Type Help

Type Help is a text-based detective puzzle game about a string of mysterious deaths at a British manor. Using only a computer command line and transcriptions of some audio files, you must piece together who was in the manor, why they died, and what ties it all together. Initially released as a free game with no graphics or sound, it is now being remastered for a fully-graphical commercial release under the title The Incident at Galley House.

You play a detective who is investigating a cold case about a British estate where 12 unidentified bodies were found in the 1930s. The previous detective who worked on the case died suddenly, leaving behind nothing except a computer and a few filenames. The filenames are cryptic strings of letters and numbers, so your first task is to decode the naming scheme so you can search for the names of additional files. To finish the game, you must discover all the files.

The files are transcripts of short audio snippets from the weekend of the deaths. The previous detective has assigned numbers but not names to the different people at the manor. You must figure out who they are and trace their movements around the manor until the moment of their deaths.

The story is highly reminiscent of classic British mysteries like Miss Marple with a paranormal twist. A group of people have arrived at the manor for a dinner party, but there is one guest nobody knows who carries an invitation from a man nobody has heard of. These facts become all the more mysterious when the guests begin to die off from unknown causes.

Despite its very basic interface of white text over a black background, Type Help earned a lot of attention due to its excellent writing and thoughtful detective gameplay, taking inspiration from Return of the Obra Dinn, Unheard and Her Story. It won the Best Free Game award in the 3rd Annual Thinky Awards.

This description was written by Gwen C. Katz.