The Tragedy at Deer Creek

It's definitely got the foundation for something that could have been great but it feels far too unfinished. Questions are raised that never get answered, the admittedly-underwhelming solution to the mystery is given in one long exposition dump instead of being discovered organically, the supernatural elements feel tacked on for dramatic effect instead of being interwoven with story, and the whole thing ends pretty abruptly. It's not bad but not worth a $20 price tag.

Short point and click adventure where a photojournalist investigates what happend at an abandoned lumber camp from the late 1800:s, As the name suggests, it's not a happy tale, but man the ending was far bleaker than i anticipated. Well made, not to out there with the moon logic, there is a supernatrual aspect so some of the "why would that be there" moments can be excused by that, the main issue with the puzzles was that there is definitly some pixelhunt in fairly dark enviroments, I ran around forever because i missed one thing and couldn't progress because of that. All in all, another solid adventure game from a new dev, will definitly kepp my eye out for more from them.

Sometimes you play a game and feel like it was a huge waste of potential. Not as a dig at the developers, but as a… great sadness? I guess? That the project clearly had a vision behind it, but the end result just wasted all of it. The Tragedy at Deer Creek is such a game. Despite being a relatively cheap independent title, the beginning of the game shows huge promise – wonderful visual style, moody atmosphere, good music. And after a short while, that doesn’t actually explain why the main character is doing what she’s doing, you even get hints of a cool mystery. But all of that is wasted, because as an adventure game it doesn’t work well, as a story-driven game it doesn’t work well and even as just a story it doesn’t know how to end properly. So yeah, this is a point and click adventure game from first person perspective. It doesn’t have the full Myst-like movement across locations with different perspectives on the same room, like the long awaited ASYLUM from last year was, rather it’s usually limited to one “room” which often have several closeup sections to it. The game is quite short, can be easily completed in under 2 hours, so there are not that many such locations to explore and most of the time you will be moving between the same rooms. And most of that movement will probably be because you have no idea what to do. As an adventure game, this title breaks so many good design recommendations… Giving players tons of items, without establishing any clear goals. Then presenting a problem that, somehow, none of those items can solve. Having countless fake interactive objects, that have interaction prompt on them just for show and all of them just have the main character be dismissive about them. Except for some, where the item is instantly dismissed, but maybe a part of that item is important and you need to notice that. Several of the puzzles can be solved via the hints presented for them at the start of the game, even though you actually get to those puzzles, finally, at the end. Backtracking to the same items through the same boring long paths, because after some story flags they become interactable “for reasons”. Which could all be excused, if the cool premise was interactively explored and told through the game and the exploration. But it’s not. You can get small portions of information through investigation, but those do not shape a story, like in a good example of a game where you have to gradually reveal some mystery. No, in this game you get a few hints and then the game ends with the main character watching a 5 minute cutscene where the entire plot of the game is shown. Why even have a game before this, if all of the storytelling is going to happen as a final cutscene? Plus, lots of scenes just end and or abruptly cut with no logic or continuity. And the finale leaves the story of the main character of the game, who is in focus when the game starts, completely unresolved. Leaving the actual story of the game, not just the mystery part, straight up unfinished. It’s just… “It’s a such a sadness”, to quote David Lynch. I don’t know what caused this, if the developers didn’t have enough experience, or the project turned out to be too big and expensive. But The Tragedy at Deer Creek is just a sad and frustrating experience in the end, where it could be a wonderful mystery solving adventure game.

