About the Game
In support of Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute works of literature
Content note: This game features excerpts from classic works of literature. Certain excerpts and synopses contain non-graphic references to sex, violence, and alcohol.
- Master one of the oldest forms of encryption: the substitution cipher
- Decode over 400 hand-selected excerpts from literary classics both well-known and obscure
- Get a taste of 8 beloved genres, from nostalgic children's stories to bone-chilling tales of horror
- Like what you decoded? Every book is free to read and download online--and only one click away!
- Share the joy of reading--10% of every sale is donated to Project Gutenberg, an online library of over 60,000 free ebooks
- Enjoy a soothing, contemplative piano soundtrack
- Rest your eyes with dark mode and optional enlarged cipher text
- Choose between four difficulty settings
"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you." - Mortimer Adler
Content note: This game features excerpts from classic works of literature. Certain excerpts and synopses contain non-graphic references to sex, violence, and alcohol.
Screenshots
7 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
On the site: Build 17462981
Up to date
Hello! Just a few little fixes in this patch:
View on Steam
- fixed typo in Edgar Allan Poe's name
- fixed typo in Israel Zangwill's name
- fixed a bug where using UNDO a lot would result in a crash
Hello everyone! Today's small patch contains:
Happy solving!
View on Steam
- 8 new ciphers! (one per genre)
- fixed the cipher count text wrap issue on the profiles screen
- updated Adventure quote #4
Happy solving!
Hello! Two little updates for you today:
Big thanks to everyone for checking out the new update and for reporting any issues you found!
Happy solving!
View on Steam
- 2 more ciphers for the Great Thinkers genre, for those of you who needed 52 ;)
- Fixed a bug where a solved letter would be erased/not appear, making the puzzle unsolvable
Big thanks to everyone for checking out the new update and for reporting any issues you found!
Happy solving!
Hello! In today's update, we have the following:
14 new ciphers!
Note: if you've already finished the game, you will see the endgame screen one more time after completing these new ciphers. With future updates, the endgame screen will not trigger again.
Typos
Features
Bugs
Still in the works/Things we're considering
View on Steam
14 new ciphers!
Note: if you've already finished the game, you will see the endgame screen one more time after completing these new ciphers. With future updates, the endgame screen will not trigger again.
Typos
- Tanglewood Tales synopsis
- The Mystery of the Yellow Room synopsis
- Children's cipher #20
- title of The Wendigo
Features
- added option to disable cursive handwriting font
- added borderless window mode
- created profile data backup folder in your local save data directory; these can be used to restore older save data if you ever need it (please see the discussion forums for instructions on how to find your save data directory)
Bugs
- fixed endgame issue where players couldn't reveal the book title before being taken away to the endgame screen
Still in the works/Things we're considering
- undo button
- some sort of Steam cloud integration or way to make manually backing up save data easier
Hello! Thank you so much to everyone who gave feedback over the past two weeks.
User-Friendly Updates
Bug Fixes
Still Investigating/On the Agenda
View on Steam
User-Friendly Updates
- added a little arrow above the active letter box to make keyboard navigation easier
- letter boxes will now stay active when changing pages on multi-page ciphers
- changed "VIGNETTE" label to "FLICKER FX" on Settings screen for clarity
Bug Fixes
- tearing noise will no longer play on click when the "Reveal Book Title & Author" ribbon is not present
- fixed a crash that occurred when decreasing cipher text size on multi-page ciphers
- changed the title of "Tales of Terror and Mystery" in the Mystery genre to "The Lost Special" to avoid duplicate book titles
Still Investigating/On the Agenda
- HDR monitor brightness issue
- considering adding an "Undo" button
Just a quick upgrade to the newest Steam SDK behind the scenes.
View on Steam
A behind-the-scenes update to support Mac 1 (plus one typo fix for the synopsis of Medea)
View on Steam
New features on the Settings menu:
-window size options
-turn the flickering background vignette on or off
View on Steam
-window size options
-turn the flickering background vignette on or off
Hello! Big thanks to everyone who reported bugs. Below are the fixes for this patch:
Thanks again for all the feedback, and let us know if you run into any other issues! We are still working on a few other bugs that were reported.
View on Steam
- fixed bug where boxes would not accept player input
- fixed bug where solving the second page of a cipher would solve the entire cipher
- fixed blue screen error triggered during state transitions
- fixed bug where solved letters would be selected upon first entering a cipher level
- corrected typo in The Count of Monte Cristo synopsis
- fixed bug where cipher page arrows did not resize properly during window resizing
Thanks again for all the feedback, and let us know if you run into any other issues! We are still working on a few other bugs that were reported.
Current Release
Build 17462981
Uploaded Oct 08, 2026
How to Install
1
Download all files
2
Extract the .ZIP file to a folder (use WinRAR or 7-Zip)
3
Run Prose_and_codes.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
Archive password
Needed when extracting (WinRAR / 7-Zip) — not a site login.
CRC32
36715981
SHA-256
c018e0b6078bed867b960c8ee5f845fd7bbd4aaa8e7f73619713ac641d6136c0
How: Right-click the downloaded file → 7-Zip / WinRAR → CRC SHA → compare with the values above.
You May Also Like
View All
Download Prose & Codes for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of Prose & Codes for free. Prose & Codes is a Casual released by Hero Game Co LLC.