Look at the pattern of the filenames. Scene 1 is out by QUail Rd and has persons 1 and 11 in it; scene 2 is in the ENtranceway and has persons 1, 6, 7, and 10 . . .
This game was incredible! The pacing is excellent and the mechanics are well done. I had some trouble with the ending puzzle but I still loved it. Thank you for making it!
I learned of this game from the Type Help fanclub in the Roottrees are Dead discord server, and it was fantastic! The discovery mechanic was brilliant for building on my understanding of the story and characters to give me continued hits of satisfying deduction, and the mystery was exceptionally executed - the super eerie mystery of what's going on and all the individual question marks that get resolved later on. Compared to all the other games I've played in the deduction genre, this had the best pacing and I found the end truly thrilling.
Sorry to go on but I really enjoyed the game, thanks for making and sharing it! It really makes me want to make my own game in the genre, though I can't begin to imagine how you constructed this so impeccably!
With the minor updates + UI navigation added, this game is a 10 out of 10 for me. I disagree with the other comment about improving this game with audio and images. This was perfect as is, a text-based game (especially with the search feature allowing you track certain objects and sounds across different scenes).
I cannot imagine how clever you have to be to design this story and the pace it unfolds at. Took me several days to complete. I loved going back to the earliest scenes and realizing how many details were hidden in plain sight. Really incredible game.
Heeding the warning about the comments being full of spoilers, I did not look at anything else about this game and got to the end in about 3 evenings! (97, but the comments clued me in and I went back for 98.) I thought the final puzzle was the perfect level of trickiness, then I read all the comments complaining about it, and THEN I realized an update to make the final puzzle easier had been uploaded as I was still playing the cached older version. Bit of a bummer, but I now have bragging rights that I solved the tougher version. 🤭 Absolutely amazing game!
Yeah, everything that I was slightly hung up on is all tied up nicely, now, and very well done. The "find" trick to look at all of the files has been fixed, but adding the arrow to just flip between acts instead of having to type a new command each time is a simple solution. The message that appears after "finishing" the hangman game makes it clearer that losing is the intended outcome without sacrificing the impact of it or making the implication too obvious. The final message from Alan and note are wonderful- beyond just having a proper ending now, I love the overall tone. Plus, the music linked in Alan's message fit perfectly as a sort of credits theme, without having the game itself contain any audio- I also ended up sorta doing this with the main game, after the Humoresques were mentioned early on and I played the whole thing just listening to Dvorak in the background lol, worked very nicely for me.
would anyone be able to lend me a hand? I have 96 files and have one (1) left, next to 10-MA, even though i've found everyone in every time stamp including (rot13) gur gjb frperg qrnguf so I have absolutely no idea what that could possibly be pointing to
I had that and for my playthrough it was because I'd forgotten to find where one of the people in that room went next for 11 and hadn't realised it. Hope you work it out
alas, that isn't it but thank you. Im going to go triple check that i havent missed anyone, but i used the title feature to keep track of who i was missing in each time stamp and replaced it with a star when there was no one left to find so im pretty sure ive got it all
between it reappearing for you and the fact that i just finished making a chart of who was in what room at what time and came up with no blanks, it's possible it might be a bug
Can you triple check for me scene 12? I've seen someone else also get stuck in this position, and that was the one they were missing. (You should have two scenes for 12.)
Honestly, kind of a flaw in the game that it's so easy to miss that and get stuck. It's hard to reference anywhere else though...
(Obviously if this still turns out to be a bug, let me know!)
The game just got updated. These are the textual additions I've noticed, for anyone who's already finished the previous version: (SPOILER WARNING)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
00-audio-recovery: [@] I have a theory I want to test. (Although, it's a shame this one won't fit into my body numbering system...)
16-DI-5-7: [@] Edit: I think I've found the final clue I was looking for! If I'm right, I might be able to test my theory. Let's just hope they kept the body...
24-DI-1: [@] Edit: I think I've spotted the pattern. I can't believe I didn't notice this originally... I need to test a theory.
25-AT-1: [1 John Hobbes] I don't even remember pulling the trigger...
25-AT-1: [@] Edit: rolling thunder? It's not quite a 'thunderclap' sound, but I think that's just because it's further away than the others... Is there something else I'm missing?
There's also an ending screen after reading the final note and a message after 'finishing' the hangman game, which make the meaning of the hangman game clearer.
oh, i found THE END! spoilers far below this useful navigation tip/dev suggestion
One comment/suggestion thing that took me way too long to do since I didn't see a reason to actually do immediately, is that if you follow @'s lead use a new command you learn partway through the game involving the words "IGNORANCE" "CONFUSION" etc... (or whatever you like, just use the command given in that page), you get arrows on the list pages to go between them rather than typing so much.
