Dr. Darley and the Case of the De-boned Children
A downloadable visual novel for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Dr. Darley and the Case of the Deboned Children is an irreverent visual novel that is a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Grimm Fairy Tales.
World-renowned physician Dr. Antony Darley is called to a small mining town to investigate a bizarre medical case involving children losing their bones while they sleep. Over the course of his investigation, the Doctor begins to suspect the problem may not be medical, but criminal in nature...
Clocking in at around 14,700 words, Dr. Darley and the Case of the Deboned Children is linear and can be read in 1-2 sittings. It is a proof of concept, so comments and criticism are welcome!
JAN 2018 UPDATE: This visual novel now has music and sound! Fancy!
Note: If you enjoy this, be sure to try the followup Dr. Darley and the Prisoners at Santa's Workshop! pliantpress.itch.io/darley02
Download
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Development log
- Version 0.9 -- Now with sound!Jan 09, 2018
- Done is Better than PerfectAug 28, 2017
Comments
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Fantastic game as others have said with really engrossing writing. One thing that bothered me though is that the dialogue is all written in the same colour as opposed to a separate colour for each character. Also, the names of the character are always on the extreme left of the screen as opposed to whichever side the speaking character is on. These felt like missed opportunities to speed up the flow of the experience but nevertheless, a really cool piece of work.
Thanks for the feedback! I completely agree that it should be formatted so that the speaking character is highlighted in some way; hoping to improve in that regard for future projects!
A very amusing game! Had a lot of laughs when I read the part about Linus and his right hand activity :') Your art style is really quirky and fun, the story itself really imaginative and interesting. I loved the writing style, as well. Would like to find out about more of Dr Darley's cases!
Really loves the art style and the characters! Also, the way to "highlight" a certain scene with the circle in the middle of the screen is a good idea and consistent with the "oldies" comic/animation style.
Will definitely play the second game when it released. (good job with the teaser of what happened to Dr. Darley, Mr Homain)
Made a video -
I did a write-up on this! Short version: I really enjoyed it, but audio is an absolute must for the future!
Somehow I *just* noticed this post--thanks so much for the write-up!
Completely agree with your points. Part of the reason I established early on that Santa is a real guy in this universe is so people would realize the whole thing was silly, and wouldn't make a serious effort to solve the "mystery".
I do hope to add in music/sound at some point, and am working on a sequel as well!
Hi there, I am excited to play your game but i have a question (i am a starting out developer). how did you get this game to the front page of the website? did you pay money or some other way? second question, how many times has this game been downloaded, or is there no way to check that?
Hey there:
Nope, didn't pay anything. It says it's sorted by popularity, so I assume it just happens automatically if your game gets enough downloads. (I'm just guessing though.) For downloads, it's gotten a little over 200 so far.
this was a GREAT! game. sadly the game feels empty without music. the story was intriguing and humorous at the same time. I love the way it all played out. if you are thinking of playing this game here is some music you should listen to while playing
-RexTGun
Thanks for the kind words! I completely agree that the lack of sound/music is a big oversight; hoping to add that in at some point.
yup. and the music I linked just... fits to perfectly
Came here to read info on the game, ended up finding great soundtrack. Thanks so much for sharing! <3
np. at some times when I was playing the game I forgot that it wasn't part of the game.