Curator Group for finding Dinn-likes and Idol-likes

A curator group for games inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol: "true" investigation games where you must observe, deduce, and reach your own conclusions and then fill paperwork documenting the case.


Return Of The Obra Dinn was a transcendent game that changed a lot of gamer's understanding of what it meant to play the role of an investigating detective. Previous games were "detective themed" and often had the play picking up clues, then going through some dialogue choices, all following along an establish narrative arc. Obra Dinn allowed people to see what happens when you have to instead investigate with your own eyes and ears, and the only thing you have to answer is "how did these people die?". Another masterstroke was the confirmation system: cases were only marked correct once 3 correct cases have been entered, meaning the player was never sure if they were on the right track until they'd done enough to have it confirmed, reinforcing the player's deduction skills and eliminating bruteforce guesswork.

This revolutionary game has gone on to influenced many, many others.

Most notable is the Golden Idol series, which itself has gone on to influence many others. This took the idea of a player being a freeform investigator and shoe-horned the experience into grotesque vignettes that are solved by the player completing (sometimes very large) sentences describing what happened. It also removed the first person aspect and had the player be an non-corporeal, time-stopping, homicide-solving entity.

Another standout game seems to be The Roottrees Are Dead, which took a genealogical approach to the same game mechanics, and which itself is influencing many others.

I think most Dinn-likes are *actually* Idol-likes, as they often borrow this more formulaic data entry method with the non-corporeal POV. Almost all of them feature Dinn's important 3-lock validation, of some kind. Whether a game curated here is influence by the Golden Idol series, Rootrees, or Obra Dinn itself, all are rooted in that original release of ROTOD and so will be called Dinn-likes for now.

Other terms that may or may not mean the same thing as Dinn-like: Information game, Metroidbrainia (ick), deduct'em'ups
Notebook mystery, Whodinnits

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See also:

• All Things Dinn-like / Idol-like (Quarter to Three forum thread)[forum.quartertothree.com]
  
• GMTK - What Makes a Good Detective Game?
  
• GMTK - How Return of the Obra Dinn Turns You Into a Detective
  
• GMTK - The 3 Types of Detective Game