Type Help
A puzzle-mystery game inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story, Unheard and The Roottrees are Dead.
Investigate the files on an old computer that once belonged to a mysterious outside agent.
The files detail the gruesome story of Galley House, a case that was said to be unsolvable.
What really happened at Galley House? And what did the agent find out that lead to their death?
Delve through deeper and deeper layers of mystery as you piece together the grand puzzle.
And remember... There are no ghosts in Galley House!
PLEASE BE AWARE: THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!!!
Comments
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I tried adding the 26-en file a bunch and it never showed up on the file list.
This game rules and the ending is too hard - it needs some extra clues thrown in there. Things I'm stuck on/spoilers:
- there's....2 extra deaths....? K and soimeone else?
- wtf is the hangman?
- is there....an end? i'm pretty lost at the end, tho i'm loving the game. There should be some kind of clear endings
- 25-AT-1 should just say "there's a distant thunderclap, this one sounds farther away compared to the others" and that's it. The clue referring to it in 26-EN-1 is too vague and saying it's different when they are literally all just thunderclaps is just not enough clue for an average puzzler like myself. It's a cool idea and making it a bit more obvious (most of the game is fairly clear) would be a lot better.
rot13(Bapr lbh haybpx 96 svyrf, lbh'yy trg n zrffntr va lbhe vaobk gvgyrq "Svany", pbasvezvat lbh'ir fbyirq gur tnzr. Vg fbhaqf yvxr lbh'er zvffvat n irel rneyl fprar - ner gurer nal guhaqrepyncf lbh unira'g nppbhagrq sbe?)
So far, I only unlocked the following:
(0) 00-readme
(1) 01-QU-1-11
(1) 02-EN-1-6-7-10
(3) 03-LI-1-4-5-6-7-8-9
And I'm stuck here.
How do I use the "name" command?
"name 1 James Bond" will change all [1] with [1 James Bond]
That was one of the most interesting games I have ever played. I absolutely LOVE that kind of games where you have to search everything, with a mystery and no one understands anything at the beginning.
I like that kind of work a lot. You had to come up with the story, wich is already hard, and you had to come up with the puzzle to figure out AND to a way of guiding the player in the story while keeping some secrets for curious people. I cannot describe how much admiration i have from that game.
(I am sure there are other games like these, it's just the first one i have played myself (even if i've cheated a little, i'm a little too impatient). If anyone has any recommendations of that kind of games, I'd love to hear them!)
I still can get past 07 help
I don't understand why there're acts you have to switch between. This is very annoying and entirely unhelpful.
Incidentally, if you type "find <something>" and then hit enter twice, it would search for an empty string and display all of the files. Which makes this a better list command. It visually separates the scenes from each other, too! Unfortunately, I've only found this after finishing the game.
I've mostly enjoyed the game, but I found most of it very underwhelming. The mystery becomes obvious after the 3rd death, and the rest is just dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Uncovering the scenes becomes rote. I was hoping to discover a resolution, an explanation, or, you know, something. But it's just, who's been where. What they said to each other.
I agree regarding the acts. They don't seem to serve any purpose and are just an obstacle when trying to look at all the files. Judging from comments here, it's also a source of confusion when players can't find the files when they reach 07...
An easy fix is to have the list command by default display all the files you have found, and if you want to show only a specific act you could supply that as a parameter.
The act system is how the game
prevents youfrom progressing too far with the incorrect assumption that rot13(gurer vf bayl bar svyr cre gvzr-pbqr). [EDIT: it only slows you down, my bad!] If you make that assumption and don't read 06-ST closely, you'll never find the file that tells you about the act command.The real problem, in my opinion, is that the agent implies that 07-ED contains nothing of value; that comment should encourage the player to look at it.
Also, I could not disagree more with your final paragraph. The two most rewarding files (you know the ones) can only be solved after figuring out the mystery. The agent's final note may not be much of explanation about the curse, but surely the fact that rot13(gur ntrag vf gur svany crefba va gur punva) counts as a resolution to the story.
How does the act system prevent you from progressing like you say? The "list" command is mainly for convenience. It's there to remind you what scenes you have found. You could do the same thing by writing down the filenames on paper.
You can re-visit a scene by typing in the name again. The list command just makes it more convenient by allowing you to click on the name instead. By only showing the files from one act at a time, it just causes unnecessary annoyance and confusion.
btw, the "act" command is pretty much useless, it only allows you to rename an act. I never used it. ("title" on the other hand was more helpful by allowing you to remember what happened in each timeslot.)
Oops, you're right. I remembered needing to find 07-ED as the entry point to Act 2, and for some reason I forgot you could just... remember the files you've typed.
I still think it's good to force people to fill in a bit more of Act 1 before letting them access the Act that gives you the tools to solve the mystery, but even with that in mind, I can't really find a good reason to defend hiding the "list 2" command.
100% with you on the act command. I never used it; the agent's names for them are fine.
Me and my friends have been working on this together when we can, and we are so stuck right now. we cant get past 06. I've gone though all the files twice and am still struggling. can someone give me a hint on what we should be looking for. EDIT: I finally got file 07 but it isn't showing up in the list? can anyone help without just telling us straight up? thank you ðŸ˜
The game is split into 4 acts. The command "list" displays all the scenes in act 1. You need the command "list 2" to see the scenes in act 2, list 3 for act 3 and so on. Not a spoiler really, the game tells you this when you enter act 2 for the first time but it is easy to miss accidentally.
