Hypnospace Outlaw

Hypnospace Outlaw's fake 90s web portal supplies the dead ends that hide answers. The game is set in a fake 90s web portal, which gives it a large pool of pages to act as red herrings. Investigation games need many dead ends to hide the real answer, and those are expensive to author by hand.

Mark Brown groups it with Shadows of Doubt (generated citizens), Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (addresses buried in a phone book) and Her Story (a clunky clip archive). L.A. Noire is his counterexample, since it simply tells you where to go. Quote: "You need all the dead ends and red herrings to, essentially, hide the real answer."

Hypnospace Outlaw hides file archives behind a special address and offers a currency fallback. File archives sit on a secret server reached through a special web address, so players who learn how the portal is organised can follow leads there. A player who cannot find a clever way in can instead farm currency and pay for access.

The currency route is cited as an example of giving multiple avenues to the same answer, so no one is stuck on a single clue. Quote: "the games provide multiple avenues to reach the right answer."

Hypnospace Outlaw lets players bookmark sites as a note-taking tool. Bookmarking lets players keep track of pages they have found while investigating. It is listed alongside Shadows of Doubt's pinboard and Her Story's footage tagging.

Brown says the pinboard in Shadows of Doubt makes investigations "like, 10 times more fun". That remark is about the pinboard, not the bookmarks.