Yes.


This is a must play for anyone interested in the design of investigation games.

Although the game itself is very short and on the easy side, it feels good to piece together the evidence, interrogate the suspects, compare the timelines, and uncover the lies.

Several fresh ideas intersect here to bring an investigation experience par excellence:

• Timeline comparison. This is a major element of the game. Every suspect will give their account of events, which may be viewed, fast forwarded, paused, reversed etc. at any time. When discrepancies are detected, the timelines are revised accordingly and new comparisons can be made.
• Psychology. The more time you spend with a suspect, the greater the chance that you will uncover one of their mental quirks. Finding these is integral to determining the motives for the story's crimes.
• Contradiction. At any time, you may confront any suspect with any piece of evidence uncovered so far - be it a timeline piece, physical evidence, testimony of another witness, or even a subject's own mental hangups. Showing them something they can't explain will force them to revise their story and bring them one step closer to a confession. The open nature of the system means that the game may be "brute forced", but that would be very time consuming, not to mention lame. Still, if you're stumped, you can throw out wild guesses until something sticks. The game has no fail state.
• The Accusation system. To complete a case, you must find Means, Motive, and Opportunity for a suspect. To do so you may open the Accusation interface at any time. Accusing the wrong person does not carry a penalty as it is expected that you build up the strongest possible case against each suspect until the guilty party is revealed. Similar to how Contradiction works, Accusation allows you to use any piece of evidence at your disposal to prove Means, Motive, or Opportunity, and once you have all three for a single suspect, you can force a confession.

With so many elements in play, it's hardly surprising that the game is short and the cases are reasonably simple. Since almost every piece of evidence can be referenced against any other, the amount of work that must have gone into indexing it all must have been colossal.

The result is a very polished and fascinating piece and I'm sorry I waited this long to try it.

$20 is a big ask for such a short game. Since it's been out almost a year, wait for a sale. (I think I got it at 40% off.) Or, buy full price to support all the excellent ideas here. I would absolutely love to see a sequel, or longer form version of this format. Fund these developers, play this game.

Yes. [h1]A remarkable if short detective game with excellent, original mechanics and an intriguing setting.[/h1] This is a must play for anyone interested in the design of investigation games. Although the game itself is very short and on the easy side, it feels good to piece together the evidence, interrogate the suspects, compare the timelines, and uncover the lies. Several fresh ideas intersect here to bring an investigation experience [i]par excellence[/i]:[list][*][b]Timeline comparison.[/b] This is a major element of the game. Every suspect will give their account of events, which may be viewed, fast forwarded, paused, reversed etc. at any time. When discrepancies are detected, the timelines are revised accordingly and new comparisons can be made.[*][b]Psychology.[/b] The more time you spend with a suspect, the greater the chance that you will uncover one of their mental quirks. Finding these is integral to determining the motives for the story's crimes.[*][b]Contradiction.[/b] At any time, you may confront any suspect with [i]any[/i] piece of evidence uncovered so far - be it a timeline piece, physical evidence, testimony of another witness, or even a subject's own mental hangups. Showing them something they can't explain will force them to revise their story and bring them one step closer to a confession. The open nature of the system means that the game may be "brute forced", but that would be very time consuming, not to mention lame. Still, if you're stumped, you [i]can[/i] throw out wild guesses until something sticks. The game has no fail state.[*][b]The Accusation system.[/b] To complete a case, you must find Means, Motive, and Opportunity for a suspect. To do so you may open the Accusation interface at any time. Accusing the wrong person does not carry a penalty as it is expected that you build up the strongest possible case against each suspect until the guilty party is revealed. Similar to how Contradiction works, Accusation allows you to use any piece of evidence at your disposal to prove Means, Motive, or Opportunity, and once you have all three for a single suspect, you can force a confession.[/list] With so many elements in play, it's hardly surprising that the game is short and the cases are reasonably simple. Since almost every piece of evidence can be referenced against any other, the amount of work that must have gone into indexing it all must have been colossal. The result is a very polished and fascinating piece and I'm sorry I waited this long to try it. $20 is a big ask for such a short game. Since it's been out almost a year, wait for a sale. (I think I got it at 40% off.) Or, buy full price to support all the excellent ideas here. I would absolutely love to see a sequel, or longer form version of this format. Fund these developers, play this game.