I pulled up to Snow's Ice Cream Parlor. I loved Snow's ice cream. Everybody did. Everybody knew Nick Snow made the best ice cream in town. At least until he was found dead this morning. My job? To figure out who murdered him.

Cold Case is a text-adventure mystery game made for Nokia 3310 Jam 6.


> CONTROLS

Type words with the letters 2-0 the same way you would type on an old Nokia phone:

2 = A, 22 = B, 222 = C
3 = D, 33 = E, 333 = F
4 = G, 44 = H, 444 = I
5 = J, 55 = K, 555 = L
6 = M, 66, N, 666 = O
7 = P, 77 = Q, 777 = R, 7777 = S
8 = T, 88 = U, 888 = V
= W99 = X, 999 = Y, 9999 = Z
0 = space

Use # (or Enter) to continue or to execute a command, * (or Backspace) to delete the last letter you typed, and 1 to re-type the last command you typed.

All controls are available both on keyboard and on the on-screen keypad. My personal opinion is that the game is best experienced when played on a smartphone using the on-screen keypad, but that's just a subjective opinion, and both methods are equally valid playstyles.


> COMMANDS

What commands can be typed vary depending on which room or conversation you're in, but some of the most important are:

  • LOOK  / EXAMINE / SEARCH - look around in the room you're in, or LOOK AT an object. You can use L for short.
  • GO TO / WALK TO / MOVE TO - move to a different location. You can use M for short.
  • GET / TAKE / PICK UP - get an object. You can use G for short.
  • USE - use an object, or USE X WITH Y to combine two objects. You can use U for short.
  • TALK TO / SPEAK TO - start a conversation with someone. You can use T for short.
  • BYE / LEAVE - end a conversation.
  • INVENTORY - show what objects you are currently carrying. You can use I for short.
  • HELP - list all available commands in your current location. You can use H for short.
  • RESTART - delete your save and restart the game. 

Quick tip! Articles (A, AN, THE) and prepositions (TO, AT, ON, INTO, WITH) are optional and can be skipped!


> CONTEXT

This game was made in nine days for Nokia 3310 Jam 6. Among the jam restrictions were a monochrome 84x48px game display and a maximum of twelve buttons. The optional theme for the jam was "FREEZE!".

This was my first game jam, and I had lots of fun attempting it!


> CODE & CREDITS

Cold Case is written in React/Typescript. The [hastily written and not very clean] code can be found on my GitHub.

The narrative is written in Ink and implemented using inkjs.

The font and the sound effects are borrowed from the Nokia Jam resources.

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.