Thank you that helped a bunch
How did you get 07? I'm also stuck TT
Just think about where you could go/ who just went where in 06. I had to remember that we aren't John and that he isn't the main character. I just randomly realized he doesn't always have to be in a scene in a big brain moment and i figured it out. Hope that helps idrk ðŸ˜
tysm omg <33
i haven't finish this game yet simply because i am too dumb but i find it interesting and hoping someone can do a walkthrough <3 pls i want to try finish this game.
This game was great, congrats! Our trusty spreadsheet was thorough and invaluable, which is the mark of a fun time 😅. I’ve written up a short review that I’ll post to socials tomorrow: https://david.reviews/games/type-help/
Separately, how are folks finding the agent’s name? That’s not something I think we came across at all (though we weren’t really looking for it).
Also, not being able to
find thunderclapin all the places we maybe should have been able to was frustrating (you know the one). But it’s a pretty minor gripe that only caught us at the very end; everything else was smooth sailing!Here's a clue to finding the agent's name:
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1. There's a very oblique clue to the agent's name in 21-CH-3.
2. The agent says he mentioned something that you haven't heard about anywhere else.
3. What structure do the agent's files have?
4. They're in the form 00-phrase.
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00-dream
This was a great little game, thank you for creating it. The writing is so good it's a shame it's just a text game. Having a visual telling of the story such as in Unheard or The Invisible Hours would take this to another level.
This has to be the worst name for a game I've ever come across. But I still decided to try it based on recommendations and I'm glad I did because it turns out it's an excellent game!
The way the game is played is pretty genius in its simplicity and the story is something I haven't seen before in any sort of media. Making it a very satisfying mystery to figure out.
Here follows a random assortment of comments.
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!SPOILERS BELOW!
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The only flaw for me would be that the final puzzle is much harder than anything leading up to it. I spent 2 days on the game to reach the end and then another day just trying to find that last location. Oh well, time wasn't exactly wasted since it gave me opportunity to re-read the story and find some subtle things I had missed the first time. But it did feel like a somewhat abrupt change in difficulty. If you had trouble finding a location earlier, you could often brute-force it with some constraints. E.g. if you hadn't located 2 persons in a timeslot, you could try one of them in each location and if that didn't work you knew they were together somewhere.
A big clue was that Wintercote was bolded as a location so I was pretty sure it should be used but the problem was figuring out what person(s) would be there PLUS what timeslot to use. It was made extra hard by not knowing if I should use "13" like all the persons before, or to use the "K" from the transcript. Another major stumbling block was that I assumed the timeslot would be 27 (or maybe 0) "to complete the chain".
A "fix" would be to
a) Rename "K" in the phone transcripts. Use "0" or "13" instead.
b) Rephrase the clue about thunder in 25-AT-1 from "There's the distant sound of rolling thunder" to something that makes it more clear it's the same type of thunderclap sound that has been heard throughout the game.
I found a small bug with the "act" command: It only works if you supply two parameters and doesn't show any helpful error message if you don't. Also, if you never rename the acts the useful arrows don't show up when using the "list" command. (They make it easier to jump between act listings.)
Some plot points that are never explained (or are they?):
Yeah this is a legendary comment. I'll come back and put a lot of these in an update I think. Thanks for you help!
FWIW, I disagree that the final puzzle is flawed or overly difficult. (explanation after spoiler warning)
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I found it well-telegraphed by the game, given the fact that Wintercote is bolded, how often Victoria mentions Wintercote and her mother, that the 'name' command works for K but not for 13, and that K is the only character who could possibly be at Wintercote during the events of the game.
Please don't follow the suggestion to rename K to 0 or 13. That wouldn't "fix" the puzzle but would actually ruin it. 13 is Amelia West, and neither 0 or 13 make sense for K, given when she died.
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I want to clarify that I don't think the puzzle is flawed, in a broken sort of way. My criticism was regarding the much higher difficulty for it. Perceived "difficulty" is individual and can vary a lot, so fair enough if others didn't have problems with it. Props to you for figuring it out quickly! I can only speak of my own experience and I felt it was much harder than the rest of the game and stopped the progress as a rather abrupt obstacle.
My reason for suggesting renaming "K" is that it would reduce the ambiguity of what the filename for the final scene could be. All other scenes follow the same pattern with numbers for the people, so allowing a letter in there makes the search-space even larger. You seem to argue that "K" can't be renamed because there's a fixed rule about having the characters numbered in a specific order, which isn't really the case. It's true that the numbering follows the apparent order in which they die, but then Hobbes wouldn't really be number 1 since he never became part of the chain. Katherine would be 1 by that logic.
I guess the biggest problem for me was to realise WHEN the scene took place. I was pretty sure it would take place on 27 since there were hints about "completing the chain". The clue about "distant thunder" was too vague for me to understand that it was the same "death sound" that had been heard for the other deaths. I was also confused by the "one death doesn't quite fit the pattern" clue, which made me start theorising that maybe one of the earlier deaths were faked à la "And Then There Were None". Which made the number of possible final scene permutations enormous, when I didn't know WHEN, WHO and maybe not even WHERE it took place.
Anyways, I still think it would help to make the filenames consistent by only using numbers for the characters, but the biggest improvement would be to make it clearer that there's a similar thunderclap sound in 25-AT-1.
I think I disagree with both of these comments re: the final clue. Spoilers below.
