Broken Silence
A downloadable game for Windows
Fates intertwine when university student Marina and police officer Carl find themselves both kidnapped by the notorious "Phantom" killer. Take the role of either character, solve puzzles, and search for clues to escape from the Phantom's underground chamber. Will you survive?
Download
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Development log
- Info Regarding the Game's EndingSep 06, 2019
- Sequel! & Free Patreon PostsAug 27, 2019
- 1.3 Update - Click to Advance Text!Aug 14, 2019
- We've Made a Broken Silence Guide! + Free OSTAug 07, 2019
- Broken Silence QuestionnaireAug 02, 2019
- 1.2 UpdateAug 01, 2019
Comments
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I kept putting off trying this because my old computer hated anything 3D... and I regret waiting so long. This was a great VN. Short, but solid. There could had been some QoL stuff with Banter like a way to keep track of what you said or if something you said had an effect, but the game itself was a good short Escape the Room puzzle game. and a nice prelude to the setting you've created. I also have like... 20 different ideas on what's going on with Phantom.
Thanks so much, glad you were finally able to check it out! The Banter system is something that we've heard a lot of feedback about, so we'll have to take that into account if it ever makes a return.
apologies for being about two years late to the party, but I honestly love this game. i’m struggling immensely with the good ending, because apparently setting the tapestry on fire isn’t the right was to do anything. i love Marina and Carl so much, and would probably die for them (pun 100% intended). the atmosphere of this game scared me, the motion blue when moving really layered the tension, as well as the coffins and generally horrifying deaths. can’t wait to 100% this game + find the sequel!!
Thank you for the kind words. And good luck with getting the good ending!
made a video
heyo this is an amzing game i just find the likebig puzzels were kinda easy i love this game still and i wanted to know if you make any other games like this
Glad you enjoyed it! A sequel was planned for Broken Silence a while back (some concept material was even shared in a patreon post) but it was ultimately put on hold. Making a game with the same quality of art/music/voice acting as Broken Silence is something we currently can't afford.
However, we are currently working on a visual novel. It's a bit different (in style, tone, art) than Broken Silence and still in early development, but you can follow us on twitter for updates if you're interested. If not, thank you still for the kind words :)
this game is amazing! i love the graphics and the gameplay. this game is pretty addicting and i trurly recommend playing this game!
Thank you so much for the kind words! Means a lot to us. Glad you enjoyed the game!
you're welcome! I bet others think the same!
You guys did a great job! The game feels really polished even though it's free and its your first game. I loved all the zero escape vibes, and the puzzles had a decent difficulty level. They weren't too cryptic so I had a lot of fun trying to figure things out.
Thank you for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed the game!
I'm not sure what exactly I'm doing wrong, and I really have enjoyed the parts of this game I've seen thus far, but for some reason I can't figure out how to get to the candle area of the first room; whenever I go to talk to Carl I'm never switched to that part of the room. Is there a command I don't know of? Or should I just be patient and keep starting conversation w/him until it lets me be by the candle-altar-thing?
You can hold left-click and drag to move the camera to look around, if we're understanding your troubles correctly. That should help you get to the candles. This control wasn't explained well, only mentioned in the "Tutorial" archive entry. We apologize for that. Hope this helps you out.
Thank you so much! Now I can enjoy this game to its fullest :)
Getting an error while I try to download the build. It says 'invalid upload'.
Sorry you're experiencing this problem. The invalid upload may have been caused by us removing version 1.2 and making 1.3 public. Try downloading version 1.3 again and let us know if you have the same problem.
It all works now - and no worries! Glad it could be fixed easily.
I have a soft spot for anything 999/VLR-inspired, but please... add a text speed option or something... or the ability to skip to the end of the current text statement on click. ;^;
YES PLEASE
Thanks for the feedback, we're currently working on this feature and it will be included in the next update!
I really, really want to play the game, but it refuses to open for me. It could just be my computer, but I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else.
We're really sorry to hear about the issue you're experiencing. Could you describe it in more detail? For instance, when you try opening the executable, do you see the resolution dialog after that?
It simply states that it failed to load mono. I really think this is more my computer, but the other version wouldn't work either. I'll double check and see what that one says.
Thanks for the update about this issue. It seems as though the game is having trouble locating a certain library file. We have a few things that you can try in order to resolve it. First, make sure you've extracted all of the contents of the .zip file, including the "Broken Silence_Data" folder, to the same directory. If that part is done, then the path to the library file in question may be too long. In other words, try extracting the .zip file contents to a shorter file path (like "C:\Desktop" instead of "C:\Desktop\MyFolder1\MyFolder2\MyFolder3\..."). Then try starting the executable.
Very professionally done game. I felt like I was playing a full priced game. I loved the voice acting and the puzzles were fun.
