Detectiveland by robinjohnson

New Losago, 1929 - a town full of creeps, clowns, mobsters and, if you know where to look, the occasional honest citizen. Guide private investigator Lanson Rose through a series of puzzling cases: solve the city's liquor supply problem in "Speakeasy Street", track down a missing food scientist in "The Big Pickle", and investigate strange goings-on under a dilapidated mansion in "A Study in Squid".

Winner of the 2016 Interactive Fiction Competition.

Play all my games: https://versificator.itch.io
Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/rdouglasjohnson
Give me money: https://paypal.me/versificator (one off tips) or https://patreon.com/robinjohnson (pledge a payment per game)

Play online

Review tiddyliver123

21 May 2024

best introduction game to text based games
wait no just best game ever thank you so much this is literally such a silly game i had so much fun playing it and just the feeling when you crack the code for the first time without needing to use the hints as crutches is the best feeling ever! you're a great game maker you're so talented!

Review dwleery78

26 Dec 2022

Great game, had quite some fun and was delighted not to be typing all the time!

Comment fanOfantasy

29 Sep 2022

Hey, I can't find the last ending, I have the jail and boat endings, but don't now where to go from here

Comment Artemis06

27 Jul 2022

Nvm I figured out what to do with the map, but I keep dying at the end. Can anyone help pls?

Comment Artemis06

26 Jul 2022

I'm stuck idk what to do after I get the map

Comment linhlinh

22 Jul 2022

i love it

Review linhlinh

22 Jul 2022

good one, too bad i'm too lazy to find clue without reading the hints

Review broadwaydude

13 Nov 2021

Wonderful funny and immersive game. Everything about this is great. The music, stories, writing, interface... You've gotta love it.

Review Cinco de Mayo

01 Jun 2021

This is better than Victorian detective and has different stories but thank GOD for help sistem or wouldnt have a clue (ironic) thank you for good game!

Comment HighImpactMoth

12 May 2021

Pretty cool :thumbsup:

Review Savio

25 Apr 2021

Brilliant, funny, immersive.

Review impasta

11 Mar 2021

LOVE IT how do I get more games from the same creator? I really want to check out your other games.The best part about this game is it has helpful hints otherwise it would have been tooooooooooo hard to do.the next thing is I dont have to type commands because in other games we have to type commands and we cant type "look in closet" we Have to say "look at closet" so thats when some people get stuck.

Comment impasta

11 Mar 2021

AMAZING better than almost all other text adventures except draculaland (tied)

Comment Thepj7

06 Mar 2021

Does anyone know how to save the game? A save that remains after we exit . I somehow feel that there is no way for this and we should complete the game continuously . By the way , the game is definitely awesome .

Review comedic trash

02 Mar 2021

Played literally all day. Best game ever. Should publish to steam or something.

Comment Galaxyblu3r

25 Sep 2020

I was so surprised when I decided to pawn the broken doorknob, then I got 2000 dollars.

Review hsh

17 Jul 2020

Better than most.

Review Luke Low

08 May 2020

I think the game is good. The music make me feel like I am in the scene.

Comment MTon3

14 Apr 2020

Hi! LOVED this! I am trying to build my own for the first time and was wondering if you could send any tips or tricks or guides or anything that could be helpful. I am trying to build an "escape room" for my students - so I want it to be cool so they will actually buy into it - but don't have a thousand hours to learn it all from scratch.

Thanks!

Review stephenstiles

29 Feb 2020

Loved it. And the hints were useful (After wandering all over town looking for a match lol)
Just started interactive fiction and by far the best so far. My zombie adventure isn't a 10th of the content.

Comment OwenTheBold

27 Feb 2020

doesnt load

Comment Sebastian88

30 Jan 2020

Great posts! I am actually getting ready to across this information, is very helpful my friend.
[happy wheels](https://happywheels3d.io)

Review muddlemand

12 Nov 2019

Played this a while ago as an android app (before I found this website) - fantastic. Now that I've seen more IF, I have an even higher opinion of this. Head and shoulders above most.

Comment xadoc

07 Nov 2019

This is great! But I think I found a glitch - if you escape from Brinksman at the end via the sewer and minecart then go to talk to Marcus Q Distain in his study, you bizarrely teleport to your office with him telling you about his case again...

Review Pascal666

08 Sep 2019

Thank you!

Review momomills

14 Aug 2019

Engaging, funny, wry, and enjoyable. I finished all three ending scenarios and I have my favourite but they all made me smile. A real joy for a fan of interwar detective/crime fiction.

Review Fractal420

13 Jun 2019

This is a great, funny Noir adventure. You are a Humphrey Bogart type of private detective and you take on 4 different cases. I did not finish the last one (got stuck!) so I cant speak for the ending but it is a detailed game with a good GUI thats lets you quickly access items and know whats going on. You take cab fares all over LA. There is a good amount of humor and the quests themselves tend to be pretty funny. Also there are many references to pop culture, especially Noir films. If you enjoy the genre or a good text adventure involving mystery, check this game out!

Review Hypertext

12 Apr 2019

Ich hab das Spiel ausgewählt, da ich den Titel sehr ansprechend fand. Der Titel hat auch auf jeden Fall gehalten, was er verspricht, nämlich als Detektiv Fälle zu lösen. Im Spiel geht es also darum, ausgewählte Fälle durch verschiedene "Puzzleteile" zusammenzufügen und dadurch zu lösen. Am Anfang des Spiels befindet man sich in seinem eigenen Büro als Detektiv. Vor der Tür warten drei verschiedene Personen, deren Fall man annehmen kann.
Das Ziel des Spiels ist also von Anfang an klar, jedoch ist es schwierig dorthin zu kommen, was aber natürlich beabsichtigt ist. Kommt man als Spieler nicht weiter, gibt es die Möglichkeit zu Hints.

