City of Voices (demo)
A downloadable game for Windows
“LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THE DEMO”
—Andrejs & Ernests Klavins, co-creators of The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol
SUMMARY
Co-developed by one of the writer/designers behind The Rise of the Golden Idol, City of Voices is a short, Golden Idol-inspired deduction game that begins as a slice-of-life tale but soon transforms into something far more mysterious.
STORY
In suburban England, at the turn of the millennium, a young girl is being bullied on her first day at secondary school. Just when things seem like they can’t get any hairier, she finds herself mysteriously transported to the ancient Maya city of Tikal, back in its first-millennium heyday.
GAMEPLAY
Investigate a series of moments frozen in time. Examine clues and solve deduction puzzles to uncover what happened in each scenario. Piece together a heartfelt story full of twists and turns.
FULL GAME FEATURES
· 4-6 hours of pure deduction gameplay—no filler!
· 9 scenarios to solve, ranging from a simple opener to fiendishly difficult later levels
· Lovingly drawn pixel art (by an artist who can’t stop drawing trees!)
· Original orchestral soundtrack guaranteed to get you singing in the shower
Download
Install instructions
Instructions for unzipping the folder and getting the game running
1. Once the download is complete, go to your downloads folder. You should see a zipped folder called 'cov_demo_windows'. Right-click it, and then, from the list that appears, see if there's an option to 'Extract all', or something similar. If there is, left-click it, and skip to Step 6. If there isn't, continue to Step 2.
2. You will need a program capable of unzipping folders. I use PeaZip. Go to https://peazip.github.io/ and click the 'PeaZip for Windows' link. On the screen it takes you to, click the download button.
3. Once the download is complete, go to your downloads folder and double-click the PeaZip file/folder. Follow any prompts it gives you about installing the program.
4. Once PeaZip is installed, go back to your downloads folder. Right-click the zipped folder called 'cov_demo_windows'. There should now be a 'PeaZip' option. Hover your cursor over it, and then, from the list that appears, select 'Extract here'.
5. An unzipped duplicate of the folder should appear next to the zipped one. Double-click it to open it.
6. Among the files in this folder, there should be one called 'City of Voices', with an icon showing a red-haired girl's head in front of a blue background. Open it! (You may get a prompt saying something about how Windows prevented you from opening it. If this happens, click 'More information' on the prompt window that appears, and then click 'Run anyway').
7. Optional: If you want to add the game to your desktop, right-click the aforementioned icon, select 'Create shortcut', and then drag the duplicate icon that appears onto your desktop.
Comments
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This game is absolutely lovely. I adore the setting, art style, and of course the Idol-esque gameplay. Very excited for the final game!
Thank you for the demo! It scratched that "I need more Golden Idol/Duck Detective" style of gameplay, looking forward to the full release!
Also, that damn scarf LOL
This is really well made. I like how nonlinear and interconnected the puzzles are, the only weird thing is Sarah's giant neckerchief xd
Hi. I would like to translate it to brazilian portuguese. Hit me up when you can, it would be very helpful to add to my resume.
Wow, amazing and colorful illustrations
Im stuck on the last puzzle!! I figured out what the polaroid means, I've guessed who the duffel bag and the briefcase belongs to, and I know what the flag was made with...however I'm stuck on how on Earth do I figure out the other stuff. Such a fun game though! I love challenges
i am extremely confused. some of this feels less like deduction and more like pure guessing. i had problems right from the start. without the easy beginner levels golden idol had, i had trouble getting into this one. in the very first puzzle, you have to:
SPOILER ALERT!!
guess that the thing under the bench is an earring (though it looks like a ring) and that it belongs to the bully girl (i just assumed she wore one earring to be cool), that is already very leap-of-logic.
second puzzle, i have no idea how you were supposed to guess which camp they were going to. i think it's something about the driving directions? driving on the left side of the road or something?
and the third one is just a mess, i have no idea how i am supposed to deduce almost anything. who does each bag belong to? the only one i am certain is the girl saying she left the camera in her bag. that one is obvious, but the rest? who does the briefcase thing belong to? it has a magazine with what looks like the black girl from the story, is it hers? there is one bag with an inhaler and a flashlight, and there is a message on the camp lady's phone about asthma, but that could have been sent to literally anyone. there is one bag with crayons that belongs either to the black girl or the bully from the first part, but i can't determine who that could be!!
no clue what the burnt note in the fire is supposed to be either.
i feel like i've been given an impossible puzzle and i'm going insane. maybe i'm wrong and there's ways to guess everything easily, but dang.
Hi there! First off, thanks for playing and sticking with it. I'm sorry it frustrated you. I assure you, there are ways to deduce the answers to all the questions you've asked. For example...
*SPOILERS*
The earring isn't the only way to confirm that the laughing girl was the one who tied Rosie's shoelaces together. She also has grass stains on her top, and there is a path of flattened grass leading under the bench.
*END OF SPOILERS*
The full game will include a hint system, but we haven't written the hints yet. In the meantime, I recommend this let's play, if you're interested:
I don't know this player, but they do a good job of voicing their thought process, and, while they don't pick up on every clue's significance, they come close enough, IIRC (it's been a while since I watched it).
However, if you'd prefer me to tell you how a specific part can be deduced, I don't mind doing that. Just let me know here (I just wish itch would let me use proper spoiler tags!).
Lastly, you're right that even by the second scenario, the game is pretty tough. It isn't just you. Maybe it's a misstep on our part. We'll see!
All the best!
Ahhh so I did miss some stuff. That's on me then. The difficulty jump is rough, but I also thought the jump from case 2 to case 3 in The Case of the Golden Idol was rough. If the puzzles keep being good it will be worth the difficulty. Good luck with the game. LOVE both Golden Idol games :).
Thanks, mate :)
Oh, this is adorable! I love the art, I love the concept. I got the last puzzle of the demo wrong because I just couldn't believe it! I'm already hooked and you can bet I've wishlisted it. <3 Keep it up!
Thank you very much! :)
Loved it! Great art and so far the puzzles were logical. My only feedback is the mouse cursor is weird and slow, not sure why you need to hijack my cursor/if you do sensitivity should be a setting
Thank you! Yeah, a few people have mentioned the cursor speed. We will definitely fix that.
OMG I LOVE GOLDEN IDOL TOO!! Made it through the first two levels so far, the pixel art, music, and puzzles have been perfect. Y'all have done a great job :) and to boot, I've had no issues running this through Wine on a Linux machine
Thanks so much :) And good to hear about Wine. Thanks for letting me know. I'll make a proper Linux build at some point.
The mouse was very slow
Yeah, sorry about that. A few players have mentioned it. I'll update the mouse sensitivity at some point soon.
güzel görünüyor
Great stuff! Had a couple crashes playing the demo, but the autosave feature is a lifesaver.
Oh! Sorry to hear that. Did they seem to be caused by the game? Either way, glad the autosave came in handy!
Bahh. I was all set for a game session and the demo ended. Where's the wishlist link?
Ha. Sorry about that. Thanks for your interest. You can wishlist it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3342470/City_of_Voices/
Loved this...!!
Yay! Thank you :)
This looks great. Could you perhaps tick the little Windows icon next to the file so that it can be installed through the Itch desktop app?
Thanks, Ric. I didn't realise that was what that did. It should work now :)
A cute, clever take on the Golden Idol formula. Very pretty pixel art, well designed scenarios and pleasantly streamlined mechanics make this a joy to play, be it by yourself or with your kids. Hyped for the full game!
Thanks so much, Honza :)
That's a nice demo! The game meets the minimum criteria for appearing in the conflexgames.com collection.
Thank you :)