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)
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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. Edit: 2 days later I finally worked it out. Codes are fun and I'm glad I've kept returning to this to get everything found out.
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 .
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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:
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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!)
I figured it out. rot13 Tb onpx gb gur bgure svyr. vs lbh ybbx ng jurer bgure crbcyr jrag qhevat gung gvzr, lbh pna purpx vg. fnl 1 vg yrnirf gur yvivat ebbz, ohg gjb bgure crbcyr nyfb yrnir va gur fnzr fprar. gur arkg fprar lbh unir jvgu 1 jvyy unccra ng gur fnzr gvzr ng gur bgure fprarf. gurer jvyy or zhygvcyr 03 fprarf orpnhfr zber guna bar guvat jnf unccravat ng bapr nebhaq gur ubhfr.
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 you from 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.
I watched a play-through and remembered another annoyance with the list command caused by the act divisions: in the very first file (00-readme) there's a reference to 26-EN-1 and when that file is accessed it says "NEW FILE RETRIEVED -- ADDED TO FILE LIST" but when you try "list" it's not showing (because it belongs to act 4).
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 😭
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.
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 😭
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 thunderclap in 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!
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?):
Why didn't Martha call the police? (My best guess is the phone wasn't working properly because of the weather and she couldn't place the call when she tried, so she decided to pretend that she had called them in order to not cause further panic.)
What had Annie done to get into trouble? (I'm guessing she ran away from home (Wintercote) and needed money because of something like drug/gambling addiction.)
Why did John kill himself? (Did he have a mental breakdown and blamed himself for the deaths?)
The hangman was confusing and didn't feel like it belonged in the story.
Is the agent's name (Richard Longley) a hidden easter-egg or are we supposed to deduce that?
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.
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!
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.
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.
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-)
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.
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
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.
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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SPOILERS for the update
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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)
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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)
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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.
Because Oswald thinks it is about Eleanore when in reality it is about Amelia (which he doesn't remember)
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):
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13-VI-7-8
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20-DI-1
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24-DI-1
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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:
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25-AT-1
(Edit March, 2025: The update fixes this issue.)
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?
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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:
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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)
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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:
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sorry but i can't figure it out, how could you deduce the name of the agent? i already found 00-dream, in which part reveals his name?
Read the highlighted characters on each line, from top to bottom to form a message.
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!)
I still can get past 07 help
Same Im stuck
I figured it out. rot13 Tb onpx gb gur bgure svyr. vs lbh ybbx ng jurer bgure crbcyr jrag qhevat gung gvzr, lbh pna purpx vg. fnl 1 vg yrnirf gur yvivat ebbz, ohg gjb bgure crbcyr nyfb yrnir va gur fnzr fprar. gur arkg fprar lbh unir jvgu 1 jvyy unccra ng gur fnzr gvzr ng gur bgure fprarf. gurer jvyy or zhygvcyr 03 fprarf orpnhfr zber guna bar guvat jnf unccravat ng bapr nebhaq gur ubhfr.
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.
I watched a play-through and remembered another annoyance with the list command caused by the act divisions: in the very first file (00-readme) there's a reference to 26-EN-1 and when that file is accessed it says "NEW FILE RETRIEVED -- ADDED TO FILE LIST" but when you try "list" it's not showing (because it belongs to act 4).
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 😭
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 😭
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-)
eww, no, please delete
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.
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.