I'm going for the good ending at the moment. I got through the cross key door and am trying to figure out the last puzzle. It's been a while since I've been so invested in trying to get an ending, so well done!
Thank you for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed the game. If you made it through the door, you shouldn't be far from the good ending, so kudos!
I can't find the left half of the cross heart key and I have looked everywhere but it does not seem to exist. I also don't see what hints you're talking about, no hints popped up during gameplay for me.
Edit: It is on one of the chains in the coffin cave.
That's the same piece I couldn't find!
Hi! Thanks for letting us know how it went. We're working on a walkthrough and probably release it in a couple days, just to see if another player comes through with some answers. If not, we'll put it in a dev log post here.
If you'd like a hint until then, I can say: keep your head up and make sure there's enough light to see. You should definitely find them :)
And to explain the hints a little better. With hints enabled, you're able to ask your partner "HINT" in the banter window. Also, exiting a puzzle (padlock, candle, etc.) will give you a couple hints about said puzzle starting from the third time you leave (just to give the player a chance to figure it out on their own). Disabling hints removes these opportunities for help.
Thanks again for playing!
I'm going to have to wait for that walkthrough cause I looked all over the celing in the main room and the elevator room and there is nothing there and the coffin room has no way to make the light brighter as far as I can tell.
Same here, completely out of ideas.
HINT doesn't help at all, the partner just brings up the fern (I've already taken the fern trimming).
Or the books (already checked all of them).
Or the stairs, the desk... (already, already, already...)
Honestly, the partner system has been so spectacularily unhelpful this whole time - anything I ask about, they'll always
respond to with outright hostility. Like...
<enters name of inventory item>
PARTNER: wanna try making sense? you worm? you utter baffoon? what???
<enters name of other object in the room>
PARTNER: i will actually murder you. you're insane. stop.
<enters words relating to the characters>
PARTNER: i have never heard of "police". perish
For anyone still stuck (SPOILERS):
That metal fragment is in the cave after all. It has nothing to do with light in-game as far as I can tell. The guide text file says it's hanging from the ceiling there, but I still had trouble finding it. It turns out it's at the end of one of the hanging chains. Because it's metal and rounded, it looks like part of the chain, so it's really easy to miss. You have to look closely to see it. If you hover the mouse over it, it will change to a yellow hand cursor.
Aha! Got it, thank you.
I love the game so far! I have uncovered most of the clues, but I cannot seem to find (with all my will) all of the metal pieces to the cross heart key! Is there anyone who has found them all and/or could aid me?
Glad you liked it! For sure, they're tricky to find, so no worries. We're writing a small walkthrough to get the "good ending." So if it seems like no one's figured out the last puzzle in the next couple days, we'll put the answers in a dev log post here.
Thanks again for playing!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for featuring the game in a video. It was fun to watch. You're spot on about the door. We're writing up a small guide on how to get the "good ending." We'll be releasing it in a dev log post here. We may give it a few days though, just to see if anyone can figure it out first :)
The game really is interesting and what I found the most interesting is the fact that you can "talk" to your partner in captivity. Great idea. I hope you can expand on the talk feature and give more dialogue to them. Definitely not your run of the mill VN.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. http://www.youtube.com/c/Levont
Thanks for checking out the game and making the vid. It was a great watch. We got some valuable feedback from it, and we liked the clever phone trick used to solve the power box puzzle lol! A setting to adjust the text speed is already on the to-do list, so we hear ya. Glad you liked the game!
I gave this game a try.
It looks pretty proffesional - the graphic, gameplay. But unfortunately my graphic card is a potato and even on the lowest settings it was "kinda"lagging. But I managed to reach to the first (obviously bad) ending. I liked that first puzzles were made with thought of average person like me. I'm not Sherlock, but when I solved these puzzles, I felt satisfacion, like wow, it's that kind of game, when I don't need a walkthrough. Apart from the fact that later I didn't know how to get the other ending. xd But even If I wanted to try explore room again, my pc didn't allow me to do it.
I also liked that I could ask Carl about his private life. v: I admit - I like romance, so it was nice option for a shipper like me.
I would like to write more, but my english limits me. So again - nice game and I wish you patience and fun with making your future projects.
Thanks for playing and for the nice comments. I'm sorry to hear about the performance issues.
The game engine we used recently had some updates that help performance on mid/low tier hardware and mobile. We're looking into them, so there may be hope for a version of the game that's more friendly to less powerful hardware. We'll keep the dev log posted.
Glad you enjoyed the game in spite of the lag. If you don't mind, we'd appreciate you emailing us your computer specs to carebotgames@gmail.com. Information like that really helps in developing the game. Thanks!
Glad to hear it! Let us know how it goes. We're always interested in hearing people's feedback.