The Case of the Golden Idol
The Case of the Golden Idol is a deduction game by Ernests and Andrejs Kļaviņš. It was released for Mac and Windows in 2022, then ported to consoles and phones over the next two years. It takes a lot of inspiration from Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn, but adds its own distinctive visual style and unique twists to the gameplay. The story follows the titular Golden Idol, a small statue with unique properties, as it passes through the hands of various people. Two additional stories were released for the game in 2023, The Spider of Lanka and The Lemurian Vampire.
- The Golden Idol Saga
Available for Macintosh, Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, iOS, and Android. - The Case of the Golden Idol on Wikipedia
- The Case of the Golden Idol on MobyGames
- The developer notes, “The game features freeze frame depictions of murder crime scenes rendered in the style of pixel-art. There are visual or text references to alchohol and tobacco use.”
Part 1
Tonight I’m starting The Case of the Golden Idol, a recent Obra Dinn-like deduction game by Ernests and Andrejs Kļaviņš! Return of the Obra Dinn was easily one of my favorite games in recent years, so I will gladly dig into a well-liked game inspired by it.