Frustration

Frustration

About the Game

The alarm clock is blaring. The coffee is bitter. In the mailbox is a newspaper where murders appear earlier than in police reports. You are Jeff Dowliff, a private detective with a crumbling memory. In this case, the enemy is not only the maniac, but also your own failures.

Frustration is an intimate, story-driven first-person detective story. A growing layer of surrealism, where reality twists and turns, the entrance leads back to the apartment, and mundane details become gameplay.

Collect clues from real-life objects:

  • Newspapers – clip articles, photographs, notes; if you guess wrong, crumple them up and throw them in the trash.

  • Corkboard – pin clippings and photos, connect them with red thread, and draw logical connections.

  • Polaroid — look for the right angles at the crime scene, develop them, and conduct the investigation.

  • Investigation Journal — capture your thoughts to keep track when memory plays against you.

Everyday life is also a mechanic here. Make coffee, sort through your mail, light a cigarette, turn on the radio — simple minigames provide a break and throw up details that suddenly become important. The closer you get to the climax, the more reality cracks: teleporting doors, televisions, and scenes in which a single blink of an eye transports you to another state.

  • A powerful first-person detective story with elements of a psychological thriller and an unreliable narrator.

  • Focus on the essence: compact, dense locations without unnecessary markers.

  • A lively detective routine: clippings, thread, photos, developing — a hands-on investigation.

  • A unique "thoughts" interface instead of standard widgets.

  • Cool minigames (coffee, mail, cigarettes, cleaning)

  • Memory lapses as a mechanic: blinking, scene "jumps," surreal cutscenes.

  • Mind system: cigarettes, pills to wait out the noise in your head.

  • Repeat playthroughs change your perception.

  • For fans of intimate, atmospheric stories in the spirit of original indie detectives.

Initial Release