By the end of the game, a player should have worked out that a thunderclap sounds when and only when someone dies. There is a thunderclap during John's scene in 25-AT-1. John does not die after the thunderclap. Therefore, the player should be able to work out that someone else has died somewhere, and that any missing scene must be a 25- scene.
You are told Katherine is K in the preceding scene in 24-LI-1, when John has a conversation with her. That immediately marks her out as a K. She would be a very poor fit as 13, because the player should have already been taught that the deaths count backwards. Katherine could only be 13 if she was the death before Rupert. Indeed, the game explicitly relies on this logic - there's no way to find 01-ST-12 unless you make the inference that Rupert is 12 as the earliest death, since there is no other scene which refers to Person 12. Logically, Amelia (if she had had scene) would have been 13, and it would be highly confusing to have Katherine as 13. Equally, Katherine can't be 0 because she dies before John. Really, Katherine is actually "Person 1" by the usual schematic and John is the one who is misnamed, as strictly speaking he doesn't die from the thunderclap, but if you made, say, Katherine 1 and John J, the game would be far too easy (the player would immediately notice Person 1 was never mentioned).
As such, you should be able to work out that there's a 25-##-K scene.
Finally, once you realise it is Katherine, all the clues are provided for you to know she is in Wintercote and therefore that the missing scene is 25-WI-K. Changing anything else would just make it far too easy.
At best, I guess I have limited sympathy for the idea that the "rolling thunder" should perhaps explicitly be called a thunderclap.
I actually thought 25-WI-K was kind of obvious because you're told Katherine is given the moniker K - it took me longer to find 01-ST-12 because there's no scene in which you're ever explicitly told Rupert is 12!
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The focus on the character numbering system makes it sound like it has to follow specific rules. (Namely the order people die in.) But the numbers are really just the agent's shorthand for the different voices he's transcribing. It could have been anything. In fact I think it would have been better to have them in random order since the system isn't really death order because Hobbes dies after Katherine and he's not part of the chain. So I don't think using 13 instead of "K" would be "highly confusing".
As for Rupert (01-ST-12) being harder to find; I guess that's another example of people having different views on difficulty.
It was stated in 00-audio-recovery that there were "twelve victims found in and around the house" so I think it's clear that there should be a number 12 death somewhere(edit: the audio-recovery file was found at 01-ST-12, so it can't be a clue) and with the only unaccounted thunderclap being in timeslot 01, it's just a matter of finding what room it could have been in. I found it easier to find just because it did follow the normal scene code naming convention where persons have numbers. So it was logical that the number would be 12 (or possibly 0). It would have been MUCH harder if had been named 01-ST-R or something.btw, another confusing clue I was reminded of now was the statement in 00-audio-recovery: "they were only able to recover about a minute from the thirteenth body" which refers to someone as number 13. Another suggestion that there should be a person with that number.
Spoilers
Working out the agent's shorthand follows a particular order is one of the central puzzles. Having the numbers in a random order would detract massively. Being able to instantly infer who was the most recent death is useful to advancement in a lot of scenes.
Also, the agent created the number 1-12 system *before* the agent himself worked out Katherine was relevant. You can see that here:
"[@] Edit: looking back at all the deaths, it's clear there's one that doesn't quite fit the pattern. It took me a while to track it down, but I've now added one more scene that should complete the chain of events."
Katherine can't fit into the same numbering system the agent used because the agent only realised Katherine was relevant much later and her scene was gathered much later.
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Fair enough. I didn't really mind the numbers being in death order, but I also think it wouldn't have bothered me if they were in a random order because it did feel a bit like cheating once you realise they are dying in order. From then on you're never surprised at which person is next to be erased.
In fact, it might be a missed opportunity to create a situation when you're not really sure who has been eliminated. Once players figure out that the thunderclaps signal a death, they would want to know who it is but with this system it's never a mystery. It could have been a fun little puzzle to try to deduce some deaths that aren't obvious (people dropping in the middle of a conversation etc.)
btw my favourite death scene was 09-ED-6-10 where it's heavily implied that Eddie is in the middle of having sex with a dead Eve... X-)
Spoilers
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You can't use 00-audio-recovery as a hint to find 01-ST-12, because that file is found inside 01-ST-12.
Personally, I think the numbering system being the way it is was a good call. On a meta level, if the numbers were random then the player would at one point have to be directly told a number for Rupert, which would have been extremely conspicuous since he's a non-speaking character. It's also logical in the story that the agent numbers things in a consistent order (at least, before he realised the K thing) rather than assigning them randomly. And as other comments say, if the number system stays, K has to stay, unless you're willing to number her 1.5.
I kind of agree on the thunderclap - to me, rolling thunder isn't quite the same as a thunderclap. Personally, I would've liked a bit more of a hint to Wintercote specifically, e.g if Victoria had said "We'll drive to Wintercote, it's only 10km away" and then scene 25 said "thunder can be heard about 10km away". Distant could mean absolutely anywhere, and the only real clue to Katherine is the phone call.
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What is rolling thunder, if not a thunderclap heard from a distant location?
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The key word is "clap", which evokes the idea of a short, loud burst of sound. Rolling thunder is quieter but longer - it takes time for a sound to be "rolling".
P.S I didn't know this before writing this, but there are actually defined lengths and pitches to classify different types of thunder, which is neat! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder#Types
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For me, "rolling thunder" implies a longer, more stretched out low rumbling sound. Not the sharp whip crack of a thunderclap. It's also heavily implied that the death sounds in the game are not actual thunderclaps, they just sound similar. So they are not originating from a storm or anything. The rolling thunder line is much more ambiguous and could be read as bad weather approaching.
