Third

Third

Godfrey Yang · February 2, 2023 · Adventure, Philosophical, Minimalist, Pixel Graphics, Capitalism

Third is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Mixed63% · 19 📉 Recent reviews down 54%
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

Third price

Third is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Third

✦ AI summary

Third is a 2D top-down puzzle adventure where you wake up trapped in an experimental game and must solve cryptic puzzles to escape while a mysterious creator deliberately misleads you. As you uncover the layers of deception, the game reveals deeper philosophical horrors inspired by The Witness and The Stanley Parable that challenge your perception of choice and reality itself.

An experimental serious meta game.

Third — game info

Platforms
Windows
Steam Deck
Playable
Player modes
Single-player
PC Game Pass
Not included

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Recommended Aug 8, 2026
Third is a small but unusually thoughtful experimental adventure that places ideas about control, choice, and manipulation ahead of conventional spectacle. Developed and published by Godfrey Yang, the game began as a student project created for EAE 3720 at the University of Utah before arriving on Steam in February 2023. Its modest origins are apparent in its minimalist presentation, but they also help explain why the game is willing to experiment with concepts that larger productions might avoid. Rather than building its identity around combat, elaborate environments, or complicated progression systems, Third concentrates on the relationship between the player, the person designing the experience, and the rules governing the world. The premise begins inside a mysterious room where the player awakens and hears a man communicating through a speaker. He introduces the situation as an experiment and encourages participation, creating an immediate imbalance of information. The mysterious voice apparently understands what is happening while the player knows almost nothing. As exploration continues, it becomes increasingly apparent that the experiment is not as innocent as initially pre…
3 found this helpful
Not recommended Oct 6, 2025
"Third" is a student project from University of Utah. One of the first things students should be taught in game development is that 3D graphics became mainstream in the mid 1990's with dedicated 3D cards like the Voodoo3 and the ATI Rage. But the students were deliberately mistaught that's it's okay to release obsolete 2D games in the 3D era of gaming... certainly any professional developer seeing a prospective new hire who doesn't even know about 3D gaming probably isn't going to give them a job. Needless to say if an educational institution taught me incorrectly on purpose, I'd ask for my money back. This is laughably bad for any student game. It's a minimalist "art" experience, not what could be called a real game, with minimalist, phoned in graphics... seriously, if any propsective employer saw this in an applicant's portfolio, not only would they kick them out of the interview, they'd take out a restraining order. University of Utah should be ashamed by this and possibly have their credentials reviewed... this is laughably bad. The idea is that you participate in a mad scientist type lab experimental game, where you must try to solve puzzles to escape while the creator …
1 found this helpful
Recommended Jan 5, 2024
The developer is very hot. SMASH
1 found this helpful
Not recommended May 24, 2023
It's a lazy Stanley Parable clone. It's really not a good idea to tell players that they consent to your program mining their personal information, even if it's meant to be a joke.
1 found this helpful
Recommended Jul 6, 2026
quick escaping-the-matrix like game, I like it!
Not recommended Jun 24, 2023
0/10 couldn't save the anime girl

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