Utterly excellent point and click story driven game. I finished it in just over 5 hours (I'm a very methodical, slow gamer) and it was just about the right length for the story. Very well paced. The atmosphere is one that is bleak and feels almost desperate at times which the colour pallet and choice of low-res aesthetic feels perfectly married to. The music fits the subject very well with guitar and subtle synth tracks that don't get monotonous. As you get further into the story they seem to get more and more ominous but not obtrusive. They are playing in the background and they just add a fantastic layer as you are figuring out what to do next. I managed to solve all the puzzles without help. A few times I was wandering around for a few minutes wondering what to do, but they completely made sense after looking through notes and just stopping to think for a while. It helps that the play area is relatively small and you can visit each area quickly and look over each environment matching what you have in your inventory etc. to see what could possibly work. There certainly aren't any Broken Sword Goat puzzles here ;) I thought I had worked out where the story was going after a certain point (a discovery behind a certain locked door), but it took a turn I didn't expect! I really loved the cutscenes and looked forward to when the next one would show up. They were like a reward to advancing the story with really good choices of camera angles and they tied the story together really well between playable sections and story driven sections. The voice acting was really good and consistent. The VA for Charlotte was excellent! I'd really love for this to be made into an indie movie! The last time I played a point and click game with a story this good was The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, and before that, the Blackwell games. All of these would make amazing movies/TV series, and working at a TV studio myself, it frustrates me that scriptwriters/directors I see on a daily basis aren't looking to games and devs like this to collaborate with to create fantastic experiences for more people to see. I'm going to have to seriously start dropping these games into conversation! Last thoughts. I reported a bug with the object descriptions which was fixed within hours. That was fantastic, thank you Sparrowland :) Only puzzle I had a problem with was the maths based one and that's simply because I'm awful with numbers, that's on me, not the game! I loved this game and everyone that was involved in the creation of it should be proud. It was bleak and horrible and desolate. And lovely.

Great atmospheric mystery adventure with fun fair puzzles that you can finish in one rainy evening. Scavenge through the derelict town of Deer Creek, learning about the people who once brought life here. Read between the lines of their journals and legacies to understand what was going on in this small community and peel back the covers of what ultimately is the tragedy at Deer Creek.

I'm making this a positive review. The game is beautiful The soundtrack is meaningful. None of the puzzles are super complicated, but they mostly logically make sense. The cons: The hint system is useless. The ending is a slide show explaining the game. I get it, making a mystery game is hard. This is a nice short story with pretty images and solid music. If that's up your ally and you don't mind the ending explaining the story you probably already know? This is a good grab.

I can't really recommend this at this price point. There are a lot of loose ends at the end of the game that the game does not clarify or explain. I'll post more thoughts on what soured my experience in spoilers. For the amount of content this game should have been maybe 10 dollars at most. Even then I don't know if I'd recommend it. [spoiler] I really did not like that the game felt the need to play a long power point cutscene at the end to explain the entire plot and to listen to the protag exclaim, oh my god, every 5 seconds and not really offering any sort of input. I think this game could have been better if it was more grounded in reality than the supernatural because it really didn't do anything with the whole ghost aspect. It's like it wanted to be those types of games that you discover the plot through notes and piecing things together but it really fell flat on its face and couldn't provide enough writing/clues to get the plot across without needing to show you verbatim what happened out of no where at the end so you don't feel satisfied for piecing it together.[/spoiler]

I got to play this game for free in exchange for a review. Wow, just wow! I really enjoyed playing this game, The graphics are great but some parts where they felt a bit too pixelated for my taste. It felt kind of hard to look at for the eye. But otherwise it was amazing, and it only really showed in some cutscenes so it didn't bother me that much. I did encounter a few issues later in the game where I couldn't interact with certain objects. Sometimes the eye icon would work, but the hand icon wouldn't. Aside from that, this is an amazing game, and I loved being able to support a friend who did voice acting for it! This isn't one of those games where you immediately know what to do next. You actually have to pay attention to the details, explore your surroundings, and figure things out for yourself. I love games like that and will definitely be recommending it to all my friends. So if you're looking for a great puzzle game with people sneaking around, mysteries to solve and challenges that really make you think in order to advance in the game, then look no further! Thank you so much Ayelén for letting me play, and I'm so happy that you got to be a part of this game! Update: Just finished the game, absolutely loved it even though the music box puzzle had me stuck for a while, but I managed to figure it out finally haha. Wish there would've been more notes or hints or something in case you got stuck, or maybe there were and I just missed them. But loved the story, great graphics and will totally keep recommending this game. It's cozy and one of those games where you can just cuddle up with a blanket and a warm drink.

oh this hurt. this hurt real bad. the ending ripped my heart out in a way i was not expecting

Gorgeous and atmospheric adventuregame. The game was well paced and enjoyable.