The Case of Arcadia Springs

On a surface it's a "45~minute" investigation game, but it's a bit deceiving, there are several ending, and some of those endings have additional cutscenes, or more content like a hidden area or new interactions, so it's worth playing the game at least 3 to 5 times I would say (maybe even more than that). If you get one of the abrupt endings, you won't really experience the "true narrative", while the plot is seemingly very basic, there are some dark and complex secrets hiding within the game, you kinda have to probe the game and see how you can change the outcome. I would say the game is pretty good, however, there are some superficial design issues that made it worse than it actually is. As I mentioned in the forum, the dialogue boxes were very hard to read in the default view, the text is too small, and the pixel filter made the font very blurry. You can partially mitigate it by turning off the filter in the settings, and honestly I think it makes the game much better overall, makes it easier to find various hints as the game expects you to pay attention to the numbers. If you can ignore the issues with the text, the game and the characters are decently written, it's very playful, has some funny interactions and achievements, and I think the characters had good chemistry and personality to them - both of the main characters and the supporting characters. The game almost has a sense of melancholy, it's a very cozy playthrough with some dreamy coloring and a few places to relax. The investigation gameplay is not difficult, but don't expect the game to give you all the answers, you still have to read the notes and look at the numbers, sometimes matching a name, or comparing the length of the passwords to find the correct code. With that said, even though it's a small game, there were many silly ways to screw around, and even missed a few location scenes on a first few runs like the waterfall angle. I know not everyone likes the fixed camera angles, but as an oldschool RE rat I always dig that aesthetic, especially when it crosses into another genre, at least on a personal level I really dig it. [h1]Pros: [/h1] (+) There are more than 3 endings (not sure exactly how many), and some of them have new cutscenes, new interactions, or even hidden areas. Granted most of them are abrupt, but there are still a couple of drastically different conclusions to the game, so it makes it worth replaying at least a few times (+) After I got over your horrible text size, I enjoyed the writing, I think the characters had some good chemistry together, and I think the game had nice cozy vibes with those areas to relax and get some funny achievements (+) There were only a few locations, but I liked their design, specifically the third one, I think the game had nice coloring and use of camera perspective https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3690924243 [h1]Feedback: [/h1] [b]Update: [/b] criticism was addressed, notes left for context [u]Bugs:[/u] - sometimes the interactions were disabled, I have to exit the game completely to fix it - the second floor book shelf can't be interacted when he is fixing the ??? - piano and guitar had no sound Q - the NPC can lock you in the BAR, and sometimes you can't exit that area - if I start a new game after watching credits, it will get stuck on black screen [u]QOL: [/u] - increase the text size - if you can't increase text size, consider starting the game by default in low pixelation mode - the table on the second floor has a poor camera transition - the table near guitar has a poor camera transition - the bar exit camera has a poor camera transition - it's usually a good idea to change the color of the text prompts you already clicked - there were some consistency issues with hotspots not always having proper icon change, sometimes you do it, sometimes you don't, like you have to either do it or not do it (and it's better to do it) [b]Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] Just needs a few patches to make it a smooth ride, otherwise a pretty fun little investigation game, it seems "small", but there is a lot more under the surface, and you can experiment with endings for several hours. I thought the characters were decently written, there are some nice chill moments between them, and I think everyone had a personality that made them feel more genuine. So the biggest thing, either increase the text size, or just make the low-pixel view the default, just for better first impression. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