It might be nice if it automatically set the names as those on getting the relevant page? Or more strongly wording "Please do this to make navigation easier" in-game
A few THE END and a few spoily questions, probably unanswerable
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
To see THE END i think the trigger was
get all 58 scenes
properly name @
and then (rot13)
erivfvg unatzna
speculation below about further secrets involving that or just it in general
Nyfb V'z phevbhf vs V unqa'g svyyrq vg bhg naq svyyrq vg va jvgu gur ntrag'f anzr fvapr uvf svefg naq ynfg anzr zngpu gur ahzore bs oynaxf, naq gur ahzore bs thrffrf zngpu gur nzbhag bs yrggref va obgu pbzovarq vs fbzrguvat qvssrerag zvtug unir unccrarq. Gevrq cevingr jvaqbjvat n serfu fnir ohg whfg chggvat va gur yrggref gura qbrfa'g qb nalguvat qvssrerag sebz enaqbz yrggref jvgubhg gur bgure fprarf tbggra naq V qba'g srry yvxr glcvat rirelguvat onpx va.
-
general postgame speculation
The start text says that one person was identified, wonder who that is? I guess martha's family, Tony Dauer sr, and John's wife/kid might be able to somehow identify them? Though that seems like it would memetically erase them too, so that's interesting, though none of them seem to match up to the names in the final note file.
I'm also curious if John is supposed to have known Amelia as well, since he's a piano salesman in town, and/or how recently amelia was meme-urdered to the start of the story, if it was actually a long time ago or just confusion.
The only person who got identified was John because he was not part of the chain, so he wasn't forgotten. Everyone else was erased from memory so they remained unidentified.
(Although, how this would work in reality is quite unclear since physical evidence like photos or dental records does not get erased, so the police should be able to find a match after some research... They just won't find anyone remembering them, but they should have been able to put a name to the bodies.)
I wish the 'introduction' could be seen again later. It helps show a bit why the lack of records may be more likely... the time period the game takes place in may be of relevance!
fantastic stuff, very strong deduce-em-up. going in, I was worried I'd have trouble following things without a visual element, but the game's designed in such a way that, with the help of a handy notepad document on my end, I only had trouble keeping up where the game wanted me to be baffled!
there are a few flaws, of course. it has the same issue as Roottrees where, at the very end, you'll probably be picking through stuff you've already reviewed with a fine-toothed comb, looking for stuff that you know is there while trying to figure out how to find it, which I personally find quite tedious. the character voices could use a little more differentiation, as well - though, this is something that I only really noticed while in that same endgame rereading home stretch
nevertheless, I'm blown away with what you managed to accomplish with the tools at hand, and a bit boggled that you put it up for absolutely free. excellent work! inspiring stuff
Really loved this, well done deduction-based mystery games like Obra Dinn, Golden Idol, etc. are some of my favorites, and this is absolutely going up there as one I'll rec to other fans of this kind of game. Just got fully into it and tore through it 100% (as far as I can tell) over a whole evening & night. You got me to get out a pencil and paper and write up & fill out a handmade chart, which always makes me love a game even more.
SPOILERS, hoping I've put enough periods here
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Naming the agent's @ symbol as the correct real name could have been a perfect opportunity for an absolutely evil scare- I fully respect the decision to not do that lmao, even if a part of me knows I would have loved it. Like, figuring out his name was basically the very last thing I did when 100%'ing the game which meant I had some time to chew over the whole story & how the curse worked etc by that point, and after several hours of silent purely text gameplay, a well done scare may well have killed me there. I recognize it's best the way it is, though :P
Also, I'm seeing some frustration over the 13th death, the Wintercote one. IMO I think a small change that could make that a bit clearer is changing the words 'rolling thunder' to 'distant thunderclap'- iirc 'thunderclap' is the word used fairly often to refer to the thunder signifying a character's death, or at least it's the one I remember most, so just keeping up with the pattern might make that clue easier to spot. Still loved that puzzle, & the implication (as I read it) that John figured out how the curse worked, and intentionally made Katherine remember her daughter then waited for confirmation of her death in order to leave himself as the last person standing, remembering nobody, and attempted to have the curse die with him. Clearly didn't work, which makes his death mirror Annie's in a wonderfully tragic way.
This was such a joy to play through! Or I guess really sad. Same vibes with Obra Dinn where it's very tragic to know what's going to happen to someone. But really fun! Managed to suss my way right to the end and used some guiding words from the comments to find a body and an agent note, ifykyk. Everything else I worked out myself over the course of 2 evenings, which really gave me the chance to go through each person's route individually and feel bad for them. If someone ever manages to get 15 odd people to do a fully voiced read through of this I'd dig it.
More spoilery rambles under the dots
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I never used the notes feature and also never really got the Act renaming aspect, though I appreciated the list pages on account of not having to scroll so much.
