Obsidian Moon is a Lovecraftian noir detective game

Sam, a grizzled detective, spends most of his time moving little bits of paper around his desk and worrying whether he has enough money for whiskey and beans. The demo opens with atmospheric music and tense conversations about Sam’s tenuous position on the force, then drops players into an authentically furnished 1930s office to peruse case files.

Cases are pieced together by reading reports and taking actions that unlock more documents—inspecting evidence, sending a body for autopsy, or surveilling a suspect. Every action eats up time, and when a day ends you must pay essentials like gas and water bills, tins of beans, and strong booze; you only receive pay when a case is closed, so funds act as a ticking clock that pushes for speed and efficiency.

The demo’s single case concerns a man found literally gutted like a fish at the docks, and the system lets you combine evidence to make deductions—showing a potential weapon to a suspect or taking a foreign note to a translator.

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