The Game Census
A Detective's Novel cover art

A Detective's Novel

Amaterasu Software · 2016-07-28

Steam

AdventureIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Side view, Text

Releases: Jul 28, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

On a cold November night in a desolate estate deep in the mountains an innocent life has prematurely perished and its up to the player to find out who did it.

A Detective's Novel is a 2016 Adventure and Indie title priced at $1.99, with an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 owners and a Mixed review sentiment (68% of 896 reviews).

0
playing now
68%
positive of 897 reviews
Mixed
steam's rating (official)
500,000–1,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
60/100
IGDB user rating (2 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unsupported
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Unsupported
$1.99
steam price (US)

0 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 04:00 UTC (census sample)

On a cold November night in a desolate estate deep in the mountains an innocent life has prematurely perished. Surrounded only by his family and closest friends, a controversial yet immensely successful businessman William Goldberg passed away under mysterious circumstances. Being an upstanding member of society and the owner of Goldberg Industries, a multi-million dollar arms company responsible for providing the military during the World War 2, news of his death caused an uproar at the local police department. It seemed the case was tailor-made for the legendary detective Knox, a prodigy who(Storyline via IGDB)

Health check

Quiet
  • · 0 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 8 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~1/week).
  • · Review velocity up 14% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 14% of 29,087 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 22k–54k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 897 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $0.30 at Steam (2023-03-04) · bundled 7×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $1.99 · on sale 5 of 10 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
8820172026Week of 2017-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

302026-09-15 13:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 21:00 — 2 players2026-09-18 05:00 — 1 players2026-09-19 12:00 — 2 players2026-09-20 20:00 — 2 players2026-09-22 03:00 — 0 players2026-09-23 11:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 18:00 — 0 players2026-09-26 02:00 — 1 players2026-09-27 09:00 — 1 players2026-09-28 17:00 — 1 players2026-09-30 00:00 — 0 players2026-10-01 08:00 — 2 players2026-10-02 15:00 — 0 players2026-10-03 23:00 — 1 players2026-10-05 07:00 — 0 players2026-10-06 15:00 — 0 players2026-10-07 22:00 — 1 players2026-10-09 06:00 — 0 players2026-10-10 13:00 — 0 players2026-10-11 21:00 — 0 players2026-10-13 04:00 — 1 players2026-10-14 12:00 — 2 players2026-10-15 04:00 — 0 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$4.99$0.302016-07-282026-07-232016-07-28 — best price $4.492016-10-24 — best price $2.992017-01-02 — best price $2.992017-07-05 — best price $2.992017-12-21 — best price $0.492018-08-23 — best price $0.492018-12-20 — best price $0.492019-05-03 — best price $0.492019-10-09 — best price $0.492019-12-03 — best price $0.992020-01-02 — best price $0.992020-03-06 — best price $0.992020-07-09 — best price $0.992020-11-21 — best price $0.992021-01-05 — best price $0.992021-02-15 — best price $0.992021-05-14 — best price $0.992021-07-23 — best price $0.992021-11-01 — best price $0.992022-01-05 — best price $0.992022-02-03 — best price $0.992022-05-28 — best price $0.512022-07-11 — best price $0.512022-10-04 — best price $0.512022-11-22 — best price $0.512023-01-19 — best price $0.512023-03-16 — best price $0.302023-05-28 — best price $0.302023-09-11 — best price $1.992024-01-04 — best price $1.992024-03-08 — best price $1.992024-04-21 — best price $1.992024-07-11 — best price $1.992024-10-27 — best price $1.992025-01-02 — best price $1.992025-03-20 — best price $1.992025-10-06 — best price $1.992026-01-05 — best price $1.992026-03-26 — best price $1.992026-07-23 — best price $1.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam Trading CardsFamily Sharing

Player tags

IndieMysteryAdventureDetectiveVisual Novel

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

Rusty Lake HotelOmensight: Definitive EditionUnforeseen IncidentsQuern - Undying ThoughtsNight CallApsulov: End of GodsShe Sees Red - Interactive MovieTwin Mirror

Similarity via IGDB.

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