I have gotten all the bodies but now I’m stuck on some cases and seeing that some of them are really difficult to deduce even if their easy and I wanted to complete this blind, what do I do

How tf does his leg get there? How tf does his body get there?

Ok, look, John's leg isn't next to his body.

I'm a genius detective, I know. Thank you.

His leg is closer to the stern while his body is closer to the bow (back and front of the ship, respectively). Now, we see Filip run to the stern in The Unholy Captives II. (basically as soon as the mermaids get on deck btw so his voodoo senses are pretty sensitive), so we can assume that The Unholy Captives IV. happens basically right after parts II and III (however, these are deductions and it could've happened wayyy after). Regardless, John's leg is found on the opposite side of the ship from where his body is, and it's not found because we (the inspector) find it 4 years later when the Obra Dinn returns home. My question is, how tf did John get from the aft of the ship to the bow without spilling any blood? There are only a few droplets here and there along the passageway.

My point is, someone, either another crew member (haha crewmate amoog us hahaha), Filip, or John himself, carried/dragged himself across the entire ship, and managed to spill a tiny tiny amount of blood after losing his entire leg. He then makes it to the bow side and then, for some reason, decides to start spilling an insane amount of blood? If John/Filip/whoever managed to bandage it up to stop the bleeding, then I blame Henry Evans for killing John here because he undoes the bandaging. Regardless, he leaves such a small blood trail that no one finds him until we do. (A similar thing happens to Zungi, but at least there's a blood trail there. We can blame the crew's negligence/uncaringness for not finding him)

All in all, this is a larger conspiracy I have that Henry Evans is incompetent, as he is unable to save any one of his patients after they befall horrific tragedies.

More at 8 and thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

Hey I’m one of the devs for The Duke is Dead and I wanted to share our game with fellow detective game fans! We just released a free demo for our game on steam

We were inspired by Obra Dinn so if you’re looking for more fill-in-the-blank mystery, please check it out.

The Duke is Dead demo on steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4592030/The_Duke_is_Dead_Demo?utm_source=gi_reddit 

Okay, so I'm pretty sure these two fates are correct. I have figured out and validated all of the other possible fates, but these two are last. Am I missing something? Why aren't they validating? Please help.

To give few examples as for my reasoning:

If Abigail had stayed in her cabin nothing bad would have happened to her.

Since after The Bargain, there is no risk of any other attack all the remaining people are actually safe.

People who tried to escape the ship with Nichols or later at the beginning of The Doom chapter could have, with a bit of luck, survived the attacks of the various beasts. Exception being Miss Lim, since she was taken on a boat against her will.

Characters who have died in various accidents and while defending the ship are counted as those who couldn't have done anything different and had no way of changing their fate, with the exception of Charles Hershtik and Marcus Gibbs, which are a little bit up for debate.

Lastly, there are a few characters whose actions directly contribute to the tragedy of the Obra Dinn (Nichols) or could have in some way do something that would change the ill fate of the ship. An interesting example is It-Beng Sia who, by opening the chest and stunning the sirens, actually saved Nichols' life. Had he not done that, the sirens would have killed Nichols, taken the shell and not bothered the ship at all.

I've only got 6 fates left to solve, but they don't seem really solveable. by this point in the game, the remaining 6 people are all to my knowledge properly tagged, as in faces have been matched to names. the problem is, I can't figure out their fates. for the 3rd mate and captains steward, I can't assign fates, the game simply won't let me. I presume this is intentional unless I missed a body or two somewhere. the remaining 4 are the people in the escape boat, I've tried plugging in different destinations assuming that they survived but the closest options to them at that point in the journey didnt get me anywhere and I feel scummy just forcing locations until it works or doesn't. I figure they survived since their boat is there in part 3 and gone in 4 with no monsters to speak of at that point in the game and no option to select that they just drowned because they went under or something. Im further confused since there are 4 people on that boat, presumably who all met the same fate since all 4 go missing together, but only two people with unassignable fates, meaning there aren't two groups of 3 fates to check off, but also there isnt a 3rd unassignable fate to match the other two so I'd have to lump one random boatgoer with the 3rd mate and steward? help please lol.