Short detective adventure that rewards thorough exploration and has a charming style, yet awkward design and poor readability undermine it. The game takes place in a world populated by humanoid animals. You follow a fox detective named Dalton whose latest case involves a series of break-ins. Although you prefer working alone, you are paired with an enthusiastic rookie. On top of that, the case was handed to you personally by the mayor, who is also one of the victims, so it is clear from the start that something bigger is at stake. Gameplay revolves around exploring locations and searching for interaction points. These are not marked, but when you approach one, an exclamation point appears. Pressing the interaction button triggers a comment about the hotspot, starts a conversation if it is a character, or opens a close-up view of the area where you can click on individual items with the mouse. Close-up interactions are also unmarked, so you must move the cursor around and watch for it to change into a hand icon. One minor annoyance is that the close-up view jumps between the upper and lower parts of the scene when you move the cursor up or down. Because of this, clicking on a clue located somewhere in the middle of the screen can become frustrating. The visual style resembles games from several generations ago. While it certainly gives the game some charm, it feels a bit like a gimmick because the settings allow you to choose an even more pixelated look or switch to a clean visual mode. The latter may actually be the intended way to play, since everything appears much clearer. This becomes especially noticeable with small details that include written text. In the clean mode the text is readable, while in the more pixelated modes it turns into gibberish. However, the art style is not entirely consistent. Some scenes remain heavily pixelated regardless of the selected settings. This happens during certain transitions, such as car scenes when traveling between locations or the sleeping scene that marks the start of a new day. The camera changes angles as you move through areas, but the triggers are sometimes placed awkwardly. You often have to move almost to the very edge of the screen before the view finally switches. At times your partner or another character follows you around, which introduces a major design flaw. These characters can block your path and even trap you in certain areas, such as behind the bar in the mayor’s house. When this happens, the only option is to quit the game and hope the auto-save prevented you from losing progress. Although you can click on readable materials to examine them more closely, readability remains an issue because of the chosen font. The text follows the game’s pixelated visual style, and the font size is very small. One of the worst examples is the dialogue bubbles at the bottom of the screen. They are already quite small, and combined with the font style they make reading each line unnecessarily difficult. Fortunately, your in-game phone records every important detail from conversations and item inspections. One interesting aspect of the game is that your success depends on how thoroughly you investigate each location. Once you decide to leave an area, you cannot return to it. If you miss clues or fail to solve puzzles that require finding the correct codes, you will not uncover the full picture. This also makes the game quite short. It features only three locations and conversations with three victims. Since the game relies solely on auto-save, you must live with your decisions, and the only way to improve your outcome is to start the entire playthrough again.

4/28 update. Finally finished the game and yeah ok I’ll look past all my Rules For Detective games just this once and slap a big real Recommend on it. 11/10 rating. The developers are very talented storytellers and that counts for a lot in my book. 4/21 update. The game was recently updated and it is better by orders of magnitude. After playing Arcadia again for few hours, I’ve gone back and forth on how to update this and I still can’t recommend this game. I don’t want to write a whole long thing complaining about what went wrong here so I’ll just say this: - I know this game will get polished enough that players can actually finish it. - I think the story is very creative and it was interesting enough for me to drop 20 hours working through a lot of bugs and jank to complete it. - I don’t know that the puzzles in the game were well thought out and I think that is a deeper issue. For example, there’s an undisclosed hidden object search and this is a pixelated game. I’m not sure how users are supposed to eyeball suspicious pixels. I only found it by scanning my cursor over the area after I asked the developer what I was missing. Despite my non-recommendation, I don’t want to be the negative review in a set of only 3 reviews so i’m setting this as a thumbs up.

A lovely gem of a game. It always shocks me how humble and intensely creative furry games tend to be. This game is $5! This is an investigative, open-ended game that contains a very charming detective duo, surprisingly rich and adaptive dialogue (being nice to people is good, actually!), a relaxed soundtrack, and layered storytelling. Gameplay wise, most of the time is spent walking around and checking out clues (Professor Layton, anyone?) and talking to your witnesses. Your success will depend heavily on your thoroughness, code-cracking, and checking your in-game notes/contacts via the main character's phone. Do not expect the game to handhold or let you return to areas later! I love the characters here, they're written with intelligence but each have the kind of ":3" energy that make furry characters so fun. You will likely replay it a few times to explore and detect the deepest secrets of Arcadia Springs, and it is very worth it. I would love to see this would explored further, although this game doesn't leave much room for it. That said, I will enthusiastically play any other games that come from this team. My personal rating: 9/10* It's only $5 just buy it already! CRITIQUES (light spoilers): -Some clues are easily missed. I think perhaps after a playthrough, it would be helpful to add a way to track total clues in each area or disable the time limit, because it's difficult to try again without completely restarting the story from day 1. -The importance of the cell phone to the endings and characters being added to your contacts should be highlighted a bit more perhaps. By this I mean you should be notified when new phone numbers are added to your phone, hinting that you should try calling them. -The difficulty of the day 2 investigation is a little jarring compared to the rest of the game. I don't have a clear suggestion to resolve this though, but I do expect many people will use a guide to navigate day 2. -I did encounter a bug or two that almost softlocked me. My S key stopped functioning for dialogue, preventing me from selecting lower options (my arrow keys still worked). With critiques in mind: 7/10*