Puzzle · New game
Hearsay
A free browser puzzle about whispering one secret too many until a village street lights up with gossip, scored against an editor's daily quota.
#36 this weekAI-assisted: Code, Graphics, Text
The game runs in this tab. No install, no account.
The short answer
Hearsay is a free HTML5 puzzle in which you write the village paper's gossip column. Click a house to whisper; the fourth secret makes it blab to neighbours, and long chains pay more. Each day has a quota to hit before sundown, and a full week runs ten to fifteen minutes.
What is Hearsay?
Hearsay is a browser puzzle about writing Overheard, the gossip column of a county newspaper, in a village where every household quietly keeps exactly three secrets. The fourth is the one that cannot stay put: a house that hears it has to tell somebody, and the somebody is always next door.
That turns each house into a fuse. Whispering to a house lights its windows; the fourth secret and it blabs, neighbours overhear, some of them are already primed to burst, and the talk runs along the lane. A longer chain means each burst inside it is worth more.
The editor wants a set amount of talk by sundown, every day, for a week, and a week runs ten to fifteen minutes. The game is free, built for a single player, and runs as HTML5 in the browser.
How to play
Placement is the real work. One route is to bring an entire street up to three secrets apiece and then tip the middle, letting the whole row go off together; another is a steady house-to-house patter that keeps the quota ticking over. Chains can be fed while they spread, and the church bell is there to be rung at the right moment rather than the first one.
Three buildings change the arithmetic: a Tavern where everything gets said twice, a Postman who opens a second front elsewhere in the village, and a Mayor who doubles a chain that passes his door. Where each one sits is a decision, not decoration.
From Tuesday, one household is ringed in red pencil; start that day's story at its door and the Gazette pays double for it. Evening classifieds also appear, answered with the 1 to 4 keys, and the light shifts from gold to red as the day closes.
Controls
Clicking or tapping a house whispers a secret to it, and that is the action the whole game is built around. Everything else is a shortcut or a trigger. B rings the church bell. P pauses. Arrow keys move a keyboard cursor and Enter whispers with it. The number keys 1 to 4 answer the evening adverts.
Because whispering, bell, pause and advert replies all have their own bindings, a run can be played on the keyboard alone or with the pointer alone. Settings cover reduced motion, numbers shown on houses and larger text, which makes the board easier to read at a glance and the chain maths easier to follow.
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Mouse click or tap | Whisper a secret to a house |
| B | Ring the church bell |
| P | Pause |
| Arrow keys and Enter | Whisper using the keyboard |
| 1 to 4 | Answer adverts |
Tips for your first run
A week is short enough that a missed quota costs little, so treat an early attempt as a survey of the village rather than a run that has to be won. The two things that shift day to day are the red-pencil target and the changing adverts.
- Load a whole street to three secrets each, then whisper into the middle so the row goes off as one wave.
- Feed a chain that is already travelling instead of starting a fresh one from cold.
- Hold the church bell until the moment is right rather than ringing it the instant it is available.
- Site the Tavern, Postman and Mayor on purpose: doubled whispers, a second front and a doubled chain all depend on position.
- From Tuesday, open the day at the red-pencilled household and collect the Gazette's double rate.
- If a big chain fizzles, fall back on steady patter across quiet houses to reach the sundown quota.
Content and replayability
Runs are not identical. Three villages exist, and a week can arrive as one of five kinds, among them fog banks, a hard frost, a market and a wedding, with strangers passing through and classified adverts that change every evening. Week numbers let a specific week be replayed or passed on to someone else.
Longer-term hunting sits alongside the daily quota: twenty-three honours, three of them secret, something living in the pond, and a Chapel that holds nearly everything. Surviving a full week unlocks the Sharp Editor, a third village and the option to stay on past Sunday to see how long the talk can last.
Each evening also leaves a record behind, because the Gazette leads with the day's biggest story and an engraving of the house where it began.
Presentation and performance
The newspaper frame does real work. Every evening produces a Gazette front page led by the day's largest story with an engraving of the house that started it, a note from the editor on takings, and letters from yesterday's gossips with his replies underneath. Sunday closes the week with a review.
The day itself is lit: the light turns gold and then red as it ends. Type is set in IM Fell English, the Igino Marini face released under the SIL Open Font License, and all sound is generated in the browser.
Accessibility options include reduced motion, numbers on houses and larger text. Progress is kept in the browser between sessions, and the game plays in an HTML5 frame on the page, credited to PagingDrLamp with Claude.
Who should play it
Hearsay suits players who like a small rule set with wide consequences: one secret too many and a whole street unravels. The cozy and incremental labels point at the pleasure of watching a chain build, and the roguelite streak shows in the changing weeks, villages and honours.
It also fits short sittings, since a week takes ten to fifteen minutes, and players who prefer the keyboard, with arrow keys and Enter for whispering, B for the bell and P to pause. Anyone who needs reduced motion or larger text gets both in the settings. It is free and runs in the browser, so a session begins with a single click on a house.
Screenshots
How we tested it
The build was loaded from games.debutplay.com in a headless Chromium session on ; the canvas started and no request was blocked. The guide was last checked on .
From the developer
Every household in the village will keep three secrets with perfect discretion. On hearing a fourth, they must tell somebody, and they tell everybody next door. You write Overheard, the gossip column in the county paper. Click a house to whisper something to it. Its windows light up. On the fourth secret it blabs, and the neighbours hear, and some of them are fit to burst, and away it goes down the lane. The longer a chain runs, the more each blab is worth. The editor wants a certain amount of talk by sundown. Every day. For a week. One rule, a lot of trouble. Charge a whole street to three secrets and tip it over in the middle, or keep up a steady patter. Whisper into a chain while it spreads to keep it going. Ring the church bell at the right moment. The evening classifieds. Busybodies who whisper on their own and get bolder every day. A Tavern where everything gets said twice. A Postman who starts a second front across the village.…
Frequently asked questions
Is Hearsay free?
Yes. Hearsay is free to play, runs as an HTML5 game in the browser, and is built for a single player.
How long does a week take?
Ten to fifteen minutes. The editor's talk quota repeats daily for a week, and the Sunday review closes it out.
What happens after surviving a full week?
The Sharp Editor unlocks, a third village opens up, and play can continue past Sunday to see how long the talk can last.
How many honours are there to find?
Twenty-three, three of which are secret. Clues include something living in the pond and a Chapel that holds almost everything.
Can a specific week be replayed?
Yes. Week numbers let a week be replayed or passed on to another player.
Does the game keep progress?
Your place is kept in the browser, so a session can be picked up again in the same browser later.
What games are similar to Hearsay?
The closest matches on DebutPlay are Pipe Puzzle: Fountain Race, Lost Property, Cat Signal 1989. They share the same genre, so the controls and the pace carry over.
Something wrong or missing? Tell us. How we test games.