Good catch about 00-audio-recovery coming from 01-ST-12. It can't be a clue to itself. oops
As for the numbering system, I was suggesting to make the order random, the numbers should still be 1 to 12.
I'll rot13 my spoilers from here on out because it's easier than dots.
Lrf, ohg vs gur znva ryrira jrer ahzorerq 1-11 ohg jvgubhg qrngu beqre, lbh pbhyq ernfbanoyl unir Ehcreg nf 0 be 12 - gurer'q abg or n tbbq jnl bs xabjvat juvpu jvgubhg gur ntrag gryyvat lbh. (Znlor rira 13, vs Xngurevar vf 12).
Crefbanyyl, V guvax gur bayl jnl gb unir n enaqbzvfrq beqre naq unir Ehcreg fgvyy or fbyinoyr vf unir Ehcreg nf 12 (ohg arire fgngrq), naq Xngurevar nf 13. Bapr gur cynlre frrf Xngurevar sbe gur svefg gvzr, gurl'q xabj bs punenpgref 1-11 naq 13 jvgu n pbafcvphbhf tnc vzcylvat fbzrbar unf orra ynoryrq 12, urapr ehyvat bhg 0.
Hey, does anyone know why not all the files I have already discovered appear in the list? I can only see them when I use the 'find' command with a word that is in that file.
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The files are divided into acts. You supply a numeric parameter to the list command to view each act's files.
This is explained in the 00-act-structure document.
What I meant is that when I type "list" to see the files I've already read, not all of them appear there.
And isn't that because the "missing" files belong in another act? Try "list 2" for example.
Ohh I got it now thanks
Very neat, was hoping for a bit more of a conclusion but still very much enjoyed it.
OMG. What an amazing mystery! I loved every bit of it despite not being able to completely piece everything together without the help of the comments. Sadly, I do have one FINAL please for help. Please skip down below to the question ONLY if you have completed the game.
*SPOILERS START HERE*
I have 95 files and I am desperate to find the last one. I assume it has to be a file in 00 because Annie at one points mentions there were 4 bodies on the first day. Unfortunately, I am totally clueless as to who the person is and where they could be located. I do have the scene with Kathering at WI, John in the EN so I should have most of it. As a small aside, am I meant to learn anything more about the @ person? I know very little other than the descriptions they give in the story about the characters or the name in the "From" section of our email. Thank you in advance for your help.
PS. Files 21-LI-1-2-4 and 23-CH-1-2 have a (1) next to them. The former is why I assumed there was a fourth body.
You're missing the first body discovered, who wasn't actually dead yet at the time John arrived. If you think about the characters missing and the cues for death times you can probably figure out who it is and when they died.
It could be that I am just mentally exhausted, but any chance you could give me a slightly bigger push. I guess I am having trouble accounting for a few things.
*Spoilers below so please do not expand this reply unless you are comfortable with spoilers!*
Is there in fact 13 people? If so, does this last person have a number or a letter as in the name of another person? Are they a male or a female? And I failed to mention this but I do not in fact have a 00 scene. The instructions state Act I goes from 00 to X number although I had always assumed there was an 00 fairly early on. I think those things could really help me.
This is a bit of an aside but I do hope the developer creates a Discord or something for any future games. I feel awful about posting spoilers in the comments despite the warning, and while I have tried my best to spoil as little as possible, I would feel a lot better having a space where I could ask more pointed questions, especially in the replies. Also, it would be pretty fun to be able to talk to others about their theories and other thoughts at length because it's really hard to do that here in the comments.
There is no 00 scene. The 00 files never have the scene-place-character structure, they're usually information or messages directly from the agent. It is (probably) not an 00 file you missed, they're all explicitly signposted in other files and you could just double check you didn't skip over one by using "find 00".
There are 97 files in total, so you are missing 2.
To help more: every character appears once in every scene in which they are alive. For example, if you check the titles of the 04- files, you should find all the numbers 1 to 11 there. You explicitly meet almost all the characters very early on, being Persons 1 to 11.
This rule alone should be nearly enough to help you work out every file you are missing except two of them. One of the files it can't find, 25-WI-K, you already found, so I think one of the files you've missed is an ordinary file you can probably find by the process of elimination of just checking you can find every living person in every scene. Is anyone unaccounted for at any time frame?
The other file that rule can't find requires a little bit of inference from you. Here's some gentle clues which get progressively more pushing:
1. What signifies the death of a character?
2. Are there any of these signals you've found which don't seem to correspond with a death?
3. When did Rupert die?
4. Where did Rupert die?
5. What is the pattern that associates characters with number codes?
=====ACTUAL ANSWER=====
01-ST-12 is easily missed. It's the only file in which Rupert appears alive. The thunderclap for this happens very early on, in 01-QU-1-11, probably the first file you read. Note that in 01-QU-1-11, Harry Thornton knows who Rupert is for the first half of the scene ("worked for him all my life"), which means Rupert isn't dead yet. The thunderclap then happens halfway through, and Harry Thornton then says Mr Galley... now meaning Edmund.
You also get a clue in 01-LI-3-5, where Oswald and Martha are talking about Rupert in the first half of the scene, saying he just left, until midway through the scene there's the thunderclap.
You'll almost certainly have worked out that character numbers correspond to the order in which they die. Since Harry Thornton is 11, Rupert must be 12. You also know he died in the Study, again from very early on.
