounds. The warm afternoon in the park gradually gives way to the cooler evening streets of Stínadla. I wanted the city to feel mysterious and inviting to explore.
For Stínadla, that means weathered plaster, cobbled streets, wooden doors, small courtyards, and occasional warm light from a lantern or window. The backgrounds aim for a gouache-and-ink look with the texture of old paper. I keep the important objects clearly separated from the scenery, so a richly illustrated street still works as a scene a child can explore by touch.
Backgrounds, characters, and objects are separate layers, so opening a gate or moving a tram does not require replacing the whole scene. Character portraits carry the conversations, while comic panels show some of the bigger discoveries and story events. Together, they let the game move between quietly exploring a place and watching a moment unfold.
A small browser engine
The game uses plain JavaScript, with the engine and story kept in separate modules. Locations, dialogue, clues, and puzzles live in the story data. That makes it easier to adjust a conversation or add a puzzle without changing the code that runs the whole game.
For the dialogue, I generate Czech voices ahead of time with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech. The game then plays those audio files, with a distinct voice for each character.
Our first playthrough
I have played through the game once with the kids. Next, I plan to polish it and add more puzzles. The aim is to give us more little discoveries to make together in a world my son already knows from the books.