Kickstarter dawns for “picture puzzle” game Night Detective

Written by Pascal Tekaia — September 17, 2013 at 19:29

Picture this: It is night. You are alone. You find yourself locked in a room. A room in deserted Darkwood Manor. Your only chance at escape: a cryptic message challenging you to solve a puzzle. Welcome to Night Detective, a newly-announced point-and-click "picture puzzle" game by fledgling developer TreeFall Studios.

Night Detective casts you as the eponymous nocturnal sleuth, who operates only under the cover of night and whose identity remains a mystery. Whether vigilante or simply an odd duck, the Night Detective takes it upon himself to investigate the disappearance of Thomas Herman, respected London businessman, puzzle lover and owner of Darkwood Manor.

In doing so, players will navigate their way through hand-drawn first-person environments, seeking exits from rooms by interacting with objects in the environment and finding and upgrading items. Each room will require a certain combination of items to be “activated” based on a clue given in that room. The right combination will open the path to the next area.

While the majority of the gameplay will involve typical adventure game fare, Night Detective will also incorporate certain shooting elements such as blowing apart small locks, fighting enemies, even a sort of boss battle. According to the developers, "once you have found the revolver, you can switch to it at any time and interact with the environment in the style of an arcade shooter."

The game is currently running a Kickstarter campaign, though its minimum goal of only $750 has already been exceeded. A $5 pledge ($2 for early supporters) is the minimum required to receive a copy of the game. Expected to be released in November, the game will appear on PC, though some of the more exorbitant stretch goals include ports to other platforms such as Windows Tablet, Wii U, 3DS, and Xbox 360. The Kickstarter campaign runs until October 6, 2013.

To learn more about Night Detective, you can visit TreeFall Studios' webpage or head over to their Kickstarter to support the game.