Review River Lily

31 Mar 2019

amazing game. left enough clues to help me figure out but still had hints for lazy people like me haha

plot twist was mind blowing yet satisfactorily linked to all the other cases before it.

humour in every part of the game including the hints. hands down one of the best games i’ve ever played.

Comment mdemslie1

23 Dec 2018

Hormus, if you die you know you can just push undo at the bottom right?

Review mdemslie1

20 Dec 2018

I gotta hand it to them. The music was great, the puzzles were well-planned and carefully thought out. It was just FANTASTIC! I just loved it!!!

Review vequira

04 Nov 2018

Excellent game! Great writing, great music, nice puzzles. Very satisfying how it all comes together at the end.

Review Hormus

20 Jul 2018

An excellent game! However, I rage-quitted at the end, after playing this for 8 hours, and dying at the very end.

--Hormus

Review hannatude

30 Jun 2018

I can't give this enough stars. I'm honestly amazed by the fact that it was free to play - it was such a high-quality game! The sound effects, original music, unique interface, stylized portraits and phenomenal scriptwork blew me away. I'm not kidding when I say this game is now sitting right up there with the Her Interactive Nancy Drew games as top-tier armchair detective gaming.

Thank you for what had to have been months of work. Your passion for your craft was evident and very appreciated.

Comment robinjohnson

23 Apr 2018

Hi jmnevil 54, thanks for your comments. The Gargantuan Squid and the fictionalised history of fast food are both made up for the game. And I'm pretty sure LGBT+ people existed in the 1920s. As did straight women, for that matter.

Review felixp7

20 Mar 2018

Oh look, a game that manages to capture the elegant simplicity of old text adventures while adding a revolutionary user interface. Did I mention the presentation is top-notch, too? More games need to take a hint from _Detectiveland_.

Review Philboy7488

07 Mar 2018

A wonderful mystery-comedy mix!!

Review archerqueen08

27 Feb 2018

LOL this is so funny!!!

Comment jmnevil54

23 Feb 2018

I do recognize fantasy when I see it, though. It's your tale.

Comment jmnevil54

23 Feb 2018

Very nice story. I can see why it won a competition. But there are a few time errors that just break the experience. Minor, sure, but they pile up quickly.

By Gargantuan Squids I assume you mean either Colossal Squids or Giant squids. I had to look up both on Google.
Colossal Squids were identified as real in 1981.
"The species was first discovered in the form of two tentacles found in the stomach of a sperm whale in 1925.[12] In 1981 a Russian trawler in the Ross Sea, off the coast of Antarctica, caught a large squid with a total length of 4 m (13 ft), which was later identified as an immature female of M. hamiltoni.[13]"
Giant Squids were discovered in 2006.

Also, according to my grandma, pizza came over to the US in the 1950's. Also had to look this up. "During the latter half of the 20th century, pizza became an iconic dish of considerable popularity in the United States."

And this is the least, but that one brochure that says you can sleep with men. That would definitely not fly back in the 1920's, as homosexuality was not legal until the 1960's. (And it depended on the state).

And I think a guy would know a hamburger when he saw one, even if it was just invented. It's just circular bread with beef.

Review ElloiseVonguard

14 Sep 2017

Amazing story. I love games that make me expect the least. I love the comedic factor and easy gameplay mechanics. I also appreciate the hints a lot (I read all of them and loved the humor). All in all this game is amazing and you should all try it out for yourselves.

Comment LeisureSuit Larry

11 Jun 2017

really? "he got shot in the head by – er, by a horse."

Comment robinjohnson

26 Jan 2017

Stev51, that is in the hints! It's under "The Funeral Directors".

Comment Stev51

26 Jan 2017

This game recently came out, and so there is no current walkthrough on youtube. I've been trying to get downstairs at the speakeasy, and the hint page doesn't tell how to do that. Please help/add to the hints! It's the only thing I can find that doesn't have a hint for it.

Review DavyB

25 Jan 2017

Winning IFComp 2016, is probably sufficient reason for anyone to play this game! As might be expected, it is very well conceived, designed and implemented. What particularly appealed to me was
(a) its high standard of writing and smart humour;
(b) its afternoon length, split into three detective cases (IFComp games should be playable in 2 hours);
(c) its look and feel, including the music and sound effects (composed by the author), and the use of an old typewriter font; and
(d) the challenge of the puzzles, which should be decipherable by most players, with a little effort! For anyone stuck, there is also a comprehensive hierarchical hint system which effectively provides a full walkthrough for the game.

It was also very impressive that the author had written his own game engine.

Initially, I did struggle with the interface, which presents a half-screen control panel in which every operation is performed by touching or clicking on a button…no typing is involved. The only operations available are the ones presented as the game proceeds, which makes it necessary to monitor the control panel carefully…new operations may pop up or disappear at any time. I got the hang of it in the end but felt I was spending rather too much time staring at the control panel rather than following the story.

Overall, however, this is probably the easiest 5 stars I have had to award since returning to text adventures last year. Excellent!

Review gamerknight007

19 Jan 2017

Awesome game. how long did this take you to make?????

Review rzv

16 Jan 2017

Great design. Design makes it or breaks it when it comes to these games. Music, typography, everything well made! pizza, prohibition, illegal stuff and nice twists, great game