EDIT: figured it out, ty

I started playing Obra Dinn a while back, but had to quit pretty early on due to shakey camera, constant changes in visuals/transition effects, and the colorscale. I have migraines and I get motion sickness pretty easily.

I keep hearing about how this game is a masterpiece, so I feel pretty left out. Are there any settings/mods that will make the camera more tolerable? Will I have to pixel hunt to identify any characters?

For context, I've played almost every game in the genre that was inspired by Obra Dinn: Golden Idol (both), Chants of Senaar (halfway through), Roottrees, Type Help, and Ratline.

Edit: Thank you all so much for the recommendations! I'll download the mod for sure and look into the color settings. FOMO was strong on this one, so excited to give the game another try!

It's really fun trying to render art mimicking Obra Dinn dither effects

Pretty early into the game after you get the memory for The Doom Part 1, you can deduce from the dialogue (something to the effect of "You killed my brother!"), viewing the first memory log where a man got crushed by cargo and searching the ship crew directory to find two men with matching surnames you get: Samuel and Nathan Peter (at least that's the steps I took personally to connect them)

I correctly guessed that Samuel was the brother killed since his name was last on the directory and I figured for thematic purposes the devs wanted the first person to die on the voyage to be placed dead last on the list

But is there any way to actually tell the Peters apart, through empirical evidence rather than my circumstantial guesswork?

We all know that Nichols is HUGELY at fault for stealing the shell and bringing it too close to the water, calling the mermaids and then stupidly bringing those dangerous creatures back to the ship.

Fuck Edward Nichols forever.

But on replay I have another theory of who else inadvertently played a part in dooming the ship to monsters.

Fillip Dahl.

After Chioh Tan warned the Captain about the shells (and then got spikes for his troubles), I imagine the Captain confiscated them from the mermaids before locking them in the lazarette. The shells are clearly very powerful artifacts that can be used to do supernatural things. Like that one mermaid in the end only had one and herself that was enough power to protect the ships from storms and the ljke until it reached English shores. The mermaids should’ve been powerless with them taken away so far from them.

Except for one. The shell that was in the chest Beng dipped in mercury that was stored in the same room as them.

Maybe when it was inside the mercury, it was blocking out the mermaid’s access to it. But when Fillip pulled it out of the chest then died, the block was removed and it was in close enough proximity for the mermaids to draw on.

I think Fillip probably pulled it out after the Soldiers had raided the ship; it takes a while to break a metal chain with just eating utensils and dinner was after everyone was winding down from the soldiers. The three mermaids alone shelless could only call two soldiers, but with the extra boost from a super close shell, all three were able to call upon a kraken.

That’s why I noticed the shells was glowing REALLY BRIGHT during the Bargain, the brightest it’s ever glowed in the entire game. It was being USED from the moment it exited the mercury.

!I did a lot of fates already, I think I found all the 'new bodies', the game told me storm is coming and I should go back. I went back thinking I will get the bargaining info Dr Evans held back from me. Instead the game ends and shows me my results, with Dr Evans dead before he could reply to me. That's when I realised he is the surgeon btw:).

I went back to keep playing from before I went into the boat but I'm not sure what I need to do now. Kind of running on fumes of information, still managed to guess some fates but I'm down to hit and miss tactics which are not fun.

Are there more bodies/doors I missed? Does the storm coming mean I found it all?

E.g. there is a shirtless lad in turban, I saw him in one scene running with a sword. I assume he is Indian. There is really no information for me to guess his death so I assume I have not seen everything?!

How do I check if I've seen everything?

Sorry for going in circles and appreciate any help.

I really liked the roottrees are dead and heard it was inspired by return of the obra dinn. So I decided to play it. I did quite well with roottree as I did not require any hint in main game and a few in RoottreeMania. However I am feeling a little confused in Obra dinn.

