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A jam submission

The Rivergrove FilesView game page

Murder mystery set in 1999
Submitted by NinjaChompek (@NinjaChompek), gabbykostova — 2 days, 16 minutes before the deadline
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The Rivergrove Files's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Curiosity#14.5004.500
Immersion#14.8334.833
Overall#24.3334.333
Solvability#34.3334.333
Interactivity#34.3334.333
Jam Theme#44.3334.333
Satisfaction#44.1674.167
Surprise#53.8333.833

Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme
The player is racing to solve a crime before the perpetrators escape. The phrase "Running Out of Time" is also woven into the clues.

AI Disclosure
Some audio files and photorealistic images were generated using AI tools.

Team Member Credits
Ninja Chompek:

Programming: Nikola Petrov
Sound: Nikola Petrov
Story & Writing: Gabriela Kostova
UX: Gabriela Kostova

Other Contributors

Voice Actors: Samuel Nowicki, MJ
Icons: Retro computer icons set by gdainti
Wallpapers: Photos by Anders Jilden, Dreamland Scape, Johann Siemens, and Manja Vitolić
Sounds: Sound effects by RICHERlandTV and viertelnachvier

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Comments

Submitted (2 edits)

I have been playing this game for a little while now and all I can say is I love everything about it. The 90s vibe, the UI, the music, and the way you're expected to decode the mystery.  I'll come back to edit this comment and rate once I've finished, but I just wanted to let you guys know I am thoroughly enjoying your entry.

EDIT

I just completed the game. Got almost perfect solution and I loved it. I must say The Rivergrove Files is one of the best indie games I have ever played. It feels like a professional title, from the UI to the radio station and the music. The mystery is interesting and well integrated with the theme of the jam. The game is really polished, I found no bugs. Deep down it's all about reading text, but it doesn't feel like that in any way. Hats off to you for achieving all this in such a short time frame!!!

Some minor points in case you want to go commercial (I gather you do from the Wishlist on Steam icon on the desktop) :

  • I ended up compiling my own timeline on a Word file, as I felt the in-built timeline was kind of cumbersome to fill out (although absolutely necessary and useful for gameplay). Maybe it would be worthwhile re-thinking this part of the game.
  • It took me about four hours to beat the game. Not sure there is a save-load function. If there is one, I couldn't find it; if there isn't, I think this game would definitely need one to avoid losing your timeline every time you have to stop playing (my own entry to this game does not have one, but I think it's much shorter than yours).
  • I think the use of hyphens in phone IDs was inconsistent a couple of times. I know because I had to note down the numbers exactly as they were on a piece of paper before transferring them to the automatic matching system, which wouldn't work for this reason. This set me back a little. It was nothing major, but I just thought I'd let you know. I think this happens at least with the phone found by the river.
  • Implementing cut & paste would contribute to streamline the bits where you need to transfer info from the files to the interactive parts of the UI.
  • The 98-99 feels almost unfair. I only realized by chance that this was "a thing". So you really need to pay attention for the events to make sense. One mistake with this is what ultimately led me to miss out on a perfect score.

As I said, though, this game reminded me of why I love playing indie games. Thanks very much for making it, and please, keep up the good work!!! :D :D :D


Developer

Thank you so much! Would love to read your edited comment once you complete it too, but I'm happy to hear you are enjoying so far!

Developer

Wow, thank you for the detailed (edited) comment! And for your kind words!

Since we've built this with web tech, the save system is kind of already in place - most of the UI and data is running on states that get saved after important user actions. That said, it definitely needs to be extended so players can at least reset their progress and start over.

A few questions on top of my head (if you don't mind sharing):

  • What was the most frustrating thing you found about the timeline app? Or was there something we could have done to make it usable for you?
  • Did the 4-hour gameplay match your expectations, or would you have preferred it to be shorter or longer?

Once again, thank you so much for your comment and great feedback!

Submitted

Sure, no problem. :)

  • There was nothing frustrating about the timeline app. It's a clever idea and it's useful. However, because you had to fill in different gaps in different apps (time, phone, ID, date, etc), and because time is so critical in your mystery, I found myself continuously going back a couple of screens to the source to verify everything was correct. That was the cumbersome bit. I think a cut & paste function would fix this to a large extent.
  • On a completely different note, last year I took part in this jam with a game named Dead Girl Trending (https://thistlestudios.itch.io/dead-girl-trending) where I also implemented a timeline with draggable handles. Not sure this would be useful in your case, but it might give you another perspective.
  • Four hours was on point for me. I prefer a mystery you can get into. :)

Anyway, as I said, I loved your game. It's really great work. We are probably discussing professional level of polish here.  

Developer

Thanks again! Makes sense. Will definitely check Dead Girl Trending. Good luck with this year's jam! :)