The Crimson Debt
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
The Crimson Debt
You've lived your whole life in a single basement. Now, your cage is unlocked. You could leave this house at any moment you want. But without knowing what happened, can you ever truly be free?
'The Crimson Debt' is a short mystery Visual Novel, heavily focused on creating a puzzle box of murders. It's lighter on the narrative side and presents a fairly difficult challenge designed for those who appreciate picking apart a mystery. There are two modes, 'Curated' and 'Purist.' The Curated mode is for most players who would like some guidance on how to progress. The Purist mode is for the masochists who want to try and untangle everything without any guidance.
This game was built for 'The Case Of The Thinky Game Jam,' 2023. It was also written in a day, so I blame all typos on that. Credit to Temteno for the logo, Daria O. for the music, and thanks to Amaranth for playtesting.
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WOW - that made my brain hurt, mostly in a good way! :D
Fascinating puzzle with an interesting MC. :)
If you’re still looking for typos, there’s a to/too mix-up and a sleight/slight mix-up right near the beginning of the game once the prisoner starts narrating.
Thanks again for a great brain work-out! :D
EDIT: Also, I’m super excited to hear you have a third larger game in the works! I really enjoyed The Zodiac Trial and have already purchased The Divine Deception, though I haven’t played it yet.
I really enjoyed the game, honestly! It was quite difficult, and there was a lot of guesswork to be done, but I really liked having to piece together the mystery without handholding (or at least much, I played the game on Curated but it still didn't feel like it gave too much away). It was also very nice to actually need to write out notes on the mystery, you really do have to pick things apart and it's a lot of fun.
I love the game and the concept, but it’s soooo frustrating. Apparently I am very close to solving the case, but the result doesn’t make much sense to me and I just can’t find the error in my reasoning. I understand it’s supposed to be hard, but some hints would be appreciated.
Hey, glad to hear you're enjoying the game, and sorry to hear you've gotten stuck.
Are you playing on Curated? If not, I'd recommend trying it out. Alternatively, if you want, you can tell me what you're stuck on, and I'd be happy to give to give some direction here.
Thanks for the quick response :) I guess I should’ve told you where I am at with my investigation, but I was wary of posting spoilers. I am playing on Curated and my results so far are:
Something is missing, but I can’t figure out what it is, despite experimenting more than I care to admit XD
Good to know! It's tricky to think of a nuanced hint in the situation, so I'll just let you know that it's the last question that you need to change.
Thanks for the hint, I figured it out. I guess a nuanced hint here could’ve been “look the big picture” or something to that effect.
Awesome game. I played on Purist and very much enjoyed the experience. I think the difficulty was just right. Though admittedly you don't have to understand everything to get the correct conclusions. I sure didn't, lol. I had maybe 75% of the mystery truly solved, but that was enough to understand the broader strokes of the crimes and finish the game.
But yeah, overall was a fun and rewarding experience. There was one "Eureka!" moment in particular that was very satisfying, after I realized the identity of a character who had been rather enigmatic up until that point.