Mystery Case Files
Encyclopedia
Mystery Case Files is a series developed by the internal studios of Big Fish Games
. The Mystery Case Files series is known for its ‘Hidden Object’ puzzles where, in order to progress through a game, the player must find a certain number of items hidden somewhere on a painted scene.
There have been eight games in the Mystery Case Files series to date. After MCF: Huntsville
, each one added additional features including:
Storyline and characters have played an increasingly important part in the development of the series, especially from the third game onwards. The game MCF: Ravenhearst
begins a story-arc that continues on into the next two games after it, MCF: Madame Fate
and MCF: Return to Ravenhearst
. The next game after MCF: Dire Grove
, follows on from previous but does not lead directly into the same story. The next installment, MCF: 13th Skull
was released on November 25, 2010 as a Collector Edition. The latest installment in the series, MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst was released on November 23, 2011. The game continues the Ravenhearst story, but is expected to be the last in this story-arc.
Big Fish Games "estimates that 100 million people have at least sampled trial versions" of the MCF games since the initial launch of MCF: Huntsville.
to solve a series of seemingly random crimes in the small town of Huntsville. The game features a number of locations to explore and introduced the Crime Computer which is still a main part of the series.
in Capital City. Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects added items that players have to discover to unlock later levels (such as finding a battery to power a flashlight
). Characters also became a more prominent part of the series with the investigation revolving around multiple characters with different personality ‘quirks’. Every time the game is played, the suspects and culprit are different.
. Players find objects to unlock diary pieces to follow the life of Emma Ravenhearst. Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst introduced elaborate door puzzles to the series that were similar to a Rube Goldberg
type puzzle.
puzzles) while also changing the way a player can find items. Sometimes the player must combine two items on the screen, other times they must locate hidden areas to progress. The bulk of the game is still finding hidden objects, but there are a lot of other types of puzzles. Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate also introduced hidden object scenes inside hidden object scenes into the game-play.
system and was published by Nintendo
.
.
to be distributed by Harlequin. All four novels are written by Jordan Gray.
for a simple way of life. A shattering scream outside an old theater leads to the victim, a woman whose past in Blackpool is linked to a seventy-year-old train wreck, a lost child and a cache of valuable paintings smuggled out of London during World War II.
Big Fish Games
Big Fish Games is a provider of Internet media delivery software and game services based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 2002 by Paul Thelen , and currently employs more than 400 people...
. The Mystery Case Files series is known for its ‘Hidden Object’ puzzles where, in order to progress through a game, the player must find a certain number of items hidden somewhere on a painted scene.
There have been eight games in the Mystery Case Files series to date. After MCF: Huntsville
Mystery Case Files: Huntsville
Mystery Case Files: Huntsville is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the first installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website. The Mystery Case Files franchise has sold...
, each one added additional features including:
- Flashlights and a fictional X-ray Device by MCF: Prime SuspectsMystery Case Files: Prime SuspectsMystery Case Files: Prime Suspects is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the second installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
- Rube Goldberg door puzzles by MCF: RavenhearstMystery Case Files: RavenhearstMystery Case Files: Ravenhearst is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the third installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
- Word and crystal ball puzzles, hidden object scenes inside hidden object scenes, interactive hidden object scenes, and morphing objects by MCF: Madame FateMystery Case Files: Madame FateMystery Case Files: Madame Fate is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the fourth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
- Cause and effect objects, adventure gameplay, and live actors by MCF: Return to RavenhearstMystery Case Files: Return to RavenhearstMystery Case Files: Return To Ravenhearst is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the fifth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
- Full motion videos by MCF: Dire GroveMystery Case Files: Dire GroveMystery Case Files: Dire Grove is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the sixth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
- Interactive characters by MCF: 13th SkullMystery Case Files: 13th SkullMystery Case Files: 13th Skull is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the seventh installment in the Mystery Case Files series...
- Morphing hidden objects by MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst
Storyline and characters have played an increasingly important part in the development of the series, especially from the third game onwards. The game MCF: Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the third installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
begins a story-arc that continues on into the next two games after it, MCF: Madame Fate
Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate
Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the fourth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
and MCF: Return to Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Return To Ravenhearst is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the fifth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
. The next game after MCF: Dire Grove
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios, and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the sixth installment in the Mystery Case Files series. The game is available exclusively at Big Fish Games website...
, follows on from previous but does not lead directly into the same story. The next installment, MCF: 13th Skull
Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull
Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull is an adventure-puzzle casual game developed by Big Fish Studios and distributed by Big Fish Games. It is the seventh installment in the Mystery Case Files series...
was released on November 25, 2010 as a Collector Edition. The latest installment in the series, MCF: Escape from Ravenhearst was released on November 23, 2011. The game continues the Ravenhearst story, but is expected to be the last in this story-arc.
