The first chapter of Detective Dixie, a new crime-mystery adventure set in a magical world, has launched on iOS. You can download it for free on the App Store.
This first chapter is called The Revenge of Wishteria and has Dixie investigating the murder of the magical town’s mayor. This involves checking out the crime scene for any leftover evidence, and then searching for more clues by exploring the town and talking to the various citizens you come across. Piece-by-piece, you should be able to patch together a short history of the town and the relationships of the people that reside there.
The idea is to draw up a list of suspects and then to interrogate each one to prove their alibis, which also involves solving small mini-game puzzles. Once that’s all done, and you think you have enough evidence, you can get your prime suspect arrested. It’s at this point that all your hard work comes together as you put forward all the evidence to try to prove that the apprehended suspect is the murderer.
Adding to the appeal of Detective Dixie’s crime-mystery story and adventure game design is its visuals. Developer Giant Leap Studio, who works in illustration and concept art as well as game development, has hand-painted the game’s visuals to give what it calls a graphic novel look. It’s this, and its puzzle game design that arguably makes it comparable to Professor Layton, if nothing else.
