Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2025 is Here!

 May Mystery Game Madness, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
May 022025
 

It’s May already? Part of me is still convinced it’s March, but the calendar has moved on regardless of how I feel.

So that means it’s time to celebrate mystery games all month long in this year’s Celebrating All Things Mysterious!

And by “all things,” I mean it’ll be games 99% of the time.

I’m still drowning in my backlog, but I’ve decided to return to multiple reviews per week this May anyway. Of course, a regular post could always be superseded by exciting enough news (this would be a great time for an Ace Attorney announcement, just saying).

As always, Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2025 will include a contest that you can participate in just by leaving comments on relevant posts!

Contest

Rules:

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between May 2, 2025 at 2:00 PM EDT and May 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT will be counted.
  • Each non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Mysterious blog post earns you 1 point. Replies to other people’s comments, as well as comments on past years’ Celebrating All Things Mysterious posts, are also eligible.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • The top 3 point earners will win prizes.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.
  • In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.
  • The winner will be contacted by June 2, 2025.

Prizes:

  • Domino Lady Volume 3 (ebook)
  • Domino Lady Volume 4 (ebook)
  • Phoenix Wright Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (gift sent through Steam)
  • Apollo Justice Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (gift sent through Steam)
  • AI: The Somnium Files (gift sent through Steam)
  • Judgment (gift sent through Steam)
  • Lost Judgment (gift sent through Steam)
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in June.

Promotion

In the meantime, consider checking out my Domino Lady stories (unless you’re hoping to win one as a prize). Both of these pulp fiction stories feature the masked vigilante on new adventures. In “The Domino Lady Takes the Case,” she takes on a suspicious murder case when the official investigation appears to be a cover-up. You can find it in Domino Lady Volume 3.

And in Domino Lady Volume 4, you’ll find my story “The Domino Lady Deceived,” in which she pulls off a daring heist only to discover that a mysterious rival got there first!

Conclusion

All right, look forward to a month full of mystery! Are there any mystery games (or other stories) you’re especially interested in these days?

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2024 Begins!

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, My Stories, Video games, Writing  21 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , ,
Oct 022024
 

Can you believe another October is upon us again?

As we head into fall, it’s time to kick off Halloween season with a month-long celebration of spookiness! That includes not only horror, but anything else that feels suitable for the season.

During this celebration, we’ll have sales, contests, and more, so stick around.

It’s time for Celebrating All Things Spooky 2024 to begin!

Reviews and Content

Our romance and mystery events this year had to be shortened, but my plan is to stick with regular reviews for Celebrating All Things Spooky – with one day a week reserved for other topics in case something crazy happens (I mean, Capcom could still announce a new Ace Attorney game).

There’s a whole bunch of horror, spooky, and otherwise Halloween-adjacent games I’m looking forward to playing and discussing this October, and I’m hoping for a mix of both scary games and lighter ones.

Sales and Promo

A special promotion is coming soon! From October 4 – October 10, ebook copies of my zombie comedy novella The Zombie Mishap will be on sale for $0.99 at Amazon. Join the misadventures of two unlucky scientists who accidentally create a zombie and set out to stop it before anyone finds out!

I don’t know yet if there will be sales on The Book at Dernier and It Came Back this year or not. However, I’m hoping to get at least Dernier up at other retailers as well, so stay tuned.

And don’t forget that I also worked on the horror visual novel Not It, available now on Steam as Not It: Spookiest Edition!

Contest and Prizes

Now let’s get into the contest details. For the month of October, you can earn points simply by leaving comments or replies on any Celebrating All Things Spooky post. At the end of the month, the top three participants with the most points will each get to choose a prize!

Rules:

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between October 2, 2024 at 12:00 PM ET and October 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM ET will be counted.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Spooky blog post = 1 point. This includes comments on past years’ posts and replies to other comments.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • The top 3 point earners will win prizes.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.
  • In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.
  • The winner will be contacted by November 2, 2024.

Prizes:

  • Not It: Spookiest Edition (gift sent through Steam)
  • Silent Hill 4: The Room (gift sent through GOG)
  • Alan Wake (gift sent through Steam)
  • Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (gift sent through Steam)
  • Dead Age (Steam code)
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (Steam code)
  • Lakeview Cabin Collection (Steam code)
  • eBook copy of The Book at Dernier
  • eBook copy of It Came Back
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in November.

All right, let’s get started! Are there any spooky games you’re planning to play this October?

Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024 Begins (With a Twist!)

 May Mystery Game Madness, My Games, My Stories, Video games, Writing  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 012024
 

May is here, and that means a return of Celebrating All Things Mysterious, our new annual event where we celebrate mysteries.

However, this year it’s going to be a little different.

Much like with the shortened Celebrating All Things Romantic event earlier this year, this event comes at a time when I’m drowning in games to play. Not only that, but February’s contest resulted in a tie for first place in which both winners picked a game for me to review.

As a result, I’m still finishing up those games on top of everything else, and solid mystery games tend to run on the longer side. So! Instead of a new mystery game review with each post like in the past, this year’s Celebrating All Things Mysterious event will feature one mystery game review each week.

This more relaxed pace should make it easier to balance this year’s event while letting me take the time to savor these games as they deserve.

With that important change out of the way, let’s get into the event details!

Promotions

Drops of Death, the murder mystery romance game where any of the love interests can be the killer (it’s randomized at the start of each playthrough) is currently planned for an October 2025 release date! A new trailer will premiere tomorrow, so be sure to check that out!

Meanwhile, don’t forget that two of my pulp fiction stories star The Domino Lady, the masked vigilante from classic pulp fiction. In “The Domino Lady Takes the Case,” part of Domino Lady Volume 3, the Domino Lady embarks on a murder investigation after suspecting the truth of the case is being covered up. Then in “The Domino Lady Deceived,” found in Domino Lady Volume 4, a thwarted heist brings her into conflict with a thief wily and determined enough to be her match.

Contest

And yes, even though new posts will only be weekly, you can still comment on any Celebrating All Things Mysterious post to participate in this month’s contest!

Contest Rules

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between May 1, 2024 at 12:00 PM EST and May 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST will be counted.
  • Each non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Mysterious blog post, including replies to other comments, earns you 1 point.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • The top 3 point earners will win prizes.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.
  • In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.
  • The winner will be contacted by June 3, 2024.

Prizes

  • Domino Lady Volume 3 (ebook)
  • Domino Lady Volume 4 (ebook)
  • Phoenix Wright Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (gift sent through Steam)
  • Apollo Justice Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • $35 Nintendo eShop gift card to use for either Famicom Detective Club game
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!
  • …and possibly more prizes to be added throughout May!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in June.

An event like this is an easy way for me to encourage myself to play some of the mystery games I’ve gathered over the years. So let’s find some great new mystery games and discuss them in Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024!

 Older Entries