Book Smugglers: Shadow Paths
1893–1904. Carry the banned books past the guards – unseen.
Book Smugglers: Shadow Paths (Knygnešiai: šešėlių takai) is a stealth adventure for Android. In 1893 Lithuanian books printed in the Latin alphabet are banned in the Russian Empire, and book smugglers carry them across the border from East Prussia at night. You are one of them: thirty missions in five chapters take you from a first bundle in 1893 to the spring of 1904, when the ban is lifted.
Every guard sees in a cone, and trees, stone walls and houses block his view. Crouch to move quietly, hide in a bush or a haystack, and watch his suspicion grow while he sees you. The patrols follow fixed routes, so you can learn them and time your move – there is always a hidden way. In winter your footprints stay in the snow and guard dogs smell you through walls; in the market towns you hide in carts of hay and wear a pedlar’s coat; on the Tilsit road you cross the river by boat; and at the end informers watch the roads while you find out who has been betraying the smugglers.
Every mission has three stars to earn, a daily route changes every day, three new tasks come every week, and on Book Smugglers’ Day and Press Day the daily route pays triple. Each delivery earns the network’s trust for upgrades and a higher rank, three difficulty levels keep the hard stars as a collection of their own, and history cards – checked against real sources – and letters tell the story of the press ban.
The game is in Lithuanian and English and is free; a small ad banner appears only in its menus and on the result screens, never during a mission.