Reconstructing What Happened
The scene is frozen at its last moment; piece together who did what from the details.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- Design focus
- Information · Narrative · Discovery
No.260Return of the Obra Dinn01The core loop
Action → feedback → next choice- 01Survey the frozen scene
- 02Collect names and details
- 03Fill in conclusions
- 04Confirm in batches
↻Feedback changes the situation — the next round starts from there.
Walk through one round
A simplified design example. Situations and numbers illustrate the mechanic, not exact rules from a reference game.
- T1
Turn 1 · The situation
Three bodies in a cabin; you've identified only one.
- T2
Turn 2 · The player chooses
Use hammock numbers and uniform details to name the other two as sailor and cook.
- T3
Turn 3 · The feedback
All three identities and causes are correct and the set locks in.
- T4
Turn 4 · The next decision
The cook's name points to a clue in the next scene.
How it plays
Players freely inspect people, objects and text in a frozen scene, then fill in who did what to whom with what. The game confirms only when a full group is correct, blocking brute force and demanding complete reasoning.
What the player weighs
- Submit partial answers or keep investigating
- Go with the obvious clue or doubt the surface
02Start small
Scope is an editorial estimate for the minimum prototype, not the reference game or a production schedule.
03One mechanic, different implementations
Return of the Obra Dinn
A pocket watch takes you into frozen death scenes to deduce the identity and fate of dozens of crew, with confirmations arriving every three correct.
The Case of the Golden Idol
Players collect words from frozen scenes and drag them into fill-in-the-blank sentences to rebuild events and identities.
The difference worth noticing
Obra Dinn is one long mystery around a ship; Golden Idol is a series of separate cases solved through word-fill reasoning.
Case notes are Yoroll editorial summaries; rules may change between versions.
04What could you combine?
The detective is in debt and each wrong submission costs a fine, forcing a balance between solving fast and staying solvent.
Prototype this combo in Yoroll→Follow the next idea
Decoding an Unknown Tongue
No dictionary, only symbols on walls and the gestures around you.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- 01Collect unknown glyphs
- 02Guess from context
- 03Submit a translation
- 04Confirm and unlock dialogue
Learning Rules by Looking
No manual, only panels; each solved one teaches a new rule.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- 01Meet a new symbol
- 02Try and fail
- 03Infer the rule from easy panels
- 04Apply it to harder combos
Read Between the Orders
Customers never say exactly what they want; you piece it together from hints.
- Prototype complexity
- Who plays
- Solo decisions
- 01Customer describes a need
- 02Parse the clues
- 03Craft or pick an item
- 04Satisfaction feedback