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RLRusty Lake Series Guide
Play order

Rusty Lake Games in Order

The full Rusty Lake play order — all 19 games in release order with years, why release order beats story order on a first run, and the shortest way in.

Last updated 2026-08-15

Nineteen games, released between 2015 and 2026, plus one compilation. They share a single story, but they were not written to be played in story order — and playing them in story order is not what the series is built for.

Short answer: play them in release order. The list is below.

Release order — all 19

The Cube Escape line

#GameYear
1Cube Escape: Seasons2015
2Cube Escape: The Lake2015
3Cube Escape: Arles2015
4Cube Escape: Harvey's Box2015
5Cube Escape: Case 232015
6Cube Escape: The Mill2015
7Cube Escape: Birthday2016
8Cube Escape: Theatre2016
9Cube Escape: The Cave2017
10Cube Escape: Paradox2018

The standalone releases

#GameYear
11Rusty Lake Hotel2015
12Rusty Lake: Roots2016
13Rusty Lake Paradise2018
14The White Door2020
15Samsara Room2020
16The Past Within2022
17Underground Blossom2023
18The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show2025
19Servant of the Lake2026

The two lines interleave by year — Rusty Lake Hotel (2015) came out during the first run of Cube Escape games, not after it. If you want one flat list, sort by year and keep Cube Escape entries ahead of the standalone release from the same year.

Cube Escape Collection (2020, Steam) bundles the first nine Cube Escape games. It is a compilation, not a twentieth game — it is the cheapest way to play entries 1–9 on PC in one place.

Why release order and not story order

The series drops its answers slowly and on purpose. Entries made later assume you have seen the earlier ones and are written as payoffs, not as setups. Played in story order, several of those payoffs arrive before the thing they pay off.

The one thing story order is good for is a second run. Once you know the shape of it, going back in narrative sequence is a genuinely different read.

The shortest way in

You do not have to start at game 1. The Cube Escape entries are short, free, and mostly self-contained, so a common start is:

  1. Cube Escape: Seasons — the first game, and the one everything else refers back to.
  2. Cube Escape: The Lake — immediately follows Seasons.
  3. Rusty Lake Hotel — the first premium entry, and the point where you decide whether the series is for you.

If those three land, work forward through the release list. If they do not, the rest will not change your mind.

Where Servant of the Lake goes

Play it last. It is the nineteenth and newest game, released 13 August 2026, and it is written for people who already know the Vanderboom family. Its full hub is here.

Narratively it sits at the other end — the earliest confirmed point on the timeline, before Rusty Lake: Roots. That is exactly why it is a bad first game and a very good last one.

Not confirmed

We could not verify the following against a source we trust, so it is left out rather than guessed at.

  • The in-universe chronological order of all 19 games. Only two anchors are confirmed so far: Servant of the Lake is set before Rusty Lake: Roots, in spring 1839, and Roots / Hotel / Paradise cover earlier family history than the Cube Escape entries. A full ordered timeline is not published here until a second independent source confirms it.
  • Exact release dates. The years below are confirmed; day-level dates for most entries are still being sourced from the individual store pages.