I finished the end chapter, then I watched all the scenes in the doom. I deduced 6 identities total. I am now confused with the next 3 that I deduced. Face of one is I am sure 3rd mate martin, death by loose cannon is his steward. Fate of another named bernard is knifed by captain. I learnt the name in the escape last part.

I am confused about the person that died in part 6 of doom, he launched midair with mention of powder in audio, kraken behind him. I assume he was exploded and his identity is one of the steward (from his dress) but the three verification is not happening.

Any hint?

Also in general tips?

Also I am confused about how you discover new bodies. Are they all explorable from start or will new areas only unlock when you confirm fates?

Hello!

Me and my partner just played (and completed) Obra Dinn for the first time and we have been completely enthralled by the game, I can’t stop thinking about it! An old ship came to our hometown a few days later and we decided to take the opportunity to take a bunch of Obra Dinn style death photos, I thought some folks here might appreciate them.

So the question is, what were their names? How did they die?

Sorry if the camera/audio quality is bad ✌️

I saw all the available corpses, went through EVERYTHING twice, i am stuck and this game doesn't make it enjoyable enough for me to go back and look through everything again.

I have identified 12 people, for the majority I can't even figure out the case of death, and i figured I'm just too stupid for this game. Everything is doubious, confusing, and impossible to figure out.

I am loving the art style and all, but after 3 hours of figuring out nothing I'm about to give up.

I researched a loose category often called “Obra Dinn-likes” and played as many of them as I could.

What I found is that about half of the games often recommended under this label don’t really feel like Obra Dinn-likes to me, because they lack what I’d call “Dinn/Idol-like” mechanics.

I tried to categorize them and put the titles below.

Some of you might ask, ‘why is this game here?'
My criteria for what counts as an “Obra Dinn-like” are explained in the article below.
https://note.com/planetary_gear/n/nf7af0733a2fd

The article is in Japanese(and too long!), but feel free to read it through machine translation.

I hope this is useful.:

■Dinn-likes
◆Dinn Itself
-Return of the Obra Dinn

◆Dinn Followers
-Utter a Name
-Conscience
-Unheard

◆Unreleased
-Funeral for the Sun
--Shadows in Sanluca(released)
-Locator: The Search for Abigail Lidari
-Death at Sycamore Hall

◆Not Dinn-likes to me, but they may work for you
-MIND DIVER
-Mr Investigator

■Idol-likes
◆Idol itself
-The Case of the Golden Idol
--The Rise of the Golden Idol

◆Idol Followers
-Murder at the Birch Tree Theater
-Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game
-The Case of the Worst Day Ever
-Confidential Killings - A Detective Game
--We Suspect Foul Play
--Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
-Mini Murder Mysteries
-Mysteries of Old Tokyo
-Detectopia

◆Short Pieces
-Quid Pro Quo
-Wrongly Accused(Demo)
-The Yearbook

◆Unreleased
-City of Voices
-Inkblood
-The Fleming Mansion Murder Case
-Crimson Seer
-Surradia: An Art Retrospective
-Cold Case: The Red Dress Murder
-When Eyes Close

◆Idol-like / third-person point-and-click hybrids
-Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
-Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
-Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery

◆Idol-like / First-person point-and-click hybrids
-Who Summoned It?
-The Murder of Ava Monroe(Unreleased)
-Emma Riley: Dream Detective(Unreleased)

■Her Story-likes
◆Her Story Itself
-Her Story
--Telling Lies
--Immortality

◆Her Story Followers
-Lost Wiki: Kozlovka
-Hymer 2000
-Curse of Shunned Wolf
-CaseCracker
-RDの遠隔推理（RD no Enkaku Suiri）(Unreleased)

■Roottrees-likes
◆Roottrees Itself
-The Roottrees are Dead

◆Roottrees Followers
-The Archives of Trevosa
-Leaftaker
-A Case Fraud
-The Ratline
-Kinophobia
-Gumshoe Detective Agency: The First Case
-Tessa Blackwood’s Crime Time
-Another Night Archive(Unreleased)

