The Sydney Mystery gets 80% from CCGR.org:

"I really enjoyed this game and it’s a great first title from Twilight Software. Granted it has some rough edges, but it pulls it off in the end. They did a great job and I look forward to their future titles. I would recommend this game to any adventure lover."

More reviews:

A German review at Adventure-Treff here.  An English machine translation here.

"The photographed places (by the way 17 pieces), the mood music, the acoustic output, the Story - all these factors are decisive for the atmosphere in The Sydney Mystery. The play creates it to sink the time to forgotten and in the Story."

from

"Die fotografierten Orte (übrigens 17 Stück), die Hintergrundmusik, die Sprachausgabe, die Story - alle diese Faktoren sind ausschlaggebend für die Atmosphäre in The Sydney Mystery. Das Spiel schafft es, die Zeit zu vergessen und in der Story zu versinken."

Programmer in Black reviews it here.

"A very commendable effort for a game developed by one person. Game play is rather short, but the photography around Sydney is great, the videos interviews make this feel more interactive just because there are people around. Suitable for gamers of all ages, only a glimpse of violence, no bad language at all. Good introduction to the genre for any new adventurer."

Just Adventure reviews it here.

"...there is enough adventure to while away a few hours and enough unintentional humor to put this in a category with The Curse of Monkey Island and The Feeble Files."

PC Gameworld.com reviews it here.

"While on my expedition, I did find that some of the photography in the game was very nicely done and the game overall was mildly entertaining. I do feel that the game actually serves a better purpose: promoting tourism to Australia..."

Perhaps some more soon.  Have we missed any?  Let us know at

Two recent reviews:

A thumb up at FourFatChicks.com with comments including:

"The Sydney Mystery, in spite of some first-production warts, is a charming reintroduction of FMV, accompanied by a decent story, with a fine acting crew, and placed in a highly photogenic setting"

and: "The settings, not only the standard Sydney tourist spots, but also the homes and grounds, are lovely, and they brought my game-cynical wife to the screen on several occasions."

And 80% from the fantastic community at GameBoomers.com with this in the summary:

"I enjoyed The Sydney Mystery very much. I was charmed by some of the characters and their portrayers. I loved the screen shots of Sydney and the surrounding area. The story line was developed enough to catch my interest. I think that to appreciate any game - you have to look at the sum of its parts, rather than any one isolated aspect. The devotion and exuberance of Twilight Software in creating this game is obvious. You could tell that all of those involved were invested in making the game as good as it could be."

More reviews on their way.

Wow, only a week since The Sydney Mystery was released, and already a great response to the game, as well as some very useful feedback!  Thanks to everyone in the community forums at www.gameboomers.com,  www.justadventure.com and www.adventuregamers.com for their discussions.  And to everyone who has already bought the Full Game, we hope you're enjoying it and thank you for the positive feedback!

Having trouble?  Windows XP SP1 users can install the Windows Update linked here, and a few people have found that turning down hardware acceleration helps.  Email us if you need any help, at

All in all, what a fun launch!

The official announcement goes out right now.  The Sydney Mystery has been released, can be purchased on this site, and the demo is available for download.  Sales are already great!

We've activated some exciting pages: Download Demo, Buy Full Game and Demo Walkthrough are now alive.  We'll send out the full announcement tomorrow.  In the meantime, grab the demo and start playing!

During the past week all five pages of screenshots were posted, giving 47 new images to peruse.  A number of sites posted six additional full size screenshots.

The Sydney Mystery Trailer has been posted at Gamer's Hell.  This video is over two minutes long, and is comprised entirely of in-game scenes, footage and music.  Download it here.

(It should also be posted on Just Adventure shortly, but Twilight Software will be on the road for the next 24 hours.)

We spent some time on the weekend working on polishing the demo, while half the world away, a trailer was being prepared.  Things are moving...

There's a very in-depth interview with Brendan at PC Gameworld.com.

It covers topics including: the design of the game interface; story-telling techniques employed; thoughts on multiple paths through a plot; working with actors who haven't worked in a computer game before; the nature of the target audience; how adventure games of the past two decades have inspired the design of The Sydney Mystery.  All this and much more!

A great interview with Brendan at EvilAvatar, accompanied by brand new screenshots.

Screenshots also posted at Just Adventure, and Blues News posted a link to the Gamer's Hell pages of yesterday.

Any other mentions of The Sydney Mystery out there?  Let us know at

Some great coverage on our first day, including full size screenshots and the press release at Gamer's Hell, a news item at The Adrenaline Vault, another news item at DIY Games, the press release at Quandary, a news item at Adventure Gamers and hopefully more to come.

Did we miss any?  Let us know at

It's the official launch of this website, featuring the first page of mini-screenshots and the first press releases sent out.  All of this means that the product launch wheels are being gently set in motion!

All enquiries should go to

All is not forgotten.  We are just waiting on a few external factors.  The Sydney Mystery is on its way.  The community at GameBoomers is talking about the game, which is great!  Quandary also has a Crystal Ball page which we're sure will get more info soon.

The Sydney Mystery is complete. A compact, web-sized demo of Act One is in production.  The title has been entered in the IGF.