Free games of the week

This week we have a wide variety of free games for you to enjoy, from a talking with a ghost cat to talking with ghost people. If ghosts aren’t your thing then you can become a cat burglar in a world run by dogs, manage your own lemonade stand to stop a gang from beating you up, or just start scanning waffles until you create a profit. Whether you want to help out a ghost, steal items, master conversations, or monitor scanners, there is a game for you! Read on, read on...

Looking for more free games? Check out our round up of the best free PC games that you can download and play right now.

Claude and the Phantom by Simon Reid & Maurício Costa

Nothing is cuter than a little cat - except maybe a ghost cat who needs your help getting to the afterlife!

Picture the scene. Your day is going as usual, when, suddenly, a strange woman drops off a painting at your antique store. This painting is eerie and, upon closer inspection, definitely haunted. There’s a cat-ghost within, seeking to escape this world, and they need a few items and a good nap before they can depart. You're naturally intrigued (who wouldn’t be?) and are going to help the cat out.

Being inside a shop chock full of objects can be quite overwhelming in a point and click adventure, so you must spend some time figuring out what's helpful and what's just… junk. The world around Claude and the Phantom is small, as this game was made for a game jam, however it is packed with items! You can interact with and meet another adventurer, looking to find a more interesting life to live as well.

Once you have arranged everything the cat needs; some fish to nibble, a silenced clock, and some bright light for the painting to rest within, your ghost-pet can have a nap and move onto the afterlife.

Elemental Flow - Sofia's Side Story by Tea-Powered Games

Elemental Flow - Sofia’s Side Story is a self-contained demo for Elemental Flow, and is a totally different type of narrative adventure. You play as Sofia, returned home for a funeral and getting a coffee at a local cafe. The cafe is exactly how you recollect - until you drink your coffee and wake up in a storeroom, confronted by strange, faceless ghosts who you need to communicate with. Communication may sound easy, but, much like in real life, it isn’t just about making choices in conversations.

Instead, you experiment with different ways to get your point across and come to an understanding. In order to have a successful conversation you need to both talk to the other person and listen to them talk to you. Listening gets tiring as you communicate, which will force you to take care of yourself in conversations. There is a realistic element to this; the way conversations are give and take, and how some people speak vs how others speak.

Sofia’s Side Story is really showcasing something unique with conversations, making them feel like real life. Hopefully you're able to master them, and find some enjoyment in figuring out what is going on.

Lemonade Stand Extreme by Cinterre

When you're selling lemonade, your customers expect the highest quality lemon-flavored drink.

Lemonade Stand Extreme is a cute, and surprisingly complex, management game. You're looking to sell as much lemonade as you can in 30 days, whilst paying off the gang shaking you down for protection money. You'll need to manage the money that's coming in, purchase new lemons and pay off the bad lads whenever they show up asking for cash.

You can charge more for your lemonade, but you'll need to be careful when it comes to pricing. Customers like good quality lemons made into reasonable priced lemonade. If you overcharge then your reputation will be affected. A good reputation will drive more customers to your little stall, but if your rep hits zero then you'll lose the game, and not be able to pay your debt. You can throw away bad quality lemons, of course – if you can remember how much you purchased at what price.

Cat Burglar by Games for Good

Cat Burglar has you playing as sneaky cat rogue (a living one, this time) - trying to collect gems and avoid dogs.

As Kat you creep around each 3D level on your way to Dogo Corps. There are various keys that need to be collected to make it through the final door of each stage, as well as some gems to collect for bonus points. You can move the view of each level around, seeing it from different angles and perspectives, as well as zooming in to make sure you know where you're going next.

Dogo Corps is headed by Major Bull, who has some sort of master plan to destroy you by luring you in with gems. There are various dogs to avoid in each level, welding flashlights and guarding the building, as well as spotlights that move around hoping to catch you lurking! A lovely bonus is that, in between each level, the game highlights a different pet charity, raising awareness about different organisations which could help out the real life versions of the creature you're playing as.

Cat Burglar is a short – but very fun – stealth game that does good for the world.

Waffle Scanner by William Tumeo & Lucia Wolf Schafer

For something completely different, you can check out this challenging game about making copies of waffles!

For whatever reason (don't think too much about this), you've been put in charge of copying waffles using a scanner, because this is of course a thing that can be done. You can do this by plugging various scanners into different outlets; some of these outlets are high voltage and make the scanner work faster, while others are low voltage, but each of them will copy your waffles. You're also given a daily waffle target, and a time limit to hit that quota.

All you need to do is plug in a scanner and watch that baby scan! Er, except, if the outlet is a high voltage outlet then your scanner will start to overload and shake. This leads to the scanner burning up if you leave it, so you'll need to unplug it and let it settle before using it again.

Maintaining this balance in your hardware is very important in the lucrative business of scanning waffles. If you're able to master it, you might even be promoted, and be put in charge of more scanners and outlets...

Disclosure: Jupiter Hadley is an apprentice games wizard at Armor Games, helping them to find released free games to sign.