Thank you so much for you super detailed response. I will do the usual spoilers warning! Spoilers from this point on!
Hilariously, I found Rupert a bit earlier on actually. I didn't mention him in the original comment because it didn't occur to me he would be hard to find. I did in fact use the file with Oswald and Martha talking to help me locate Rupert. Also, I have a 9 page Google doc with every single scene and lengthy notes summarizing each scene. In addition to that, I also created 4 charts, one for each act, in which I filled in every character and their location for each time code. That helped immensely even if it took a lot of time.
Huh. Now I am stumped. I must be missing something else because I recounted the bodies and I came up with 13. 1-11 then Rupert and finally Katherine. A small note that the death of 1 occurred in time code 26 and at the entrance. Are those all the bodies? One of the notes from @ said it was just the 13, but now I am not sure. I just am at a lost as to what I could have missed. I did try to research more on both Eleanor and Amelia but neither sound like they could be the thirteenth body based on their descriptions. Rupert says that Amelia went missing one day but it doesn't sound like she died recently. Eleanor was stated to have died a long time ago by Katherine as well, a fact which Oswald also confirms. The drawings Oswald shows Annie also show three children: Oswald, Elanor and Rupert, who Oswald does not recognize. So yeah. I will try to do a search of 00 notes since I did delete my first game due to my assumption I had a bug. As a result, I did have to go back and try to "refind" some of the 00 files.
If it helps any, these are the two files that have a (1) next to them: 21-LI-1-2-4 and 23-CH-1-2. Again, I really appreciate the response as I can at least stop obsessing over trying to find anybody at 00.
Spoilers etc.
If you have 01-ST-12 and 25-WI-K, you have both the unusual files. Every other file is just going to need to be found by figuring which person in 1 to 11 you're missing at what time bearing in mind each person appears exactly once in each scene for which they are alive, or possibly by using "find 00" to make sure you input all the 00 files when they were told to you. You've not missed any bodies from the original chain - 2 to 12 and K from the thunderclap, and 1 by suicide. I suppose Amelia would be 13 by the game's convention but there is no scene featuring her and it is implied she died long before present events.
I'm not sure what file links 21-LI-1-2-4 and 23-CH-1-2 as I probably made it a different route there. I'd guess a 22 scene, maybe? Did you get 22-LI-1?
If you get absolutely stuck I can just list out all the files but that's a last resort!
Are we supposed to figure out the agent's name? Or is that an easter egg or something?
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His name was Richard Longley. RIP
Thank you very much for this amazing game. It had me absolutely hooked!
This game has absolutely consumed me for the last two days and I love it! I've shared it with so many people, I feel like I've properly infected them. Discovering the different files was so rewarding - I made a full spreadsheet to keep track of who was where, when. And realizing the connections and what was going on what such a great experience. That ending dropped like the best kind of hammer.
Thanks for such a great game! It gets the wheels turning and makes me want to make something of my own.
I just wish I knew if there was an answer to the hangman game - or (spoilers below)
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Current theory is that the animal in hangman was the agent/officer's name, and so it's forgotten and gone.
That or it's just a thematic connection to the fact that the mystery is 'unsolvable' :)
I made an account just to share this: for everyone curious about the hangman game, I cracked how to play it! Type "hangman" before your letter guess. So if you wanted to guess the letter e, type "hangman e".
No spoilers as I am still early on, but what is the command to see the full list of files? I am only able to see a list for the very early part of the files or let's say 18 out of 24. It's making it hard for me to progress as I can't see how many "clues" I might be missing and it also requires me to keep a written tally of files for reference. I would really appreciate any guidance here.
each act is in a different list, so search "list 1," "list 2," etc!
Thank you!! Thank you!!! I was taking notes in a separate notepad and then having to do a lot of copying and pasting. Seriously. Thank you!!!
Also thank you. I found the document that explains but how somehow missed it since I hadn't yet found it. I have been taking a lot of notes both digitally and on paper so it is taking me awhile to get through the game since I pause every so often to figure who is where and etc. For whatever reason though, my head immediately jumped to maybe having a bug and ended up deleting every save then deleting all my cookies and history to restart the game. Lol! That's why I posted yesterday only to find out an hour or two after your helpful comment that it was explained in game.
Spoilers below:
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This was a really well-crafted game, well done. The writing was punchy and the central hook of the deaths was compelling. Once you figure out the premise, probably at some point in Act Two, there's a sudden huge momentum and all the pieces fall into place, and it was very satisfying to revisit some older entries and recontextualise them.
There was one odd plot point I didn't quite get. It seemed like the main "haunting" was going to come from something relating to Oswald and Rupert's sister, iirc called Eleanor. Instead, she's remembered perfectly well to the end, and that whole thread of information seemed at best a red herring. It's odd that a character you get no real information on, Amelia, is "patient zero", and odd that Rupert remembers her only after years, with no context to who she was or why the player should care about her. Was there some chain before Amelia or was she the first? Why her? Is Dvorak's Humoresque a particular clue or joke? It was odd for Oswald to talk about ghosts getting into Martha and so on - the actual curse appears entirely unrelated to the house and just ended up with the Galleys by chance.
I'm not sure I understood John's motivations at the end. Initially I wanted to think he'd solved the case after talking to Annie at the Chapel, and when he realised the thunderclap had claimed Katherine, committed suicide to stop the chain spreading further by him accidentally remembering Katherine in future. On re-reading, I think this was an overly optimistic assessment - John has no idea whether Katherine had any further family (indeed, he couldn't possibly know, he would have forgotten everything about her...), and it seems likely he committed suicide thinking he'd had a mental breakdown and killed a house full of people or something similar.
