Adventure Gamers - Forums

I tried a new adventure game,called shards of a god, it is free. It is a murder mystery with a setting on a Faraway planet. The setting reminds me of Dune meets an Agatha Christie novel. The game is only about an hour to 2 hours long depending on if you get stuck or not. I found most of the puzzles easy but there is not a lot of sign posting. But there are so few scenes that you kind of figure out what to do anyways. Saying that I don’t think the puzzles were bad just not fully fleshed out. There’s no voice acting but the music is good and the writing is not half bad either for a free game. I recommend you all trying it out and tell me what you think.

https://hvavra.itch.io/shards-of-god

That was ... genuinely good. Yes, the case was not as much of a mystery as it’s made out to be, if you are some level of murder mystery enthusiast -
Point 1
My first thought was “ah, classic icicle murder” - well, not literally, but you get the idea.
Point 2
“That’s obviously not actually the Emperor dead on the ground, and that’s obviously not a Farmer ...”
... but loved the setting, and great art. Decent writing; has some issues (titles should be capitalized the most consistent one ^^; ) but nothing too bad.

Yeah, really liked it. Absolutely worth playing.

Pyoro-2 - 18 August 2023 05:44 PM

That was ... genuinely good. Yes, the case was not as much of a mystery as it’s made out to be, if you are some level of murder mystery enthusiast -
Point 1
My first thought was “ah, classic icicle murder” - well, not literally, but you get the idea.
Point 2
“That’s obviously not actually the Emperor dead on the ground, and that’s obviously not a Farmer ...”
... but loved the setting, and great art. Decent writing; has some issues (titles should be capitalized the most consistent one ^^; ) but nothing too bad.

Yeah, really liked it. Absolutely worth playing.

I agree it was pretty easy to figure out. But the case made perfect sense in the classic literature way. I’m glad you also found the writing good enough, but the font is what threw me off, I didn’t like the red text. It was hard to read.

What did you think of the library puzzle with the lamps? that’s the one puzzle that I thought was not signed posted at all, it was just randomly there to do.

walas74 - 18 August 2023 06:59 PM

How uncanny!

A friend of mind just texted me today and asked me to test the translation into Spanish of this game he is currently working at.

I can’t wait to play it!

Honza Vávra make really good short adventure games. Off the Clock is great, and The Witch’s Lullaby looks very promising.

This dev def has talent, reminds me of a young dave from wadjet eye games, except with slightly better puzzles. Dave’s dialogue was better however.

Jdawg445 - 18 August 2023 06:54 PM

What did you think of the library puzzle with the lamps? that’s the one puzzle that I thought was not signed posted at all, it was just randomly there to do.

It was a bit weird how you were just doing it, kinda unmotivated. But as is explained in the end “it’s not a puzzle, what’s your obsession with puzzles?”

The ones I liked least were in the temple. If you didn’t click on the right bit it didn’t do anything. If the game were bigger with more interaction possibilities and such I’d probably have gotten stuck there.

Also, yes, the ways the game manages to quickly create and maintain a unique atmosphere is indeed very reminiscent of Wadjet Eye games. High praise of course!

Pyoro-2 - 19 August 2023 02:02 AM

Jdawg445 - 18 August 2023 06:54 PM

What did you think of the library puzzle with the lamps? that’s the one puzzle that I thought was not signed posted at all, it was just randomly there to do.

It was a bit weird how you were just doing it, kinda unmotivated. But as is explained in the end “it’s not a puzzle, what’s your obsession with puzzles?”

The ones I liked least were in the temple. If you didn’t click on the right bit it didn’t do anything. If the game were bigger with more interaction possibilities and such I’d probably have gotten stuck there.

Also, yes, the ways the game manages to quickly create and maintain a unique atmosphere is indeed very reminiscent of Wadjet Eye games. High praise of course!

Lol. That little bit of meta humor did not work me because it was a pure definition of a puzzle. here is this girl right in front of the Head Librarian, just randomly taking screws out of lamps and replacing bulbs with oranges for no reason at all, other than the lamps look like levers.

Yeah this is one game where it’s literally required to look at everything to progress, but it is nice for the World building, even though a lot of this is straight out of Dune.

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Baron_Blubba - 02 December 2023 04:55 PM

Just finished the game.

Graphics/Art - Excellent. Like, stunningly imaginative and well realized for a short free game.
Music - See above.
Puzzles, few as they are, brief as the game is - Good enough!
Script/Dialogue - Engaging. Each character speaks with a unique voice that suits their professional disposition. Well written. Spotted just two very minor typos.
Plot - Good enough! A solidly constructed two-minute mystery.
Theme - Heavy! Cliche! But presented with enough good nature, humor, and intelligence that I don’t mind at all and was entertained by the same old song as if it were a freshish newish one.
The exposition in the last part of the game explaining everything instead of letting us discover the truth behind the truth for ourselves, either via gameplay or a consequential Laura Bow and the Dagger of Amon Ra style quiz? Really lame.
But! It’s a free game of exceptionally high quality in every other way that counts, so I rate Shards of God as very much worth playing.

But can’t shake the feeling that it was originally supposed to be so much more before being truncated for some reason. Still, I would happily Kickstarter back or buy the next game from developer Jan Vavra.

Glad so many enjoyed it as much as I did. Definitely one of the better free games, that I have tried.