That all led to the core mechanics of this game.'

I've made other games where you have to pay attention, notice visual differences, and make logical leaps between small clues and bigger solutions. 'The first inception of this game was the visual style,' Pope told Ars. Names, relations, sounds, and visual cues will all play into answering for the deaths of more than 50 characters, and you'll need to answer some specific death questions to beat the game. You'll have to keep tabs on all of the clues that come up and connect details that extend from one death vignette to the next. The object of the game becomes clear toward the end of the demo: to record in a logbook exactly how everyone who was connected to this ship died (or whether they managed to outlast Obra Dinn's most climactic moments). The only thing on the ship, it turns out, is a crummy old pocket watch, but before getting off the ship, players come to realize that the watch can be used to discover ghost skeletons-and replay the moment in which each person died over a century earlier.

Obra Dinn's demo starts with players pulling a rowboat up to an abandoned ship, which they board and walk around in search of treasure. Pope has pulled it off, however-and in stunning fashion. I don't care about the stupid art style.'' Just give me more colors so I can tell what's going on. 'A lot of the work in making this game has been so that when a player sits down, they don't think immediately, 'why is this game in one-bit?'' Pope said to Ars during a GDC interview. Pope's game-making reputation precedes him, thanks to his one-two punch of the touchscreen masterwork Helsing's Fire and Ars' choice for 2013 game of the year Papers, Please. Still, we had no idea what to expect-especially from a new game so graphically rudimentary, it makes the lo-fi Papers, Please look like a piece of classic art in comparison. We've been eagerly awaiting a chance to try the game again after enjoying its 15-minute demo at last month's Game Developers Conference. If you've just come here to play one of the cooler story-mystery games in recent history, head to game developer Lucas Pope's website as soon as you possibly can to download the first public demo of his new game, Return of the Obra Dinn, for free on Windows and OS X. What kind of monochrome nostalgia trip do you want to go on? Zenith ZVM, maybe?

Papers please game demo