The Hartford TimesInvestigative FileAugust 3, 1999
Who killed Vivian Roberts?
- Who killed her?
- What was the motive?
- What was the murder weapon?
Bring back all three, plus a front-page photo. Any photo will do.
The Case File
Case No.PK
SubjectThe 1995 murder of Vivian Roberts, unsolved
LocationPainscreek, a town abandoned
StatusReopened · 1999 · 256 discoveries · ~9-12 hrs
Case Summary
Nothing in Painscreek is gated by reflexes. What gates it is paper: a key in one building is named in a diary in another, and a code you need tonight was written down in 1974. You are Janet Kelly, sent by your editor to bring back a killer, a motive, a weapon and a photo for the front page. This companion only knows what you have found: log a discovery and the leads, codes, board and connections move with you. Help comes in four steps, from a reminder to the full answer, and only when you ask.
0
Discoveries
0/15
Stories
0/4
Tools
0%
Completion
The case, as you have built it
Build the case
Write your theory in your own words; nothing here is a menu with the answer in it. The companion has no answer key: it only weighs how much of your own evidence you attach, never whether you are right.
Completion
Your estimate from what you have logged. The game grades completion too: finish under 50% and the paper fires you, right answers or not.
🧠 Connections
Lost?
Check Leads. A lead marked Blocked is waiting on something you have not found yet: stop forcing it, the companion will tell you when it changes.
📖 Before you start read once
The one thing
Read everything, and photograph what the Journal will not keep.
Diaries, letters and newspapers file themselves in Janet's Journal. Notes, posters and puzzle instructions do not. Raise the camera (C), take the shot, and check the album (P) later. Most "where is the key" problems are answered by a page you already read.
Easy mode
Log as you go. Every discovery you log opens the next leads, files any code into the Codes and Clues locker on the Field Log and draws the Board, so you never keep a database in your head.
Tourist traps
- Rattling a locked door. If it will not open, the key or code is elsewhere. Log it as blocked in the Notebook and move on.
- Hunting a key when a code exists. Several locks want numbers, not keys, and the numbers live in diaries and photographs.
- Playing the final recording early. It starts the endgame: no more saving, no more collecting. Do not touch it until your file is full.
- Agonising over the front-page photo. Any photo works. It is cosmetic.
Four endings
The ending depends on how much you found and what you answer. Under 50% completion: fired. Over 50% with the wrong answers: the case stays unsolved. The right answers: the truth comes out. And the final sequence has a fail state of its own, so save before you start it. The companion will never tell you the answers.
📰 Investigation Chronicle
Clears your finds, hints and case theory on this device, and locks the Leads desk again. Your Notebook stays unless you choose.
Start a new case? Every logged find, hint level, Done mark, Chronicle entry and your Killer / Motive / Weapon theory will be cleared on this device.
You are synced: this also clears the PK tab on the sheet.
Objective finds only, one tap each. Your thoughts go in the Notebook. You see what is reachable now and what you have logged; nothing further ahead.
🔢 Codes and Clues
📚 Character stories
Each person's complete set of diaries is a Steam achievement. A story shows here once you have met the person.
Leads move you forward. That means spoilers.
This is the one part of the companion built to tell you where to go. Cards stay broad, and Remember → Nudge → Hint → Solution gives away a little more each step. To open the desk, type HELPME.
Only what your evidence has established. Unknown links stay unknown, and your theories never become facts here. Tap anyone to see how you know.
Capture now, sort later. Names the companion already knows turn into chips you can follow. Notes stay on this device.