Hangman really got me desperate enough to google seven lettered animals, to which the AI suggested me a bunch that weren't 7 letters lol. I interpreted the head being the same @ that the Agent uses for their lines being a metaphor for his position, and perhaps ours too, though logically strange he'd code a game you can't even win.
I will say though, I'm still not sure how one would find the agent's dream note in a normal fashion, and how it connects with his name, though the song's nice.
I think it is good that there's no list of rooms to help keep us as puzzled as the agent likely was when putting the audio narratives together, but I wouldn't have minded some kind of 00 note in the 2nd half of the game to allow me to run through them all when trying to remember which rooms to try to fill in gaps.
Anyway, that's my thoughts. Thanks for making this gem!
OH my god I could just kiss you! I love these kinds of games, and you're definitely living up to your inspirations you've listed!
Now the spoilery part .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1. I don't know if I'm done. I found all the deaths, including K, and got the second email titled "Final", but I have 97 documents, instead of 98 like some other people do.
I think K puzzle was just right, no reason to make it any simpler btw.
2. I didn't get why I had to name acts, but that's ok, didn't use it anyway, instead searched for "" match, which listed all the docs very nicely grouped by scene.
3. Why does Oswald say you'd be punished for forgetting, while in reality you got punished for the opposite: for remembering them? Was there a pattern to who remembered whom?
The 98th document is hard to find and might be more of an easter egg and is not really required to "solve" the case. There are instructions on how to locate it in other comments.
Found what is possibly a bug? I found the Act II opener from Scene 07, but it's not appearing on my list. I can still access it by typing it in manually, and it lets me title the scene, but there's just black space after Scene 06. Is this a glitch, or a missed flag that I somehow got around? Or did I not complete something to unlock it?
Edit: Looks like I missed a scene explaining the Act feature, my bad!
I am soooo close to the end (I think) but I just can't figure out what exactly I'm supposed to do. I've found 95 files so far, and I have a filled-in timeline for characters 1 through 12, from time codes 01 through 26. I figure there's something I need to do with Wintercote (WI) because it's a bold location name... but I can't figure out what characters it is meant to involve or what time code I need to put. If it helps, the only scenes that have any reference points are 00-audio-recovery and 26-EN-1. Not sure what other information would be relevant for me to provide but yeah. Don't tell me outright what to do, just a nudge.. like a scene to stare at until I get that eureka moment lol
This is where I (and many others too, it seems) got stuck as well. This was my one complaint about this game; that the clues to solve this were too vague. Even if you think you have the location code, you still need the name(s) and the timeslot to find that last scene. (I discussed this problem and some suggestions to fix it in my review earlier in these comments. Feel free to read that once you have solved it.)
Since you only want a small nudge to the solution, I'll tell you the scene that imho fails at giving the hint to the final scene is:
Thank you very much, I was able to figure it out. I was so sure I tried that combination of codes before, but clearly the sleep deprivation was getting to me haha. Sebz ernqvat bgure pbzzragf, V frr gung gurer vf na rira zber frperg 00-qernz svyr. Ubj ner lbh zrnag gb svaq gung va tnzrcynl?
"Wbua" qvrf ol unatvat uvzfrys sebz gur oryy chyy va gur nggvp. V guvax gur unatzna tnzr vf n ersrerapr gb guvf, naq cbffvoyl gb @'f vagragvba gb nyfb pbzzvg fhvpvqr gb oernx gur punva.
Wbua whzcrq bhg gur nggvp jvaqbj bagb gur sebag fgrcf (nf ersreraprq jnl onpx va gur vageb), ohg V guvax lbh anvyrq vg jvgu gur frpbaq unys, be ng yrnfg gung vg'f n ersrerapr gb @ orvat "ba gur tnyybjf" rira vs whfg njnvgvat qrngu cnffviryl.
If there is one suggestion I would really make... Having completed everything as far as I know... introduced the game to my daughter. Sat with her as she started, and read the Intro again. Was wild to see some of the details in the intro now knowing everything.
I feel like being able to access the Intro again at any point may be helpful for people to get a sense of how well thought of everything was in the end.
fantastic game. found 98 files. are there more to find? my only complaint echoes others: it would be useful to have a more definitive way of knowing when you've located everything. been telling everyone i know to play this since many of my friends are hungry for true mind-bending puzzle games. thank you for making this.
That was an excellent game, the story is mysterious then absolutely spine-chilling!
I do have a remark about the last puzzle though ; as others have said, it's a brutal step in difficulty, even if the logic required is completely sound and achievable. The difficulty is fine in itself, it's just that most of the game does not require you to approach it with this kind of logic. After understanding the filename pattern, all you have to do is figure out who goes where and when, and piece the timeline together. Finding the last hidden scenes requires taking a big step back and change your way of thinking.
