# Amanda the Adventurer

Amanda the Adventurer is a horror video game series partially inspired by the children's show Dora the Explorer, developed by MANGLEDmaw Games and published by DreadXP, the video game publishing arm of Dread Central. The series started as an entry into a game jam and was developed into a full game after it was acquired by DreadXP. The game's latest release is titled Amanda the Adventurer 2.
The series centers upon the protagonist Riley, who has become involved with the mystery surrounding the fictional children's show Amanda the Adventurer.

## Gameplay
### Chapter 1

During the game, players must solve puzzles and locate VHS tapes containing episodes from the children's series Amanda the Adventurer. While screening the tapes players can interact with Amanda and her companion Wooly the Sheep, which can in turn impact the player's environment and game endings. The player assumes control of Riley, a non-gender-specific character who is tasked with investigating the mystery surrounding the show and the sinister company, Hameln Entertainment.

### Chapter 2

Similar to the first game, Chapter 2 also has puzzles to be solved and VHS tapes to be located. Each tape contains an episode of Amanda the Adventurer. There is a mysterious masked figure that guides Riley at the beginning of the game, who turns out to be Joanne Cook, one of Kate Park's accomplices, in one of the secret endings. There are a few secret tapes to unlock such secret endings. Each decision you make can affect how the game ends.

## Synopsis
### Amanda the Adventurer (2023)

Players control Riley Park, who has moved to Kensdale, Ohio after receiving a goodbye letter from their Aunt Kate. In the letter Kate leaves her home to Riley and makes vague statements about running out of time. After arriving Riley discovers that Kate was researching the children's series Amanda the Adventurer, which had started off as a live-action show and became a 3D cartoon after it was acquired by a studio called Hameln Entertainment. During its run parents became concerned about some of the show's plots and messages. Several children also went missing while watching the show, causing Kate to investigate the show and suspect that supernatural forces may be at play.
Riley discovers a VHS tape in Kate's attic and plays the tape, during which Riley is able to interact with Amanda and her companion Wooly. As Riley finishes a tape and the associated puzzles, Riley discovers more tapes and learns that Kate was correct in assuming that the show had ties to the supernatural. Depending on the choices Riley can discover additional, secret tapes that give out more information about the series, the people who created it, and the child who was the original Amanda, Rebecca Colton. Players can also trigger an ending where Riley is killed by a demonic entity of Amanda bearing her hairstyle. If they achieve the true ending, Riley is left alive and Amanda tells Riley that she is out there somewhere. Riley is forced to destroy the TV they used to play the VHS tapes just as a masked figure enters the attic.

### Amanda the Adventurer 2 (2024)

In the second game the masked figure reveals herself to be Joanne, a friend and associate of Kate's, who was helping in the investigation of the show after the disappearance of Joanne's little brother Jordan. She takes Riley to Kate's former workplace, the Kensdale Public Library, where Riley is again tasked with finding more VHS tapes and revealing further secrets about the show, Hameln Entertainment, and the forces that may be at work. As with the previous entry, the game's ending will depend on whether or not Riley has discovered all of the VHS tapes and responded to prompts correctly. There are multiple points where the player can die depending on their actions, such as giving the Amanda entity the wrong toy or telling Amanda the wrong story.
If Riley has found all of the secret tapes and successfully warded off a new, disruptive possum character, the game will end with Joanne getting attacked and killed by the Amanda entity after destroying one of the tapes. Riley is given a blank VHS tape and urged to flee through an escape tunnel that Kate had installed in the library. Joanne earlier tells Riley that Hameln workers have burned down Kate's house in an attempt to destroy the tapes there.
If Riley chooses not to ward off the possum in the final tape, the possum will call out for "JOH" when it hears Joanne speak. After this instance, the player can obtained a secret audio cassette tape which recorded Kate's last words to Riley, warning not to watch the tapes, but rather destroy them before she was killed in a car crash. Riley is later sent away down the escape tunnel by Joanne with the blank VHS tape before she was attacked and killed by a different, more monstrous demonic entity resembling Wooly.

## Development

The first Amanda the Adventurer game was released in 2022 as part of DreadXP's Found Footage Jam on Itch.io. The game, which has been referred to as Amanda the Adventurer: Pilot Episode, was developed by Ontario-based developer MANGLEDmaw Games, along with Arcadim and SinsterCid. In October 2022 DreadXP made an announcement that they had acquired the title for Amanda the Adventurer and would work with MANGLEDmaw to create a full game. A demo of the full game was premiered at PAX East in early 2023.
The first full Amanda the Adventurer game was released on April 25, 2023, via Steam and featured localized subtitles for multiple languages. The game was given a release on the Nintendo Switch in September of the same year and, in 2024, Amanda the Adventurer released to the PlayStation and Xbox.
A sequel entitled Amanda the Adventurer 2 was released to Steam on October 22, 2024.

## Reception

After its release the first Amanda the Adventurer game became popular with online gaming streamers and per PCGamesN, videos relating to the game received approximately 1.5 billion views on YouTube. Vice.com praised the game for its aesthetics and puzzles, as well as the choice to make the game start off "disarmingly sweet and wholesome."
GamesRadar+ reviewed the first game, warning readers that some of the game's visuals could be disturbing and that it did not end with any definitive answers while also noting that "Otherwise, Amanda the Adventurer is a startlingly effective horror game deceptively wrapped in the aesthetics of an old analog horror game and retro children's TV shows." Prima Games was also critical of the game ending with too many unanswered questions; they also praised the game's writing, world building, and puzzles. TouchArcade reviewed the first game's port to the Nintendo Switch, stating that it was an overall good port but that "I feel like the change to how you interact with preset options rather than inputting on a keyboard like in the PC version holds this back from its true potential."
Hardcore Gamer reviewed the second game, stating that it was "a fun adventure title that delivers solid puzzles, great performances and a nice mixture of dread and humor, but a few sloppy decisions and a lack of anything substantial in either the gameplay or story areas hold it back."

## Other media
### Music video

On 17 December 2024, the X account of Amanda the Adventurer 2 published a tweet announcing the release of a song for the game, which released on December 20 2024. In the song, Amanda is voiced by her in-game voice actress Blair Greene-Osako,