Fun little game with playful artwork and unique puzzles. The interface was simple to use and the difficulty was minimal. The only ding was the quickly annoying soundtrack.
A bookish young boy named Benedict moves into a new town. His first stop is the town library, where he stumbles upon a police investigation.
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UPDATE 1.8:
Mute button added, in the "extras" menu.
Bug with easy to crack safe code fixed.
UPDATE 1.5:
You can now click through the entire game, except for the safe tumbler puzzle.
A back button has been added to the evidence sections.
The case files no longer update as much, though they still update.
If you find yourself stuck during a conversation, I've put in a special cheat until I fix it so that you can continue playing: Press "0".
Press the up and down arrow keys to navigate the main menu. Press space to select a button on the main menu.
Mouse over a character to bring up the "x" button.
Press the "X" key or the up arrow on your keyboard to have a conversation.
Click the "next" button or the right arrow key to advance in the conversation.
The hint button is in the top left corner of the screen and has a question mark on it. Click the button to show hints, click again to hide them.
The inventory is to the right of the hint button.
Click objects in the inventory to select them.
Click the button(s) that appear in the object window to preform an action with the selected object.
Click the button again to close the inventory.
The case files button is to the right of the inventory button.
Click the tabs to see the different files.
The tabs update as the case progresses.
Click the case files button again to close it.
SAFE TUMBLERS:
Up and down arrow keys to rotate tumblers.
Left and right arrow keys to switch between tumblers.
Press space on your keyboard to enter the code.
RIDDLES
Mouse over the Riddle Hints icon, (with the Robber's face on it), to see the current hint.
Press the left and right arrows for different hints.
Click the Riddle Hints icon to enter your answer.
Keep an eye out for secrets! They're scattered throughout the first three locations in the game, and add up to ten overall. Once you go back to the main menu at the end of game you'll be able to view them via the secrets menu!
Fun little game with playful artwork and unique puzzles. The interface was simple to use and the difficulty was minimal. The only ding was the quickly annoying soundtrack.
Thanks! I'll work on getting a mute button in the game. :)
it was fun but not very hard. the music also fit in with the sometimes spooky atmosphere.
Thanks! The second game will be slightly harder than this one, so if you want more of a challenge in the same type of setting, keep your eyes out for it. :)
Rather reasonable, but you automatically lose a whole point for failing to have a mute button. The music is fine, yet many gamers multi-task.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll implement a mute button as soon as I can. I wish web browsers would let you mute tabs, but until then it'll have to do.
Navigation is difficult. Froze on 2nd scene, tried everything, Benedict is saying "Oh, I'm, Uh, that is". I really can't give an accurate review on a game I can't play.
Sorry about that. It's a bug I don't how to fix because it doesn't appear consistently. :(
Nice storytelling & art. You set an enjoyable atmosphere for a sleuthing game. The mechanics of the case file and the questions upon inspecting clues is innovative. But it needs quite a bit of polishing...
a) The need to go back & forth from mouse to keyboard is annoying, and unnecessary. You could easily make this a mouse-click only game, and avoid the break in flow of hunting for keys altogether.
b) The fact that the case file changes between dialogs and some information actually disappears is both misleading and unnerving. At fist glance, the game auto-notes, thus pen&paper notes are not needed, and then you realize it _might_ be necessary, because a clue _might_ be found in an early statement. (Even if this ultimately isn't the case. We can't & shouldn't _know_ something isn't a clue as that is part of the fun of sleuthing.)
c) the clue questions can "trap" you in one place (there is no apparent back button) and some of the pictures do not, of themselves, clearly lead to the observation/answer.
For instance, the smudges around the flashlight could be roller marks, fingermarks, or even some stylized tire track, and there is no way to return to the global picture to get a better sense of your intent.
The water-stain clue (which was not where I expected, as the dialog with the detective lead me to believe I would find it on the empty shelf, not the top of the bookcase) also was misleading, as the scale of the stain, compared to the depth of a standard bookcase, would make for a flashlight too big to fit in a human hand.
These wouldn't be such a "trap" if you put in a back button, to let us look around and compare pictures to get a better sense of your art style.
Still, you are almost there, and a bit of tweaking of the interface & the freedom to go back & forth between the clues images, the case file, and the removed text in the case file would allow us to actually think the problems through, and thus feel like detectives rather than students presented with a surprise quiz we haven't studied for.
Keep it up!
Thanks for the great review. I appreciate the time you spent on the game to give me solid feedback.
I've implemented the changes you suggested, they worked out just fine. :)