I also never solved the hangman - it seems to reject every letter of the alphabet. Does it not have a solution?
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Eleanor was just a red herring. The curse had nothing to do with her death.
Unclear if Amelia was the start of the chain (I suspect not). Maybe the reason for Rupert suddenly remembering her is the music. It does seem to hint that the piano is (almost) playing every time someone remembers a dead person.
John's suicide is unclear to me as well. Your theory about him having a mental breakdown is as good as any, but it's not very satisfying.
The hangman game has no solution. It ignores any guesses you make. Not sure what the meaning of it is. Seems pretty out of place.
It's a shame we seem to agree Eleanor was a red herring, she was a more interesting plot point than the true solution, Amelia.
Also baffled as to the inclusion of the hangman game then - I wasted a fair bit of time trying to brute force it on the basic principle it wouldn't be included if it wasn't relevant!
Ultimately, two minor quibbles. Game was still excellent.
this was phenomenal! incredibly evocative writing, most of all, but also mechanics that were intuitive enough to grasp that it didn't feel obtuse while also being unfamiliar enough that figuring them out felt satisfying. great work.
I've been thinking the same thing. This game deserves a design overhaul to make it appeal to a broader audience.
The game works fine as it is with just text, but being able to hear the actual audio for example would enhance the experience. I have also compiled some UI ideas that would make gameplay smoother and more visually interesting.
Man I REALLY enjoyed that! I was so genuinely creeped out once I started realizing what was happening to them. I have some ideas on ending but I'm not exactly sure about them... which is honestly fantastic. I love a story that doesn't spell itself out for you. I'll put thoughts past "spoiler dots" though.
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Ok hopefully that's enough. My thoughts are that John figured it out in the end after all. He seems to realize some things during his phone call with K, although he doesn't share them with the readers (rude). Personally, I think he realized that remembering the victims and trying to tell others about them is what caused it to spread, and he realized that K was as doomed as the rest of them sooner or later... so he forced her to say her name while on the phone with him to trigger the curse, so she would never have the chance to spread it to others. Then he went to the attic and waited for the thunderclap to signify that K was dead, confirmed that he had no memory of any of the other victims, and died without triggering the curse so that it ended with him.
Too bad for modern technology though, because now it's able to spread again. Damn you, Alan Thomas!
I don't think it can spread again, or at least not easily. It doesn't seem to be enough to remember simply anyone who died, you have to remember specifically the last victim immediately before yourself - somewhat analogous to It Follows. The officer who died isn't known to you the player, and on reading these files, you know enough not to try jog Alan Thomas' memories. It seems Thomas didn't know the officer particularly well, he was an outsider brought in, and Thomas can't put a name or description to him, so it doesn't seem to have kept going.
Awesome game! It took me a minute to figure out how the scenes were named, but I felt like a genius once it clicked. Oswald ended up being my surprise favorite after getting into his backstory, and the ending hit really hard. The only questions I still have are...
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Who was Amelia West? Not a Galley, going by the name, but she had to have been someone close to Rupert. Maybe his fiancee, and he went on to marry someone else when he forgot her?
Where did this curse even come from? Eleanor's death? If there's any explanation for it, that seems like the most likely one for what happened here, but Oswald and Katherine both remembered her. Also there's the fact that she died young and Amelia was old enough to play piano I assume professionally, and the chain that killed the outside agent is unrelated.
Nice game! The biggest "Aha" moment for me is definitely figuring out the true nature of what's happening, though I did that at about half way through, after that, there's not much mystery about what will happen next, as we all know how the story will end. Still, I enjoyed the writing, as it made the inevitable process painful to read (in a good way).
I love investigative games (like the Roottrees are Dead) so I knew that I would enjoy this game, but it completely blew me away! The story and characters were really well written and truly gave you a 'visual' of what was happening despite being a text-based game. Most of the timeline was fairly easy to figure out, but the wherabouts of some people evaded me for a while so I had to guess where they could possibly be and when through trial and error.
(potential spoilers below)
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It was scary how quickly everything went wrong and how the deaths couldn't be prevented; the fact that that the character numbers indicated who was next to die created a sense of dramatic irony.
Annie was my favourite character by far: I admired that she was intent on trying to figure out what was happening (although it ended up being her undoing) and her attempt to end the chain of deaths was brave.
I felt particularly bad for Victoria and Damian as they were so close to getting away from Galley House and Victoria never got the chance to tell Damian that she was pregnant. It was also heartbreaking that Victoria unknowingly caused her sister's death by providing her with the list of everyone's names as that helped her remember.
John's death still confuses me as he says that he doesn't remember any of them (referring to the other people in Galley House) but still dies. I know he wasn't meant to die as the thunderclap didn't occur for him, but why did he die? Did he take his own life because of his divorce and the fact that he is no longer in contact with his daughter?
The final scene I discovered was Rupert Galley's death, which I believe was caused by him remembering his sister Amelia who had died when Rupert and Oswald were children. They must have lived this long because nobody had remembered her, until Rupert heard the music from the piano which started the chain of events that led to the death of everyone in the story.
