The Prologue and Chapter One are playable
Ten rooms, twelve evidence files, seven puzzles and three endings, in the browser, free
The first release covers the Prologue and the whole of Chapter One. It runs in the browser, it is free, and it does not need an account.
What is in it
- The Prologue: Intake. The vestibule at 03:41. It teaches looking, moving, taking, reading and the journal, and it ends when you pass the turnstile.
- Chapter One: The Nightwatch Ledger. Ten rooms across three floors, from reception down to the ward.
- Twelve evidence files and an evidence board that connects them. Twelve deductions are available; the ending you can reach depends partly on how many you have made.
- Seven puzzles, each of which can be solved without relying on colour and without relying on sound.
- Six audio recordings and four surveillance clips, all with full written transcripts and scene descriptions. No clue in this game exists only in sound or only in moving image.
- Three consequential choices and three endings. None of the three is a failure state, and all three carry different flags into Chapter Two.
What it costs
Nothing. The Prologue and Chapter One are free and will stay free. There is no timer, no energy meter, no advertisement inside the game view and no interruption during a puzzle.
Do I need an account?
No. You can play the whole chapter as a guest and your progress is kept in your browser. An account gets you three things: your save follows you to another device, your achievements are recorded, and you can appear on the rankings if you want to.
If you play as a guest and then create an account, the guest save is offered for upload the first time you sign in. It is not uploaded silently.
Browsers
It is built for current Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge on desktop, and for Safari and Chrome on phones and tablets from roughly the last four years. It is a website, not a download, and it installs as an app on a phone if you want it to.
What is not in it yet
Chapter Two is written and not built. Daily challenges, leaderboards, seasons and cooperative sessions are designed and not built. The store is visible and lists what will be sold, and nothing in it can be bought yet, because taking money for something before it exists is not a thing we are going to do.
Everything above that says "not built" will get its own entry in this log when it is.
chapter one release