Just revealed and it's dropping tomorrow
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3335340/Golden_Idol_Investigations_The_Age_of_Restraint/
Taking place in ancient hi-tech Lemuria

>>715508967 (OP)
Neato.

>>715508967 (OP)
Oh sick, so far the DLC's keep getting better with each one so I hope this ones good

I can't even solve the second case of the first DLC.

>>715508967 (OP)
hell yeah.
hopefully we can keep the thread alive until then.

>ancient hi-tech Lemuria
oh boy, finally, they've been teasing that for a while. hopefully they'll finally show us what the hell happened to go from space wizards to normal not-india

cool
>>715509634
the first dlc was really stupid I'd say. too many fake leads and I just didn't think it was fun
the second was good albeit a bit easy
>>715509710
>hopefully we can keep the thread alive until then.
I hope so too but I don't think so

i think i play these games wrong because i keep using the fill-in words window to eliminate words and deduce what happened, instead of just focusing on the scenes

>>715510120
Yeah I think the two errors allowed system makes it pretty easy to abuse for some stuff.

https://matthew-cavener.itch.io/house-on-redacted-st

https://haoningwu.itch.io/dear-clara

>New Zach game and new Golden Idol DLC in the same week
Boys I am eating good

>>715509974
yeah, this genre suffers a bit thread-wise because everyone rightfully avoids entering the thread to avoid spoilers.
doesn't help that we have a day to go, but hey, at least it helps spread awareness to people who have the DLC pass and don't use the steam news blurb thing

>>715510120
yeah, i meta-game the scenarios a bit sometimes, using that "two or fewer are incorrect" thing to nail some specifics down.
maybe they should disable it for screens with less than 10 spaces to fill or where the association is on the easy side?

>>715510120
I think guessing mechanics help balance things out for the casual audience, some of the clues in Obra Dinn for example are very obscure.

Fuck still haven't played 2nd dlc, 1st one was great, better than sequel

>>715510708
1st dlc was alright but I was disappointed it didn't focused so much no the professor. He's just a side character there.

puzzlebros we eating GOOD

>>715510708
2nd DLC is great. slightly easier but better difficulty curve than the 1st, which was a bit of a rollercoaster in that department.

story was interesting, pleasantly surprised by the surprise twist and it gives you a glimpse on the story of one of the characters from the main game

I just marathoned a replay of Case last night and was planning to play Rise for the first time... Weird timing. Case's DLCs are so good. Are there any characters in Rise that compare to Oberon Geller?

>>715508967 (OP)
how much of the dlcs are reliant on info from the base game? I played through it when it released and dont remember a lot from it

>>715512621
Arthav reddy

>Ori's Cave
I really hope the OST is more like DLC2 and less forgettable like DLC1/Main games were.

>>715512670
Pretty much none of it. They made them indepedant from the main game. There's a couple of references sure but you don't need to have played or remember everything about the main game.

So glad they brought back Kyle misko for dlc 2. The music was noticeably better

>>715510173
>two puzzles about "namesakes" in a row
I know the main draw is supposed to be the puzzle itself and not the writing but fucking hell.

>>715508967 (OP)
Wake me up when the 4th DLC is out finally so I can play it all at once.

>>715510173
I tried the first one. It's a good try, but it's lacking a lot. But assuming it's the guy's first or second puzzle game, it's a noble effort.

>>715512670
None require prior knowledge to solve, even the made up language puzzle in 2 uses completely new symbols. DLC1 features 2 important characters from the base game, DLC2 has a cameo that is less important.

>>715513590
The DLCs are episodic this time, no over arching plot. Not much point binging them at one go

What was his fucking problem?

>>715514121
Wasn't invited to the party, so he decided to create his own.

>>715511382
... just to starve again right after

my thoughts on certain mechanics

>time mechanics: one scene in the morning, one in the afternoon, one at night
great, don't think they've done a bad one yet
>zoom mechanics: go into a house, go into a room, go look at desk, go look at pen on desk
absolute shit, zero creativity at all
>''altered reality'': my example is the final mission of the first DLC where they see different things happening but you must figure out what really happened
this was okay, I somehow felt like it didn't hit the mark right but I can't tell why

>>715514121
his dog makes him look bad

>>715514121
Got mad over pussy. Happens to everyone.

Do you guys play with or without highlighted places of interest?