I have so much more I could say, but will mention that there are 97 files in total and to check each scene number has an appearance from everyone who is still alive for those who may be struggling.
not sure how many dots i need for an effective spoiler wall
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hopefully this is enough,
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My reading of it was that John killed himself, by jumping from the attic to the entrance out of guilt for "killing" Annie. (or he hangs himself?) The clues are there from "The audio keeps going, though, for an upsettingly long time." when the audio description thing says it usually lasts only 30 seconds after the actual death. So he didn't die instantly like everyone else.
I think you just have to guess with the dots lol
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Yeah I agree that he must have taken his own life, but it is more the reasoning behind it that confuses me. It suggests that he doesn't even remember Annie (or anyone else) which is why he is excluded from the curse, so he might not remember the whole situation with Annie in the Chapel, and therefore not remember his guilt. The invitation from Rupert Galley suggests that John was having a particularly rough time following his divorce which is what led me to think that maybe his death was due to that.
It completely went over my head that the audio going on for so long meant that it took a long time for him to die - he must have still been alive after jumping from the attic but bled out (or succumbed to his injuries) at the entrance where he landed.
Very fun! The final mystery was pretty tough but it was enjoyable throughout.
Just played through the game and absolutely loved it! The mechanic was neat, and figuring out what was going on was a lot of fun.
Still have a few questions unanswered (encoded in rot13 to prevent spoilers):
V haqrefgnaq gur flzcgbzf bs orvat 'hc arkg', ohg abg jung pubbfrf jub vf hc arkg. V qba'g frr nal cnggrea gb vg ng nyy. Vf vg whfg "fbzrbar gurl xabj"?
Nyfb, ab pyhr jung'f hc jvgu gur unatzna tnzr - V pbhyqa'g trg nalguvat bhg bs vg.
This was a really fun game! I really liked the logic and the story was properly spooky. Would love to see something in a similar vein in the future.
I believe I've finished the game (I got the 'final note').
I got a few questions (spoilers bellow for anyone reading this!!)
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I understand the basic phenomena of a thunderclap making someone die, and being forgotten about. The next person who remembers them ends up dead.
What is the cause? Or is it just a big mystery? Clearly it has nothing to do with the Galley house if Katherine died in her own home. The note-writer even finds it funny they blame it on ghosts. WELL WHAT DO WE BLAME IT ON!!
What was Annie trying to accomplish? Was she trying to end herself before the curse could? It seems the note taker is happy she tried it, so we don't have to try it ourselves. So I guess he's saying she tried the solution of killing the next cursed person but it didn't work out.
Does Dvorak's Humoresque relate to the mystery at all or is it just a fun song you included?
The final note lists almost everyone's names...except for John's. Oversight or does he survive?
Finally, from what I understand, after the Galley incident the same thing happens at...whatever company we're working for. The final death is the agent whose memos we're reading. From what I understand, the people who can't learn their names (such as Alan) are probably close to them. So if they remembered them, they would die. This is probably why the agent is glad to die, since he's so removed. Did I get it right?
Lastly...what's the hangman answer.
Wow! Very impressive!
I don't want to give too much away, obviously, but it sounds like you've pretty much figured almost everything out!
I will say that Dvorak's Humoresque does play a part in the story, but there's a very subtle clue to it hidden at the very end of the game... (It's not too important though.)
And there's a good reason John's name isn't mentioned at the end! (After all, he's a bit different from the others...)
(Also, I'm super impressed you got the final puzzle, and thanks for giving the hints to Aprot!)
Then did John uuuh jumps off? He says he doesn't remember anyone. Maybe he isn't affected by the curse or he died before he could remember anyone, ending it?
I thought maybe Dvorak's Humoresques was haunted and anyone who listened to it dies. But that can't be true since John's listened to it as well. Not sure how else Dvorak Humoresques is related other than Amelia's playing it made Rupert remember her.
I'm still a bit unsatisfied without knowing all the answers but it was a good game and I'm glad I played it. When ACT 2 finally explained what was happening it was a big "ooooh" moment.
Regarding John's scene at the end:
00-audio-recovery says that the audio is collected from dead bodies. Therefore, John definitely died as he was the only possible source for the audio.
He probably dies from the (gunshot?) wound inflicted on him in 23-CH-1-2, independently of the "curse".
As for what Annie was trying to accomplish, I think the intention was to toaster bath the both of them, as to eliminate any remaining witnesses/possibility of the curse spreading. But this interpretation goes against the fact that she asked John to tell her mother??? So maybe she didn't really figure out the whole picture.
I don't think Annie shot John, I think it wouldve been very clear if this had happened. Given the structure of the house and the sequence of events, it makes more sense to me that John simply jumped out the Attic window and landed on the Entrance pavement, killing himself (out of dread, survivor's guilt, or whatnot).
I believe what Annie was thinking was that the curse spreads when they die by the curse via the "thunderclap", so if she kills herself before that occurs then the curse can no longer spread. For one reason or another (perhaps she was just too late, or perhaps this only makes the curse proceed), this didn't really work.
A tiny thing about the hangman thing, that youtube video leads to a piece of piano music, and at the beginning you can see the title. On that piece of cardboard it says FOXTROT. that is 7 letters, which is the amount of blanks, and fits with the "thinking of an animal" theme. BUT IT DOESNT WORK. so dissapointing, I thought i was so smart :"(
Hehe tiny.
I have tried every letter of the alphabet and it's wrong. I tried a few numbers and symbols and it didn't react
Hihi!
I am stuck on a few parts, those being (SPOILERS!):
- Finding number thirteen death scene, i know her name, just not the location.
- The relevance of scene 10-MA-5-6, there's still a gray number next to it.
