Death by Midnight

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🕛 Death by Midnight is a time-loop murder mystery where the night resets every time someone dies.

You’re a detective hired to read a dead man’s will at midnight—but when someone dies, the night resets.

Trapped in an endless cycle, you must uncover the truth, prevent the deaths, and escape the loop.

Play

Play in your browser:

Or download for desktop:

Features

  • An in-game clock where every action advances time
  • Point-and-click exploration
  • Characters with branching dialogue
  • Inventory items to collect and use
  • Multiple endings, including good, bad, and true endings
  • Estimated playtime: 15–30 minutes (3,000+ words)

Warnings

  • Jumpscares
  • Depictions of death, murder, and suicide
  • Blood

Background

I made Death by Midnight for the Spooktober 8th Annual Visual Novel Jam.

For this jam, I had an idea for a time-loop mystery where a detective’s investigation is interrupted every time someone dies.

To support that idea, I added time, exploration, and inventory mechanics to the visual novel. Walking and talking advances the clock, while certain actions unlock new dialogue and story branches.

For the characters, I used an asset pack by Kalaverita, which includes sprites for a butler, nurse, maid, and young miss. The cast fits the game’s Victorian setting well.

For the backgrounds, I layered the mansion pack with a tea stained paper texture to create an antiquated look.

I then placed items throughout the different rooms. These items can prevent deaths or unlock new dialogue. To help them fit the environment, I tinted the images to match the evening and nighttime scenes.

Finally, I found several music and sound effects to tie everything together. I chopped the music into loops and converted them to OGG.

From Love & Terror [BGM Pack - Vol 01], I used:

  • Fractal Fragments (95 BPM) for the death scenes
  • Misery (125 BPM) for the true ending scene

From Free music pack, I used:

  • Stone Walls (87 BPM) for the menu, intro, and ending scenes

Before releasing the game, I used a script to create an animated cover image.

Check out the source code on GitHub.

Credits

Art

Audio