>>715515467
Why would you ever play without? So you can go pixel hunting??

>>715509501
I hate how the long nosed cop appears in every single promotional material, yet appears in only 1 case and has no impact on story whatsoever

>>715515467
yeah I also play with and think everyone should, it doesn't add anything to play without

>>715515943
pretty much everyone on the cover are red herrings

>>715515806
Is pixel hunting even that bad in the game? But to answer quest, I feel like it does somewhat take away the notion of exploring a crime scene.

>>715515943
I don't remember the blond bald guy even appearing in the game but he's now a part of the dlc >>715508967 (OP) so who knows. Maybe we'll see more of the long nosed cop.

>>715508967 (OP)
rizz

>>715510708
>>715512342
Wait, what? I thought you guys were joking or made a mistake, but there's a second DLC already and this is going to be the third one?! I completely missed that!

>>715520102
You aren't the only one. I also barely played the second dlc.

Any good Golden Idol clones? The last Steam Next Fest I played demos for City of Voices, Confidential Killings and Mystery of the Malign. All promising but they haven't come out already. I've been thinking about checking out The Roottrees are Dead or Duck Detective.

>>715508967 (OP)
Why haven't indies started to copy-paste this formula?
This is THE way to do a quest game today, and indies are usually good exactly at story/art, and bad at mechanical complexity and design systems, which Golden Idol has resolved for them.


The only issue with the model is translations. Wish I could give my mother this game to play, she loves detectives books, but there's no localization and its impossible for me to translate it given the nature of the puzzles.

>>715521319
The Duck Detective games (there's two now) are both cute but kinda short and easy. Roottrees was a bit more meaty but I'm not a fan of the artstyle. And I say that as someone who LIKES Golden Idol's wacky-ass art.

i'm stuck on the poison aunt level of the first one.

>>715521319
Golden idol and the similar games you mentioned are inspired by Obra Dinn so you definitely want to play that if you haven't.

There's also Unheard, a sound-based one.
Recently there's a text adventure "Type Help", but the Roottrees devs are helping turn it into a graphical game so you may want to wait for that:
https://william-rous.itch.io/type-help
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3641000/The_Incident_at_Galley_House/

>>715521532
Same and honestly the free version's AI photos have this uncanny feel that contributes to the atmosphere.

>>715521509
There are a shitton of indie attempts at this now (at least with the Next Fest). Not that I'm really mad about it, though.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3521490/Mystery_of_the_Malign?snr=1_25_4__318 (my favorite one so far, the demo is a really fun detective thing with how fucking stupid people are when investigated)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3342470/City_of_Voices/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The_Roottrees_are_Dead/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2945150/Feline_Forensics_and_the_Meowseum_Mystery/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3366350/Confidential_Killings_Demo/
>>715521532
> And I say that as someone who LIKES Golden Idol's wacky-ass art.
Same, it was actually well done for both of them IMO.
The artstyle is certainly a bitch with some of them. City of Voices, for example, was both too pixelated and unanimated to make just looking at things a chore. Mystery of the Malign is again my favorite here due to emulating the style of a low-budget puzzle game from 2000 perfectly. Also I wonder how many of them will have an actually good OST. You can't really top Misko with this, but I hope there could be some nice things out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZ5n9GsgVU&list=OLAK5uy_maa_IbVXACwIqXwcq-3ZuSHFFdW8QfEFs&index=5

>>715515943
they've been doing that a while, most of the characters in a lot of promotional materials are random background characters to throw people off.
the cop sticks out because of the absolute schnozzle on the guy

>>715520102
4th one on the way too.
for the first game i also got wind of the DLC pretty late, but this time around they announced the 4 DLCs straight away, with release windows to boot

>>715522115
Is there a reason not to play the free version first? How big improvement the paid version make?

>>715521996
>but the Roottrees devs are helping turn it into a graphical game
hell yeah, both were great

>>715523413
there's a separate little story that's present only in the paid version.
as far as i know, the base game is the same except for the AI art being replaced

I finally got around to playing the two dlc’s for the first game, and honestly I’m pretty disappointed. I feel like they both needed one more case each - the story just kind of ends and it kicks you out with no kind of closure. I much prefer the second games approach to things

>>715525143
Yeah, three cases fell too little even despite being bigger than the ones in the base game

>>715508967 (OP)
Golden Idol games are peak reddit