That last puzzle is great by itself, but it could be made more approachable by ramping up the difficulty a little in the last acts, so that the player understands what kind of logic the game expects from them.
After reaching the end of the narrative, and it becoming obvious there was '1 more' to find, I thought it was fairly obvious what to do. After that, realizing there was '1 more' still... yeah I was stumped. But then the next morning, while driving the car, it suddenly came to me to try out something out of the box, couldn't wait to get in front of a computer to try it out... and it worked...
I think making it more obvious would be a detriment to being able to figure out something more out of the box like this. Maybe, if one minor change was made... it would be to make the words 'rolling thunder' to 'rolling thunderclap'. But honestly that wasn't part of what made me think of what to do.
I agree, the puzzle is very fine as it is, I wouldn't make it more obvious. My remark has to do with how sharp a turn it takes from the rest of the game. After act 2, the game almost only require you to think about following the characters from one room to the other. Only the very end have you think about how the curse really works. I do prefer this kind of logic and I wouldn't want it to be easier, but it's pretty unsettling when a game require you to change your way of thinking out of the blue.
That's why I think a few easier puzzles that lead you to think about the deeper narrative instead of just the character movements would make the ending a lot less frustrating. Without making the last puzzle easier. You can even make it harder as long as the player knows that the game's logic runs deeper that "follow the characters to next or previous scene".
I had to check some of the comments to figure out what the game expected me to do. Admittedly, I think I could have found it on my own after a while, but it was late and I didn't want to experience the epilogue separately from the ending. If I had known of the sudden increase in difficulty I would have paused to figure it out by myself. I was convinced I had missed an obvious clue or that the game was being unfair, not that I had to take such a big step back to consider what was already in front of me.
A beautiful game. I had a hard time putting it down! One ever-so-slightly-spoilerish bug I found:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
When using the "title" command after using a "find" command, the find page resets the search term to something empty, as in "Showing search results for "" in local files...". (I was using the title command to title the timestamps where a certain event happened, so I ended having to run the find command again after each title command.)
Hi! I'm pretty stuck at this point for several days. I've managed to get into Act II, and have a few 07 and 08 entries, but now I'm completely stuck. There's a few entries still missing for Act I, but overall, I can't really find any thread to move onto next. Any suggestions? Or is there a walkthrough published yet? I'm enjoying it, but it's a TAD tedious and I'm enjoying the mystery enough that I'd be fine just bypassing some of the more esoteric deductions to just know the story.
With the help of the existing comments I have managed to find all the regular files and the dream file (98 in total). I also figured out the agent's name but now I'm wondering if there's still more past this. Does 43092 mean anything? And what's the clue in the piano video? I couldn't really make out the lyrics very well so if there's a secret in them I'm afraid I've missed it.
Be sure you're adding the "0" at the front of the single digit scenes! So for example, if you wanted to title the very first scene with the car getting stuck "Beginning," you'd type "title 01 Beginning". You can also title the 00 instructional files to keep things organized!
This is a neat little logic puzzle but I sure have come to a point where I wish this game was keeping track of all the room names for me. Everyone's gone to bed and I need to work out who's in what room. I think I'm going to go to bed instead. If I come back to this I guess I get to go through the whole thing taking my own notes on the rooms.
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.
After those you need to type in everything yourself. look for who went where and with who and type it in. if someone goes somewhere in 03, type in 04 and where they went and or who they went with. hope that helps (its always least to last in numbers, so 1 would always go first.
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!)
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Spoiler alert: The rest of the walkthrough. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2394774170
SPOILER:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. havent reached that point yet but I'm scared to and i had to say sorry about your impending doom of a relationship damian, bro suffered
Thank you for the wonderful game! We played through the updated version and reached the end without any issues. A real pleasure to play.
I'm dumb. I can't figure out how to access the first 04-ST-????? file.
Spoiler alert: 04-ST-1-5-8
Look at the pattern of the filenames. Scene 1 is out by QUail Rd and has persons 1 and 11 in it; scene 2 is in the ENtranceway and has persons 1, 6, 7, and 10 . . .
This game was incredible! The pacing is excellent and the mechanics are well done. I had some trouble with the ending puzzle but I still loved it. Thank you for making it!
I learned of this game from the Type Help fanclub in the Roottrees are Dead discord server, and it was fantastic! The discovery mechanic was brilliant for building on my understanding of the story and characters to give me continued hits of satisfying deduction, and the mystery was exceptionally executed - the super eerie mystery of what's going on and all the individual question marks that get resolved later on. Compared to all the other games I've played in the deduction genre, this had the best pacing and I found the end truly thrilling.
