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When a party for a wealthy family’s ten-year-old daughter ends with the birthday girl dead, her older sister missing, and the father refusing to call the police, the detective isn’t exactly conventional. She finds herself at the site of the crime – a rented out old mansion – without any trace of memory. It’s the landlady who tells her that she is a private investigator who’s been hired to catch the culprit and bring them to justice.

But how can she solve a murder when she can’t even deduce her own name? Was it one of the party-goers who did the young guest of honor in? …Or was it the ghost said to wander the haunted halls? Can she manage to find the missing girl before another tragedy takes place?

…And will she be able to sleuth out her own memories and the meaning behind their disappearance at the same time?


♦ Interview suspects, present items, and scour the mansion for clues!

♦ A story-driven title – solve a classic but tragic murder mystery

♦ Choose between two variations of the ending – decide the culprit’s fate!

♦ Atmospheric soundtrack

♦ A custom evented menu, lighting effects, and other enhancements

♦ Approximately 60 - 120 minutes of gameplay


More information is available at DawnSeeker Studio.

Latest Blog

Version 2.2 Update + Steam Workshop

Happy Birthday is now available on Ace's shiny new Steam Workshop!
I also took the opportunity to finally update the game to Version 2.2.

The overdo updates are mostly minor, consisting largely of fixes for bugs and typos that players pointed out or that I've noticed while watching Let's Plays, with just a little bit of general editing and polish thrown in. The most notable addition is some new optional dialogue shown when presenting certain important clues to NPCs, for instance:
you can get some new comments by passing around the Threatening Card, Landlady's Identity?, and Ghost Stories towards the end of the game.
There's nothing that would make it worth it for a previous player to give it another go, but hopefully the updates will offer future players a slightly more polished experience.

Full change list:
♦ Fixed various passability errors
♦ Fixed various typos
♦ Fixed a bug that forced clues to be selected in a specific order during a certain scene
♦ Fixed a bug that wouldn't let the player re-enter the 2nd Floor Bathroom
♦ Clarified the names and descriptions of some clues
♦ Made menu full-screen and fixed color artifact errors
♦ Shortened some pauses
♦ Changed or lowered the volume on some SEs.
♦ Added more optional, unique dialogue when presenting certain clues
♦ Slightly expanded the dialogue during the intro and a few other minor scenes
♦ Some very minor, miscellaneous text and dialogue edits

Baring some unexpected disaster, this is the final update. Any further improvements will have to wait on potential sequels.

With over 8,000 downloads across all its mirrors, lots of Let's Plays and videos, a handful of reviews, and tons of comments on various sites, Happy Birthday certainly ended up garnering far more attention than I ever expected. I'll definitely take the motivation and feedback with me to future projects. Heartfelt thanks to everyone who's played.

And to new players, enjoy!

Posts

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Just played the game yestarday and man, the game is amazing. It felt like a Shrlock Holmes 2D game only he's a pretty girl :D
I hope you'll make more games in the future :]
Thanks! I'm definitely planning to. Right now I'm working mostly on a full-length RPG, but I'd also like make a spiritual/indirect sequel to this game sometime down the line. Glad you liked it^^
Just finished it. Good writing, and short and sweet. I've played detective games before, but I found this one much smoother with less backtracking involved. I like that the ending didn't resort to ugly violence. I look forward to your next game.
Thanks for the comments - I'm glad you enjoyed it as well!
This game is very difficult, to discourage a little:(
can anyone help me?
There's a walkthrough tab near the top of the page, and also on the website. It lists everything you need to do to clear each individual chapter.

Hopefully that helps, but if you're still stuck I can answer specific questions.
I just finished playing the game. I think you did a great job, and I love the story! I also made a gameplay of it on youtube:
Here is my FULL WALKTHROUGH of the game. THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER. Do MORE OF THESE. POSSIBLE MAKE IT BETTER THEN "9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors"... THIS IS A STARTing point :D :D. Epic Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM08A_dec0c
Awesome :D Glad you both enjoyed it, and thanks for putting up those videos! They were neat to watch.
If you're making any horror, adventure or visual novel games in the future I would gladly test it out for you, if you'd like that! :) once again amazing amazing game, hope it gets more attention.
This game was amazing, great work! I liked it so much that I decided to feature it on my new RPG Maker Series on Youtube. I am just getting started, but I will be continuing to spotlight RPG Maker games. Support, by subscribing or commenting would be greatly appreciated! I am trying to build my viewer base and help spread the word about great games like this one. Keep up the good work.


Join the Nation!
@Jammy: Thanks! It'll be a while yet, but I do have some similar things planned. I'll let you know if something comes up in the future :)

@NoxieNation: Awesome video - thanks for the feature! Glad you liked the game, and good luck with your video series.
this game was amazing. A great story line and really interesting. Hope you make more games! :) :D
This game is BY FAR one of the best ones yet. It's short but the message is amazing. I'd put this up against HetaOni.
thanks for sharing this!!this game is soo awesome! and amazing.. those puzzles.. xD awesomeeee
Thank you for playing it :) Glad you had fun!
I like 'detective' games and I really enjoyed this one. But unfortunately, there isn't much detective RPG Maker games out there.
Overall, I'm glad I played this game. ^_^
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