Puzzle Games of the 2020s Codexery

The Case of the Golden Idol

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The Case of the Golden Idol is a detective puzzle game where players connect narrative details across eleven cases, each set at or shortly after a character's death.[1] Players investigate frozen-in-time scenes by clicking on characters, objects, and documents to collect key words.[2]

Making and release

The developers used the Godot engine to originally create the game.[3] Ports for Nintendo Switch arrived on 25 May 2023, and for Android and iOS via Netflix Games on 11 June 2024.[4] The studio's first commercial product was The Case of the Golden Idol, and they looked for a publishing partner in late 2021.[5] The creators drew inspiration from deduction-focused titles like The Return of the Obra Dinn and Her Story.[3]

A playable demo appeared on Steam on 25 August 2022, prior to the October 2022 Steam Next Fest.[4] The complete game became available on 13 October 2022 for Windows and macOS.[4]

What the cited sources add

Peters noted that the game's cases are tough but "a lot of fun to explore."[6] Livingston praised the "elaborate and intricate" cases and the "highly imaginative bit of storytelling."[7] Carpenter also noted that the game's story spans 40 years and 12 deaths in 18th-century high society.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "The Case of the Golden Idol" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ong, "The Case of the Golden Idol review – model murder mystery mayhem", Eurogamer, 26 October 2022; Waxman, "Review for The Case of the Golden Idol", Adventure Gamers, 19 March 2023; Carpenter, "The must-play puzzle game of 2022 is a pixelated murder mystery", Polygon, 1 November 2022 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "The Case of the Golden Idol" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Peters, "The Case of the Golden Idol is a rewarding series of point-and-click murder mysteries", The Verge, 2 November 2022 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "The Case of the Golden Idol" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Couture, "Pursuing the "Aha!" moment with deductive reasoning game The Case of the Golden Idol", Game Developer, 1 November 2022; "An interview with the developers behind The Case of the Golden Idol", Playstack Blog, 8 November 2022; "Demo of the Innovative Detective Game The Case of the Golden Idol Arrives", IndieDB, 16 September 2021; "An interview with the developers behind The Case of the Golden Idol", Playstack Blog, 8 November 2022; Couture, "The Case of the Golden Idol used frequent testing to sharpen its mystery-solv en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "The Case of the Golden Idol" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Color Gray Games, "The Case of the Golden Idol – News", Steam; Van Allen, "Steam Next Fest – A round-up of cool demos worth checking out", Destructoid, 5 October 2022; Color Gray Games, "The Case of the Golden Idol", Steam, 13 October 2022; "The Case of the Golden Idol coming to Switch on May 25", Gematsu, 18 May 2023; Madnani, "Brilliant Detective Game The Case of the Golden Idol Is Now Available on iOS and Android Through Netflix Games", TouchArcade, 11 June 2024; "The Case of the Golden Idol coming to PS5, PS4 on July 23 en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "The Case of the Golden Idol" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Color Gray Games, "Press Kit", itch.io, 2022; "The Case of the Golden Idol", Playstack (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Peters, "The Case of the Golden Idol is a rewarding series of point-and-click murder mysteries", The Verge, 2 November 2022. facts only, no text reused. theverge.com
  7. Livingston, "The Case of the Golden Idol Review", PC Gamer, 19 October 2022. facts only, no text reused. pcgamer.com
  8. Carpenter, "The must-play puzzle game of 2022 is a pixelated murder mystery", Polygon, 1 November 2022. facts only, no text reused. polygon.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article The Case of the Golden Idol (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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