Sorry to go on but I really enjoyed the game, thanks for making and sharing it! It really makes me want to make my own game in the genre, though I can't begin to imagine how you constructed this so impeccably!
Hi Celia! : )
With the minor updates + UI navigation added, this game is a 10 out of 10 for me. I disagree with the other comment about improving this game with audio and images. This was perfect as is, a text-based game (especially with the search feature allowing you track certain objects and sounds across different scenes).
I cannot imagine how clever you have to be to design this story and the pace it unfolds at. Took me several days to complete. I loved going back to the earliest scenes and realizing how many details were hidden in plain sight. Really incredible game.
Heeding the warning about the comments being full of spoilers, I did not look at anything else about this game and got to the end in about 3 evenings! (97, but the comments clued me in and I went back for 98.) I thought the final puzzle was the perfect level of trickiness, then I read all the comments complaining about it, and THEN I realized an update to make the final puzzle easier had been uploaded as I was still playing the cached older version. Bit of a bummer, but I now have bragging rights that I solved the tougher version. 🤭 Absolutely amazing game!
rot13:
HELP: Bfjnyq fnvq ur jnf va gur orqebbz gung 'hfrq gb or gur yvoenel' whfg orsber qvaare, ohg v pnaabg sbe gur yvsr bs zr svther bhg juvpu ebbz gung'f fhccbfrq gb or. V srry yvxr V'ir gevrq rirel ebbz nf jryy nf whfg hfvat 'YV' naq v'ir fgvyy tbg abguvat :(( pna nalbar uryc? guvf vf bar bs gur ynfg barf V'z zvffvat naq vg'f qevivat zr ahgf
ol hszv zhpk aol msvvy dhz zapjrf. aohaz ptwvyahua
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
He doesn't say it's a bedroom, just a room. He's talking about the study - where the first body was found.
SPOILERS for the update
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yeah, everything that I was slightly hung up on is all tied up nicely, now, and very well done. The "find" trick to look at all of the files has been fixed, but adding the arrow to just flip between acts instead of having to type a new command each time is a simple solution. The message that appears after "finishing" the hangman game makes it clearer that losing is the intended outcome without sacrificing the impact of it or making the implication too obvious. The final message from Alan and note are wonderful- beyond just having a proper ending now, I love the overall tone. Plus, the music linked in Alan's message fit perfectly as a sort of credits theme, without having the game itself contain any audio- I also ended up sorta doing this with the main game, after the Humoresques were mentioned early on and I played the whole thing just listening to Dvorak in the background lol, worked very nicely for me.
would anyone be able to lend me a hand? I have 96 files and have one (1) left, next to 10-MA, even though i've found everyone in every time stamp including (rot13) gur gjb frperg qrnguf so I have absolutely no idea what that could possibly be pointing to
I had that and for my playthrough it was because I'd forgotten to find where one of the people in that room went next for 11 and hadn't realised it. Hope you work it out
Edit: it was in 12 instead
alas, that isn't it but thank you. Im going to go triple check that i havent missed anyone, but i used the title feature to keep track of who i was missing in each time stamp and replaced it with a star when there was no one left to find so im pretty sure ive got it all
Ironically, I've now had it reappear for me after the update have to also work that out for myself
between it reappearing for you and the fact that i just finished making a chart of who was in what room at what time and came up with no blanks, it's possible it might be a bug
Hi!
Can you triple check for me scene 12? I've seen someone else also get stuck in this position, and that was the one they were missing. (You should have two scenes for 12.)
Honestly, kind of a flaw in the game that it's so easy to miss that and get stuck. It's hard to reference anywhere else though...
(Obviously if this still turns out to be a bug, let me know!)
SPOILERS (solution to OP's question below)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Timestamp 10 has the following entries:
10-DI-2-3
10-ED-8
10-LI-7-9
10-MA-5-6
10-TO-1-4
I already have all of those though
The game just got updated. These are the textual additions I've noticed, for anyone who's already finished the previous version: (SPOILER WARNING)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
There's also an ending screen after reading the final note and a message after 'finishing' the hangman game, which make the meaning of the hangman game clearer.
oh wow these edits makes everything come together much better
oh, i found THE END! spoilers far below this useful navigation tip/dev suggestion
One comment/suggestion thing that took me way too long to do since I didn't see a reason to actually do immediately, is that if you follow @'s lead use a new command you learn partway through the game involving the words "IGNORANCE" "CONFUSION" etc... (or whatever you like, just use the command given in that page), you get arrows on the list pages to go between them rather than typing so much.
It might be nice if it automatically set the names as those on getting the relevant page? Or more strongly wording "Please do this to make navigation easier" in-game
A few THE END and a few spoily questions, probably unanswerable
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
To see THE END i think the trigger was
get all 58 scenes
properly name @
and then (rot13)
erivfvg unatzna
speculation below about further secrets involving that or just it in general
V'z unq vg nyernql svyyrq bhg "jebatyl" orsber fb v'z abg fher rknpgyl jung gevttrerq vg.
