The Lost Borealis Expedition
You play as John Falcon, second-in-command on a ship sent on an Arctic expedition to rescue the crew of the U.S.S. Borealis. You've only been at sea for two days when the crew starts complaining about sightings of ghosts.
The Captain has asked you to investigate. He wants you to prove that the ship isn't haunted before the crew panics.
Controls: Mouse, Esc/M for menu
The game saves automatically. (In the cryptic puzzle, your progress is only saved at certain checkpoints.)
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Update 2: Version 2.4Jul 17, 2023
- Update 1: Version 2.3Jun 21, 2023
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Hi Nice Game, Is there a continuation of this story? Should I download the full version to get the full story?
Hi, I do have a full story in mind for this but right now this is all there is. Thanks for playing and the comment! :)
You're welcome
Hi, so I don't know if it's intended or not but on the web version it won't let me go to the Main Deck even though I've talked to everyone else on the lower half of the ship and found no sage nor anything I can actually take from the hammocks.
I did take the ale from the Mess but can't use it on anything either
Have you been to the other side of the Mess? (There’s an arrow at the bottom.)
You don’t need to visit the main deck to finish the game.
Thank you! I didn't realise there was another side, most of the other arrows were for areas that you could get to otherwise. I assumed it was to go down the ladder.
You’re right, it is a bit hard to see. Thanks for playing! :)
It's challenging and I wouldn't have finished without the walkthrough. I love the concept. I hope to see more of this.
Thank you so much for playing and your comment! Really means a lot to me! :)
Did you play the updated version? I've made some changes so that there's a slightly gentler difficulty curve. I'd love to get feedback on where players are getting stuck so I can fix it and make it a more enjoyable experience.
Yes, I played the updated version. The last puzzle was the most difficult. I finished the 3-question quiz by randomly selecting locations and the 5-question quiz by checking the walkthrough. Maybe I'm not smart and clever people will appreciate this level of difficulty. Anyway, I highly enjoyed the game :)
I think other people are having trouble with the location order as well. I'll try to fix it in another update.
Thanks again! :)
Pretty good! I found it challenging, but I enjoyed the rewarding progression and exploration.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
very good
Thank you! :)
That was a bit more difficult than I had expected ...
I had to use the walkthrough twice. Once for the cryptic puzzle, because I couldn't figure out the movements of the triangle. And a second time because of the witness statements. I didn't realise that the game wanted me to interpret my findings already. I could kick myself for that, because it was clear that this was bound to happen at some point. I just expected it to be a later step. And I have to admit that working out the times was a bit too convoluted for me, so I just, ahem, "masterminded" it. :)
That being said: I love this game to bits. The graphics are good, the setting is great and the puzzles are genuinely challenging. Collecting all the witness statements in the diary was a lot of fun. I like mechanics like that. The hammocks were also a nice idea.
Excellent game.
You're totally right, of course, about the pacing of diary entries. Initially there were going to be more parts and a gentler deduction curve but I was feeling quite exhausted this jam so clubbed a few things together. Will provide more clues about the triangle for sure, you're not the only one to mention it!
Thanks again for playing and the feedback. I appreciate it!
***SPOILERS BELOW***
So fun! Especially once it clicked that not everyone should be taken for their word, and that there may be more normal explanations for what some experienced.
Very challenging at times, but everything was fair in retrospect. It took me way too long to see the "next" button on the hammocks (not the game's fault) which stumped me for a while.
A few suggestions:
-An in-game notepad would have been nice but wasn't necessary.
-It wasn't obvious (to me) that brimstone is synonymous with sulfur
-The solution has 3,5 as L, but L is not in the clue sets. The correct answer according to cluesetI.1 is A ( _ _ _ _ A). I was given a checkmark for clue set 1 even before I "fixed" 3,5 and put in L.
- A checkmark did not appear over cluesetI.3, even though I had SWTXU in the correct positions, until I put "L" in 3,5.
-I didn't know how to undo a box after I placed a letter, which made things messy while figuring things out. (I used X's as placeholders where I screwed up)
-The cypher was otherwise great, and II.1/II.2 cleverly explained shape order, the behavior of the square/circle, and what a shape does if their path is blocked.
Overall, would recommend to fans of the Obra Dinn.
***END SPOILERS***
Thank you so much for playing and the comment. It means a lot!
It's easy to get blind spots when testing your own game, especially one that's been made in 10 days. So your feedback has been very helpful! I'll use some of the points you mentioned to improve it in a post-jam version. :)
SPOILERS BELOW
I agree, the game doesn't make it clear enough that brimstone is sulfur. The only clue is when you're speaking to Elijah the engineer, he says he smelled brimstone and you, in turn, ask him when he smelled the sulfur. As for the letter "L", it's meant to be filled in last and since it was the only letter left after you've filled all the other letters, I didn't add it to clue set 3 (Maybe I should have though.). Your point about undoing is very good, I'll make it clearer when I update the game.