■Type Help-likes
◆Type Help Itself
-Type Help
--The Incident at Galley House

◆Type Help Followers
-The Case of the Dungeon Descent
-What happened to the crew?
-The Red Pearls of Borneo
--Green Mist Over Portland(Unreleased)
-Ghost appearing type Hell's Princess
-ギルド探求団へようこそ！（Welcome to the Guild Explorers/Girudo Tankyu-Dan E You-Koso）
--鏡のマジョリティア(Kagami no Majoritia）
--消えたリリーと呪いの館（Kieta Lily to Noroi no Yakata）
-その名前は館に眠る(Sono Namae ha Yakata ni Nemuru)

■Others felt like Obra Dinn
-My Friends the Monster Trainers
-[Classified] of 2015
-Strange Horticulture
--Strange Antique
-Mystery of the Malign
-Once Upon A Crime In The West
-18 Days of Silence
--Lambkin
-A Storied Life: Tabitha
-TR-49
-Book of Death: The King Must Die
-The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
-Demons'Timeline
-From Ruins - A Detective Adventure(Unreleased)
-Owlskip games & Inkle

Edit: I phrased this wrong, I meant 'are the bodies i require available to find at the point I'm at in the game. And the answer was yes, I found the sneaky one that was hiding and everything started falling into place swiftly. I also didnt realise you could mark them as 'unknown topman' and instead thought it meant there were unknown victims occasionally haha

I have been stuck for at least an hour just going in circles. I think I've identified quite a lot of the characters- all the officers/mates, all of the ladies, artist/helmsman/butcher/surgeon/bosun and quite a lot of the deaths causes, not as many of the attackers. I've got 9 locked in deaths, and identities assigned for every name mentioned in the memories so far, and have used accents to get a few more.

I am getting frustrated at not knowing who the guy with the beanie is since he is present and involved in several important scenes. it feels like there is one critical piece of information that would help unlock some more information to push forward the investigation

Even after going up and down the ship a few times it's like I've hit a wall? I've done a tiny bit of reading up on the game so as to not spoil it, and it looks like after 15 bodies the rain starts. But it's all still clear skies upon the Obra Dinn. Everything is open except for the very bottom deck.

Hey everyone!

Like a lot of you, I really wish I could play Return of the Obra Dinn for the first time again. Unfortunately, once you know everyone's identity, that's it. So I came up with a little challenge that made the game feel fresh again for me, and I thought some of you might enjoy trying it too.

I call it Parker's Run.

Rule 1: Complete the journal in chronological order.

You can only write in the journal following the actual order people died. If you haven't solved the first death, you can't move on to the second, and so on.

This completely changes how you approach the game because now you're trying to figure out when each body appears in the timeline, not just who they are.

Rule 2: No guessing.

You can only write a person's name and cause of death after you've found enough solid evidence to identify them. Use the triangle difficulty indicator above their portrait as your clue requirement.

1 triangle = 1 definite clue

2 triangles = 2 definite clues

3 triangles = 3 definite clues

This rule made me notice so many little details I'd completely missed before. I even ended up reading about historical jobs and ship terminology just to confirm some identities, which was surprisingly fun.

Rule 3: No crew sketch or ship map.

Don't look at the crew sketch or the ship map at all.

Without them, you have to recognize people by their faces, clothes, accents, and where you find them. You also start learning the layout of the ship naturally instead of relying on the map.

That's it! Three simple rules.

If anyone gives Parker's Run a try, let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear whether it made the game feel fresh for you too.

Let's all return to the Obra Dinn. See you aboard!

If there were a couple people that I could tell were likely were two specific people, like the two escapee ladies, the two brothers, or when I had the stewards/mates narrowed down to two. Was I cheating by swapping them and seeing it popped as a right find?