Big Fish Games "estimates that 100 million people have at least sampled trial versions" of the MCF games since the initial launch of MCF: Huntsville.
Huntsville
Mystery Case Files: Huntsville is the first installment in the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released in November 2005 and immediately broke sales records for casual games. The player takes the role of a master detectiveDetective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
to solve a series of seemingly random crimes in the small town of Huntsville. The game features a number of locations to explore and introduced the Crime Computer which is still a main part of the series.
Prime Suspects
Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects is the second installment in the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released in April 2006. The player is tasked with investigating the disappearance of the Queen’s Hope DiamondHope Diamond
The Hope Diamond, also known as "Le bleu de France" or "Le Bijou du Roi", is a large, , deep-blue diamond, now housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. It is blue to the naked eye because of trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, but exhibits red...
in Capital City. Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects added items that players have to discover to unlock later levels (such as finding a battery to power a flashlight
Flashlight
A flashlight is a hand-held electric-powered light source. Usually the light source is a small incandescent lightbulb or light-emitting diode...
). Characters also became a more prominent part of the series with the investigation revolving around multiple characters with different personality ‘quirks’. Every time the game is played, the suspects and culprit are different.
Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst is the third installment in the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released in December 2006 and features an investigation centred on a mysterious manor located in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Players find objects to unlock diary pieces to follow the life of Emma Ravenhearst. Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst introduced elaborate door puzzles to the series that were similar to a Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to...
type puzzle.
Madame Fate
Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate is the fourth installment in the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released in November 2007. The player investigates Madame Fate’s Carnival and the carnival workers to see which one of them causes the fortune teller’s death at midnight. Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate introduces more types of puzzles (including word puzzles and multiple crystal ballCrystal ball
A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed by some people to aid in the performance of clairvoyance. It is sometimes known as a shew stone...
puzzles) while also changing the way a player can find items. Sometimes the player must combine two items on the screen, other times they must locate hidden areas to progress. The bulk of the game is still finding hidden objects, but there are a lot of other types of puzzles. Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate also introduced hidden object scenes inside hidden object scenes into the game-play.
Return to Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst is the fifth installment in the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released on November 26, 2008, for Big Fish Games Game Club members whereas the public was able to download this game on November 27, 2008.Dire Grove
Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove is the sixth installment of the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released December 11, 2009. It had its first release on November 25, 2009 as a Collector's Edition. It follows the events of four graduate students who traveled to a small township near Blackpool, England. The game follows on from the previous game, Return To Ravenhearst, but does not directly lead into the Ravenhearst story-arc.13th Skull
Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull is the seventh installment of the Mystery Case Files franchise and had its first release on November 25, 2010 as a Collector's Edition. It follows the disappearance of Marcus Lawson after moving into a creepy mansion in Louisiana. His daughter, Magnolia, believes her father was kidnapped by the ghost of a vengeful pirate seeking to protect his lost fortune.Escape from Ravenhearst
Mystery Case Files: Escape from Ravenhearst is the eighth installment of the Mystery Case Files franchise and was released November 23, 2011 as a Collector's Edition. Some residents in Blackpool, England have gone missing around Ravenhearst Manor and you, the Master Detective must return to the shattered manor and search for the missing residents. The game will continue the Ravenhearst story and is expected to be the final in this story-arc.Agent X
Mystery Case Files: Agent X was released on April 15, 2008 and is the first in the Mystery Case Files franchise to be to be released for a portable device. Mystery Case Files: Agent X is only usable by Glu Mobile capable cell-phones.MillionHeir
Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir was released on September 8, 2008 and is the second game in the Mystery Case Files franchise to be released for a portable device. Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir requires a Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
system and was published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
.
The Malgrave Incident
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident was released on June 27, 2011 and is the second game in the Mystery Case Files franchise to be published by Nintendo. Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident is playable for the WiiWii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
.
Novel series
A four novel mini series of books was announced by Big Fish GamesBig Fish Games
Big Fish Games is a provider of Internet media delivery software and game services based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 2002 by Paul Thelen , and currently employs more than 400 people...
to be distributed by Harlequin. All four novels are written by Jordan Gray.
Stolen
Stolen is the first novel in the series and was released in August 2010. It follows a young couple, Molly and Michael Graham, as they move to BlackpoolBlackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
for a simple way of life. A shattering scream outside an old theater leads to the victim, a woman whose past in Blackpool is linked to a seventy-year-old train wreck, a lost child and a cache of valuable paintings smuggled out of London during World War II.