- Finding the suspicous death and the hidden scene mentioned at 26.
- That weird hangman game.
Can you help?
Also, lovely game! I really enjoyed figuring all of this out, you really undersell it in the description.
Especially figuring out who was where when was really fun, and the twist was fun to discover to of course.
Hi! Glad you enjoyed it!
It's a little tricky figuring out exactly what you're missing, but I'll try to give some clues... (SPOILERS!)
Let me know if that's too vague or if I've misunderstood where you're at. I've tried to make the final puzzle as clear as I could, but it's still a lot to pull together in one go... In fact, the who, the where and the when are all pretty tricky to figure out! So let me know if anything doesn't make sense.
But thanks for your comment! It's lovely to know other people have enjoyed the game!
Got the tinniest bit further!
I have found the missing grey number scene i mentioned, it was #6 searching #4's room before #4 enters (As an aside, I do think I have every scene, except the hidden one)
If I am not mistaken #13's name is Amelia West and dies during timeframe 01 during the thunderclap before the second thunderclap? It is unclear if there is 1 (so just Rupert) or 2 (which would mean Amelia and then Rupert)
If I had to choose a suspicous death, I guess it would be the last one. In scene 26 a loud thud is heard, but no thunder (possibly meaning annie's loophole worked?)
Also, is the hangman game like a bonus thing, if so, what commands do you use?
This last one is a real headscratcher! But to summarise, in my mind the hidden scenen is the death of #13 (Amelia West) in a location (?) during 01
Also I forgot to mention, but I also loved figuring the whole curse out, the way you've written that was so good. First you think someone sent a fake invitation, then you think eddie might have been the culprit.
OMG and sorry for ranting but I jumped in glee when I noticed the deaths happen in order of the numbers, LOVE!
PS: Maybe you can take this whole convo as inspiration for your next game, our back and forth looks like deranged to an outsider.
Hi Aprot! I just discovered the 13th death so I'll write a few clues to help you out!
I don't think we can spoil so read bellow at your own risk! I'll space things out for you
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1- You're mistaken about the 13th victim's identity. Ruppert says it's been years since she heard Amelia play, and that she disappeared "one day". So we can assume she's not present today.
2- You're correct about the suspicious death
3- The reason that death is suspicious, is that we hear a thunder, but nobody dies. John is still alive.
4- This means someone has died instead of John.
5- Instead of numbers (like John being 1) you search this person through a letter. (such as 04-KI-Z if that person was in the kitchen at 04).
6- This person has to be alive after Annie and die before John.
7- Searchable locations are always in bold. Before John dies, a thunder is heard "far away". This didn't happen with other thunders.
8- When someone dies, everyone forgets them. Only later, the next person to die remembers them.
9- John never remembered Annie. Who did?
-This is the last clue! Below is the asnwer-
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10- Search 25-WI-K
The person that dies is Katherine (the woman on the other side of the phone). Even though she is Annie's and Victoria's mother, she only mentions Annie (because she already forgot about vic). Later on, after Annie dies, she calls again. At first she seems confused about who Annie is, then she remembers it's her daughter. She still doesn't remember about Vic. This means she's the next person to die.
The thunder is far away because it happens at Wintercote and not at the Galley manor.
Thanks for the help Tinynanami, I would've never guessed!
Although I did think it might've something to do with Wintercot, I'd never linked it up with Katherine.
You explained really well why it wasn't Amelia West, although that whole clue did sent me of the wrong path of trying to find a death in the far past (also because of the convo in the kitchen about that death.)
If you're curious, my opinion about the suicide of Annie is that it actually made sense to me. Not that I'm the writer or anything, but my interpretation was that she was trying to find a loophole. If the curse dictates that there's a thunderclap before the death of the chosen person, her reasoning might've been that breaking that rule (dying before the thunderclap) could maybe break the curse. So that would be my explanation.
Also I think the story wroks better without an explanation. It's the same with the original Groundhog Day film. It works better unexplained, makes it much eerier I think. Although I do get your frustration. The story has a bit of an Agatha Christie vibe, so the absense of a reveal does annoy me a little bit to, although the death of Katherine fills that roll a bit.
Either way, that's my two cents. My compliments for figuring out the last death, top noth detectivework!
Ps: what were your theories on that hangman game? It's a 7 letter word but it says 12, so i thought there might've been a mention of an animal at timestamp 12?
Hope you enjoyed my ramblings <3
Hi!
I think Tinynanami has already done a great job giving a series of hints (better than I did anyway), so hopefully that helps. (But don't read them all at once!)
I'll just say though, thanks so much for your comments! It's so useful to know how other people interpreted different things, and it will definitely help with the next game... (Like, I think you're very justified in being suspicious of Annie's death, which I didn't really intend! Her death definitely makes things more confusing than I'd realised...)
Really glad you enjoyed it though. Good luck finishing it!
(Also, sorry this reply is a bit late, I didn't see the notification)
No worries, Tinynanami's comment was really helpful!
To be honest the most confusing part for me was finding that last scene, because i thought it was something relating to the past (It comes up pretty often in the story actually)
I would've not guessed K because she's a really small character. It didn't even cross my mind honestly (especially because she's not given a number but a letter, so that removes her even more)
Either way, I'd love to see your next game! If it's anything like this Sign. Me. Up!
Ps: just one more thing about that hangman thing, is that even something we could/should try to solve?
I'm guessing the hangman game is a red herring. There's no answer for it.
To the author: hats off. What a fantastic story.