And then, by association, I knew the stewards e.g. were next to their "Nth mate"

Flashback to Spring 2019, I am a freshman taking my second English class at Georgia Tech. The class was centered around Moby Dick, sea shanties, and whatever else fit that theme. At the beginning of the semester, our professor informed us that our required homework included downloading Steam, and then purchasing & playing The Return of the Obra Dinn. As an 18-year-old female who does not game, all I cared about was the fact that this was taking up entirely too much storage on my laptop.

This all came to me many years later because my husband was watching a video about Blue Prince, and it reminded me – almost like a fever dream – about playing this extremely difficult puzzle game with weird black and white graphics for my class in college. I kid you not, I googled “black and white puzzle game where a monster attacks a ship,” and BAM The Return of the Obra Dinn. I questioned if I made this whole thing up until I saw an image of the start screen.

Now, all I can think is – what an absolute legend of a professor. Imagine the power you have to make playing a video game required reading. There were literally student athletes in that class, and they were required to play this game. Incredible.

Hi everyone,

We are a small student indie dev team working on a detective deduction game called Dear Suspect**.** It is not a remake or fan game of Return of the Obra Dinn, but Obra Dinn is one of the clearest influences on how we think about deduction, player inference, and the pleasure of reconstructing truth from incomplete evidence.

We wanted to ask this community because Obra Dinn players tend to understand a very specific kind of design problem: how to make deduction feel genuinely earned rather than guided, random, or over-explained. We have our own take on this question because a lot of deduction game genuinely feels like a checklist: there are clicks to be done and the deduction is drawn out. feels more like another way to tell a story rather than an intellectual challenge.

In Dear Suspect, you write letters to living townsfolk to investigate a family massacre.
The player investigates a case by piecing together evidence, testimonies, contradictions, and relationships. The core design question we are struggling with is:

• How much structure should a deduction game give the player before it stops feeling like real reasoning?

For example, we are currently thinking about questions like these:

• Should the game confirm correct deductions immediately, or should confirmation only happen after the player commits to a larger theory?
• Should suspects, clues, and events be organized in a visible logic board, or should the player be forced to build more of that structure mentally?
  • Right now we have an evidence-board-like system as the validator. Questions are organized in a tree-like structure, where you answer a question; it reveals the next or next set of questions that need to be answered to proceed. Some sets of questions are bundles; you have to select an answer for all three within the bundle to submit for validation.
• How much ambiguity is satisfying, and when does ambiguity become unfair?
  • Obra Dinn ingeniously used a lot of new paradigms(not the most accurate word) for deduction, things like ethnic appearances, occupational title, cultural elements. We used similar stuff like motives, physical possibility, some ethical and cultural clues. Which one do YOU think was the most ingenious in Obra Dinn?

In Obra Dinn, one of the brilliant things is that the game rarely tells you exactly what to think. It gives you enough evidence, then trusts you to notice patterns. We are trying to learn from that without simply copying the Fate-book structure.

For those of you who love Obra Dinn,

• what mechanics made the deduction process feel fair, rigorous, and satisfying?
• And on the other hand, what kinds of mechanics in similar deduction games make the experience feel too hand-held, too arbitrary, or too dependent on guessing?

We are especially interested in feedback on deduction systems, clue validation, suspect identification, and how to preserve the feeling of “I figured this out myself.” We are mainly looking for design criticism from people who understand why Obra Dinn works so well to help us build this game. Thanks so much for reading. Any thoughts would be genuinely useful to us:)))))!

Disclosure Edit: The game uses generative AI, and it's only for game mechanics. All art, music, play script, and design are hand-authored by our team. Gen AI is only used for the game mechanism of writing letters and receiving custom letters. Our play script, along with all designs of the mystery, is hand-authored, inspired by the French Novel Monsieur Ouine.

If you are interested in how we make it happen while not infringing upon other creators’ rights, we disclosed it. Please read our devlog on our website: elegists.studio

Essentially, everything is prewritten. Personalities, knowledge, tones, all that ai does is extract our handwritten material.