Nyfb V'z phevbhf vs V unqa'g svyyrq vg bhg naq svyyrq vg va jvgu gur ntrag'f anzr fvapr uvf svefg naq ynfg anzr zngpu gur ahzore bs oynaxf, naq gur ahzore bs thrffrf zngpu gur nzbhag bs yrggref va obgu pbzovarq vs fbzrguvat qvssrerag zvtug unir unccrarq. Gevrq cevingr jvaqbjvat n serfu fnir ohg whfg chggvat va gur yrggref gura qbrfa'g qb nalguvat qvssrerag sebz enaqbz yrggref jvgubhg gur bgure fprarf tbggra naq V qba'g srry yvxr glcvat rirelguvat onpx va.
-
general postgame speculation
The start text says that one person was identified, wonder who that is? I guess martha's family, Tony Dauer sr, and John's wife/kid might be able to somehow identify them? Though that seems like it would memetically erase them too, so that's interesting, though none of them seem to match up to the names in the final note file.
I'm also curious if John is supposed to have known Amelia as well, since he's a piano salesman in town, and/or how recently amelia was meme-urdered to the start of the story, if it was actually a long time ago or just confusion.
oh i think the ending and the arrow suggestion i made possibly got pushed while i was typing this comment
The only person who got identified was John because he was not part of the chain, so he wasn't forgotten. Everyone else was erased from memory so they remained unidentified.
(Although, how this would work in reality is quite unclear since physical evidence like photos or dental records does not get erased, so the police should be able to find a match after some research... They just won't find anyone remembering them, but they should have been able to put a name to the bodies.)
I wish the 'introduction' could be seen again later. It helps show a bit why the lack of records may be more likely... the time period the game takes place in may be of relevance!
fantastic stuff, very strong deduce-em-up. going in, I was worried I'd have trouble following things without a visual element, but the game's designed in such a way that, with the help of a handy notepad document on my end, I only had trouble keeping up where the game wanted me to be baffled!
there are a few flaws, of course. it has the same issue as Roottrees where, at the very end, you'll probably be picking through stuff you've already reviewed with a fine-toothed comb, looking for stuff that you know is there while trying to figure out how to find it, which I personally find quite tedious. the character voices could use a little more differentiation, as well - though, this is something that I only really noticed while in that same endgame rereading home stretch
nevertheless, I'm blown away with what you managed to accomplish with the tools at hand, and a bit boggled that you put it up for absolutely free. excellent work! inspiring stuff
Really loved this, well done deduction-based mystery games like Obra Dinn, Golden Idol, etc. are some of my favorites, and this is absolutely going up there as one I'll rec to other fans of this kind of game. Just got fully into it and tore through it 100% (as far as I can tell) over a whole evening & night. You got me to get out a pencil and paper and write up & fill out a handmade chart, which always makes me love a game even more.
SPOILERS, hoping I've put enough periods here
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Naming the agent's @ symbol as the correct real name could have been a perfect opportunity for an absolutely evil scare- I fully respect the decision to not do that lmao, even if a part of me knows I would have loved it. Like, figuring out his name was basically the very last thing I did when 100%'ing the game which meant I had some time to chew over the whole story & how the curse worked etc by that point, and after several hours of silent purely text gameplay, a well done scare may well have killed me there. I recognize it's best the way it is, though :P
Also, I'm seeing some frustration over the 13th death, the Wintercote one. IMO I think a small change that could make that a bit clearer is changing the words 'rolling thunder' to 'distant thunderclap'- iirc 'thunderclap' is the word used fairly often to refer to the thunder signifying a character's death, or at least it's the one I remember most, so just keeping up with the pattern might make that clue easier to spot. Still loved that puzzle, & the implication (as I read it) that John figured out how the curse worked, and intentionally made Katherine remember her daughter then waited for confirmation of her death in order to leave himself as the last person standing, remembering nobody, and attempted to have the curse die with him. Clearly didn't work, which makes his death mirror Annie's in a wonderfully tragic way.
I finished this yesterday and I absolutely can't stop thinking about it. Fantastic game
This was such a joy to play through! Or I guess really sad. Same vibes with Obra Dinn where it's very tragic to know what's going to happen to someone. But really fun! Managed to suss my way right to the end and used some guiding words from the comments to find a body and an agent note, ifykyk. Everything else I worked out myself over the course of 2 evenings, which really gave me the chance to go through each person's route individually and feel bad for them. If someone ever manages to get 15 odd people to do a fully voiced read through of this I'd dig it.
