The Red Dress Murder [DEMO]
A body was found on the side of a busy highway with no identification. Can you figure out who they are and what happened?
Explore a Windows98-like computer to solve cases. Use databases to cross-reference information found within documents and discover the truth one word at a time in this fill-in-the-blank deduction game.
Development log
- Cold Case Demo Conclusion - Case File 3 Available!73 days ago
- A new desktop-dedective deduction game!Mar 29, 2026
Comments
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This is great; only intended to stream file 1 but got close to finishing file 2... very much stuck toward the end of it though on some of the times!
Hey! Thank you for playing the Cold Case! It was very helpful and insightful seeing you play the game. Love the Shatner voice that you gave Kowalski and your Moss impression - we're huge IT crowd fans.
You were very close! You and the chat were on the right track with using the moteltimesheet to determine when the victim arrived at school - you HAD the correct time when you did the math of the travel time. Take another crack at the bookstore time. The bookstore receipt indicates time that the left, but what about the time when they FIRST got to the bookstore... Take a closer gander at the torn bookstore flyer. Bigger hint below...
The flyer states that it's only a short walk from Roosevelt Elementary. If you know what time the victim left school AND you know that they went to the bookstore next then you should be able to deduce when they STOPPED BY the bookstore.
Awesome game so far! I'm hopelessly stuck on the last bit of case 3 tho 😭
Spoilers below
For the life of me I can't figure out how to order the locations of the suspects. IDK who was at interstate 94 and unsure of how to find this out.
Look for evidence that was recovered from someones home.
If you're still stuck...
Look for a speeding ticket.
Very fun, case of the golden idol vibes, cant wait to play the full game some feedback 1 - Consistency on first and last name order for looking up AND displaying games on the evidence, vehicle and criminal record lookup
2 - Organize evidence better, it probably makes sense for evidence tag #s to be visible when reviewing the evidence. Either allow user to reorder the case file evidence order or help by grouping related items (evidence found in car to be close to said car search)
3 - Alternative equivalent keywords - no one wants to brute force check the story word by word when you already got the story figured out. Try to remove unnecessary duplicative words that when read in the conclusion mean the same (e.g. child + daughter)
4 - Allow reordering of keywords, this was helpful in case of the golden idol
Hey, thanks for the feedback! Really helpful stuff. We'll try our best to implement them into the full release.
This was really fun! I can't wait for the full game, you guys are going to do so well!
Thank you so much!
Hi! Thanks for the fun. For File 2, is the date for the evidence of the traffic intersection enforcement camera correct, or should it be 9 Oct instead?
Yes! That was a typo and has been fixed. Thank you.
I input the answers in case 2 and I have everything correct, but it's still saying "two or fewer labels are incorrect" on the victim's timeline.
Hey, could you post a picture of your solution?
I thought I posted it but must not have hit "post." Here ya go.
https://imgur.com/a/gdJNdCr
"main street" should be "intersection".
If you were looking at the solution on steam, it's "main street" because it was changed In a later version. I believe you're playing on an older version. The reason for the change is that it was too confusing because "main street", "intersection", or "third avenue" could have worked for that slot. I'm sorry about that.
i cant resolve the first case, i think im dumb :/
Hey! Check out this hint and solution thread https://steamcommunity.com/app/4050160/discussions/0/796714540884746468/
I am still stuck at case 1.
Hey! Check out this hint and solution thread https://steamcommunity.com/app/4050160/discussions/0/796714540884746468/
I don't know if I am being dumb or something is missing. I downloaded the game and I am on the first case. I only see 4 people visiting the scene but there are slots for 5.
I also can't seem to search the criminal history database and I am collected all the info I can. Not sure what I am missing. Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
Hey! The criminal history db has not been implemented yet and you don't need it to solve File 1 or 2.
As far as the scene puzzle, think of all the characters involved...
Hey I'm super stuck on Case 2 - I can tell that I'm missing at least one location word based on the conclusion but I can't find it in any of the documents. I've gone through all of the documents, searched for any vehicles / evidence items (1 licence plate, two items - is there more?) but nothing. Any chance of a hint? Specifically I can't fill in "She walked through ________"
Shoot. I made a mistake and removed the word you need in the last update. I'm sorry about that. It should be fixed now. You can find the keyword you need by looking in documents that relate to vehicles or group events.
Legend, thank you!
im so excited to play this omg it looks so fun
We hope you enjoy it!
Nice game. Feedback after completing 2 available case files (browser version):
1. After finishing 2nd case, went back to the 1st one but everything in conclusion was wiped, collected evidence too. After that tried going back to 2nd case file, but access to it is now denied. Notes and mail are saved at least.
2. The conclusions... The '2 or more keywords are wrong' is crazy in the part where you have to input correct time digit by digit, as well as locations (E.g. intersection/main street/third ave can all fit, with no way of knowing whether you put it right and something else is wrong, or everything is). In general it's a bit frustrating because you can only know you have done anything right when you're 2 keywords away, then just bruteforce last keywords.
3. Would be nice to have:
- timestamps for emails,
- for case file 2 parent's statement/interview (making the 1st half of the day a bit clearer and understand how that day was supposed to go, to spot what went wrong (red herring or not)
- maybe a way for the player to at least visually cross-out/disable keywords to reduce clutter, since you can get a lot of useless names/words.
This is about all I have I think. I like what you have so far, reminds me a bit of Orwell games and more of The Operator.
Hey! Thanks for leaving such a thorough review. I'll look into it and address your points. Thank you again.