More spoilery rambles under the dots
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Anyway, that's my thoughts. Thanks for making this gem!
Unlocked 38 files thanks to that V-Tuber, though V-Tube isn't my thing. I'm not too big on Japanese anime.
Thank you so much for this amazing game. I absolutely loved it.
OH my god I could just kiss you! I love these kinds of games, and you're definitely living up to your inspirations you've listed!
Now the spoilery part
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1. I don't know if I'm done. I found all the deaths, including K, and got the second email titled "Final", but I have 97 documents, instead of 98 like some other people do.
I think K puzzle was just right, no reason to make it any simpler btw.
2. I didn't get why I had to name acts, but that's ok, didn't use it anyway, instead searched for "" match, which listed all the docs very nicely grouped by scene.
3. Why does Oswald say you'd be punished for forgetting, while in reality you got punished for the opposite: for remembering them? Was there a pattern to who remembered whom?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The 98th document is hard to find and might be more of an easter egg and is not really required to "solve" the case. There are instructions on how to locate it in other comments.
this was so good, loved puzzling it out
Found what is possibly a bug? I found the Act II opener from Scene 07, but it's not appearing on my list. I can still access it by typing it in manually, and it lets me title the scene, but there's just black space after Scene 06. Is this a glitch, or a missed flag that I somehow got around? Or did I not complete something to unlock it?
Edit: Looks like I missed a scene explaining the Act feature, my bad!
Spoilers [end game(?) help]
I am soooo close to the end (I think) but I just can't figure out what exactly I'm supposed to do. I've found 95 files so far, and I have a filled-in timeline for characters 1 through 12, from time codes 01 through 26. I figure there's something I need to do with Wintercote (WI) because it's a bold location name... but I can't figure out what characters it is meant to involve or what time code I need to put. If it helps, the only scenes that have any reference points are 00-audio-recovery and 26-EN-1. Not sure what other information would be relevant for me to provide but yeah. Don't tell me outright what to do, just a nudge.. like a scene to stare at until I get that eureka moment lol
A few scenes with increasingly heavy clues (after spoiler dots):
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
13-VI-7-8
.
.
.
20-DI-1
.
.
.
24-DI-1
.
.
.
25-AT-1
Thank you for the help!!
This is where I (and many others too, it seems) got stuck as well. This was my one complaint about this game; that the clues to solve this were too vague. Even if you think you have the location code, you still need the name(s) and the timeslot to find that last scene. (I discussed this problem and some suggestions to fix it in my review earlier in these comments. Feel free to read that once you have solved it.)
Since you only want a small nudge to the solution, I'll tell you the scene that imho fails at giving the hint to the final scene is:
.
.
.
25-AT-1
Thank you very much, I was able to figure it out. I was so sure I tried that combination of codes before, but clearly the sleep deprivation was getting to me haha. Sebz ernqvat bgure pbzzragf, V frr gung gurer vf na rira zber frperg 00-qernz svyr. Ubj ner lbh zrnag gb svaq gung va tnzrcynl?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The only clue is in 21-CH-3 where the narrator says "like in that terrifying dream I mentioned"
Regarding the hangman game:
"Wbua" qvrf ol unatvat uvzfrys sebz gur oryy chyy va gur nggvp. V guvax gur unatzna tnzr vf n ersrerapr gb guvf, naq cbffvoyl gb @'f vagragvba gb nyfb pbzzvg fhvpvqr gb oernx gur punva.
Wbua whzcrq bhg gur nggvp jvaqbj bagb gur sebag fgrcf (nf ersreraprq jnl onpx va gur vageb), ohg V guvax lbh anvyrq vg jvgu gur frpbaq unys, be ng yrnfg gung vg'f n ersrerapr gb @ orvat "ba gur tnyybjf" rira vs whfg njnvgvat qrngu cnffviryl.
I do no understand smart please dumb it down
wait I figured it out y'all is smart
I wonder when the walkthroughs are going on YouTube.
If there is one suggestion I would really make... Having completed everything as far as I know... introduced the game to my daughter. Sat with her as she started, and read the Intro again. Was wild to see some of the details in the intro now knowing everything.
I feel like being able to access the Intro again at any point may be helpful for people to get a sense of how well thought of everything was in the end.
this as well! i started the game over just to see it again
fantastic game. found 98 files. are there more to find? my only complaint echoes others: it would be useful to have a more definitive way of knowing when you've located everything. been telling everyone i know to play this since many of my friends are hungry for true mind-bending puzzle games. thank you for making this.
That was an excellent game, the story is mysterious then absolutely spine-chilling!
I do have a remark about the last puzzle though ; as others have said, it's a brutal step in difficulty, even if the logic required is completely sound and achievable. The difficulty is fine in itself, it's just that most of the game does not require you to approach it with this kind of logic. After understanding the filename pattern, all you have to do is figure out who goes where and when, and piece the timeline together. Finding the last hidden scenes requires taking a big step back and change your way of thinking.
That last puzzle is great by itself, but it could be made more approachable by ramping up the difficulty a little in the last acts, so that the player understands what kind of logic the game expects from them.
After reaching the end of the narrative, and it becoming obvious there was '1 more' to find, I thought it was fairly obvious what to do. After that, realizing there was '1 more' still... yeah I was stumped. But then the next morning, while driving the car, it suddenly came to me to try out something out of the box, couldn't wait to get in front of a computer to try it out... and it worked...
I think making it more obvious would be a detriment to being able to figure out something more out of the box like this. Maybe, if one minor change was made... it would be to make the words 'rolling thunder' to 'rolling thunderclap'. But honestly that wasn't part of what made me think of what to do.
I agree, the puzzle is very fine as it is, I wouldn't make it more obvious. My remark has to do with how sharp a turn it takes from the rest of the game. After act 2, the game almost only require you to think about following the characters from one room to the other. Only the very end have you think about how the curse really works. I do prefer this kind of logic and I wouldn't want it to be easier, but it's pretty unsettling when a game require you to change your way of thinking out of the blue.
That's why I think a few easier puzzles that lead you to think about the deeper narrative instead of just the character movements would make the ending a lot less frustrating. Without making the last puzzle easier. You can even make it harder as long as the player knows that the game's logic runs deeper that "follow the characters to next or previous scene".
I had to check some of the comments to figure out what the game expected me to do. Admittedly, I think I could have found it on my own after a while, but it was late and I didn't want to experience the epilogue separately from the ending. If I had known of the sudden increase in difficulty I would have paused to figure it out by myself. I was convinced I had missed an obvious clue or that the game was being unfair, not that I had to take such a big step back to consider what was already in front of me.
A beautiful game. I had a hard time putting it down! One ever-so-slightly-spoilerish bug I found:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
When using the "title" command after using a "find" command, the find page resets the search term to something empty, as in "Showing search results for "" in local files...". (I was using the title command to title the timestamps where a certain event happened, so I ended having to run the find command again after each title command.)
(question)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
is there an ending screen or was the final note the end screen.
Hi! I'm pretty stuck at this point for several days. I've managed to get into Act II, and have a few 07 and 08 entries, but now I'm completely stuck. There's a few entries still missing for Act I, but overall, I can't really find any thread to move onto next. Any suggestions? Or is there a walkthrough published yet? I'm enjoying it, but it's a TAD tedious and I'm enjoying the mystery enough that I'd be fine just bypassing some of the more esoteric deductions to just know the story.
A streamer I found went through it all. Here's the link to the video. (IT CONTAINS SPOILERS. BE CAUTIOUS.)
Spoilers!
With the help of the existing comments I have managed to find all the regular files and the dream file (98 in total). I also figured out the agent's name but now I'm wondering if there's still more past this. Does 43092 mean anything? And what's the clue in the piano video? I couldn't really make out the lyrics very well so if there's a secret in them I'm afraid I've missed it.
i need help with the 98th file lol
damn found it
43092:
.
.
.
.
.
.
How do I use the title command?
Be sure you're adding the "0" at the front of the single digit scenes! So for example, if you wanted to title the very first scene with the car getting stuck "Beginning," you'd type "title 01 Beginning". You can also title the 00 instructional files to keep things organized!
I might think about streaming this game on Twitch someday. Get help from the viewers.
Maybe I missed something but I don't know how to get past 07- :( could somebody help?
I figured it out! rot13
Zber guna bar fprar unccraf ng bapr.
Fnl Wbua (1) yrnirf gb gur fghql, naq gjb bgure crbcyr yrnir gb nabgure ebbz.
gur arkg fprar jvgu Wbua jbhyq unccra gur fnzr gvzr nf gur bgure fprar. gurer ner zhygvcyr svyrf jvgu, yrgf fnl, 03, orpnhfr zber guna bar fprar unccrarq va gung gvzr senzr.
Hope that helps, reply to me again if you still need help! I'll check
This is a neat little logic puzzle but I sure have come to a point where I wish this game was keeping track of all the room names for me. Everyone's gone to bed and I need to work out who's in what room. I think I'm going to go to bed instead. If I come back to this I guess I get to go through the whole thing taking my own notes on the rooms.
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?)
please be careful with spoilers! than you!
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.
After those you need to type in everything yourself. look for who went where and with who and type it in. if someone goes somewhere in 03, type in 04 and where they went and or who they went with. hope that helps (its always least to last in numbers, so 1 would always go first.
Also, pay attention to locations that are capitalized. Where does person 5 say she's going, and who's going with her?
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!)