Rocky Rhodes and the Cracked Case by Brainloaf Studio

The name’s Rhodes... Rocky Rhodes.
Deep in the heart of a lonesome, rain-soaked metropolis, a private eye crawls the streets. He’s on the hunt for a mysterious relic of unknown origin, and leads aren’t easy to come by. He’s on the verge of a breakthrough, but things just aren’t adding up. This case feels strange to Rocky, personal even. It’s time to blow this mystery wide open, and reveal the truth behind everything.



Code by Joshua Edwards, art by crelish & loveboxf, and music by holbinski. Featuring the voice talents of Juan A. Avelar, Joey Sourlis, Kaylee McDonald, Ryan Do, and Sardinky.
| Link | https://brainloaf.itch.io/rocky-rhodes-and-the-cracked-case |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/rocky-rhodes-and-the-cracked-case |
Ratings
| Overall | 6th | 4.482⭐ | 84🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 14th | 4.421⭐ | 84🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 26th | 4.293⭐ | 84🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 51th | 4.402⭐ | 84🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 21th | 4.655⭐ | 86🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 4th | 4.604⭐ | 84🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 11th | 4.524⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 16th | 4.506⭐ | 85🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 97🗳️ | 151🗨️ |
I had sooo much fun here!
So, what makes this a real pleasure is that you managed to surprise me a lot here and as a developer I know that it is more complicated to make ~7 different scenes than just one, what most of the others are doing! This is great stuff!
The zombie shooting was my favorite, that took me sooo by surprise ^^.
I mean...
Wut? :dizzy_face:
I gave you straight 5s... please make more of this.
Cheers! [-LB](https://ldjam.com/users/the-lame-brain/)
@mordrick Thank you so much! We're glad the differing scenes caught you by surprise - that was definitely the goal!
@the-lame-brain Your confusion means our job is complete. Thank you so much!
@chillertyp All will be revealed in-game... We encourage you to play it if you'd like to discover why!
By far the best entry I have played so far. I would love to see more whacky scenarios, it is very entertaining going through these sudden changes!
Cool game made!Although the ending was a bit awkward and weird, the voice acting felt very professional and the graphics were great
@jpatchz Bold of you to assume we didn't go insane! We're pretty sure we lost our minds, honestly. Thank you so much!
@jk5000 Thank you! We tried to go with some pretty crazy twists, but they can't land for everyone. Appreciate the feedback re: gameplay as well!
@guinytime We had joked about people thinking the first genre shift was a bug, so it's hilarious to hear that actually ended up being the case. Thank you so much for the feedback!
@achila-eranga-mohottige I'm not sure we even know the answer to that. Thanks for playing!
@bgdc @Junber We definitely could have made that final puzzle a bit clearer and cleaned up a few aspects of it, we agree! But having it be disorienting was definitely a goal too. Thank you so much for the feedback!
My first thought was how the hell did you make this in just a couple days
My second thought was what the hell is going on??????????
But its so much fun, and I love the sense of humour! Almost full 5 stars apart from the theme though, I get that maybe the genre is unstable but it seems a bit abstract.
Well freaking done.
@ryjcio Try to form a specific shape by assembling the bread pieces in the grid! (Hint: it's circular and has a hole in the middle)
@goddoesplaydice We're so glad to hear you enjoyed! Our amazing voice actors have links on the game's download page, and also have credits in-game if you wanna check them out!
@muros Thank you so much! We're glad to hear you had a good time. That's understandable, though the slightly unwieldy car was partially a design choice because we wanted the transition to feel all the more chaotic and uncontrollable (unstable, if you will). Appreciate the feedback!
@josher We're so glad to hear you enjoyed the game and the humor! For the theme our base idea was "unstable genre," so that's why the game's genre is constantly shifting. We also decided to throw in an extra "unstable" with the character's mindset during the final minigame. Thank you for playing and the feedback!
It was certainly unexpected and the voice acting was terrific, good job!
O.................K............................. I have absolutely no idea what the heck just happened. This is the most confusing thing I have ever played, pretty unsurprising Brainloaf made it. I'm just going to give you 5 stars and run before I get caught in this.... thing.
(Fantastic job! Everything was top-notch quality, go get some gold trophies for making this game)
oh my goodness.
I think I might have given the first straight score in this jam. Holy heck. I wasn't ready for it.
I wasn't ready.
@flogames If you're feeling unstable after playing, then that's a success in our books. Thanks you!
@peace-of-cake-games Building a reputation for confusing games, are we? Honestly, we're glad to hear it! Thanks a ton for playing and for the kind words!
@der-mondhase Don't you mean holy *cat* on a motorcycle? (get it? because there's a cat on a motorcycle in the game. haha-) Thank you so much!
Played the jam version.
Thought I was gonna have to quit, the corner piece shapes for the "bread puzzle" were really unclear. Didn't think you could make me go "What??" at every genre change, but every single one was surprising and unsuspected. Ending was definitely odd, and the auto-closing gave one more final "what??" sensation of a sudden change. Really good work. Wish there was a way to skip through the opening noir text like there is in the visual novel aspect.
I appreciate the dedication to Rocky alone maintaining the noir style throughout, except at the end - really makes that last bit seem so heavy, along with the creepy voice and ambience.
Hardest part (besides the corner pieces of the bread puzzle (the other shapes were very clear! and very impressive since they're photos! also I liked the hand photo it was cool and creepy!)) was definitely the car level.
Voice acting was fantastic, although I'd say Barbara did better at the visual novel kawaii voice than the hardboiled femme fatale detective voice.
This game was perfect, and the perfect game to start my series of drunk ratings on lol. Gonna follow to see what over weird stuff you guys make in the future, good work!!

@peace-of-cake-games We'll definitely be taking part - see you there!
@proxy-games That's a very accurate description, looking back on how the game goes. Super glad you enjoyed and appreciate hearing your thoughts - thank you!
@papabirb Wow, thanks for sharing your thoughts on each part of the game - it's great to hear! We definitely could have made the bread puzzle a bit clearer (in the post-jam version there's an audio cue when you place a piece correctly), and adding a skip or fast-forward to the noir dialogue is a great idea. Sorry to hear you had a glitch with fullscreen, in the post-jam version we've added a way to toggle fullscreen with the F key but unfotunately missed that in the jam version. I'm a bit curious what would have happened if we'd caught you later into your endeavour, gotta wonder how that would have gone. Thanks a ton for the feedback and comment!
My only complaint was the puzzle at the end. I had to play the post-jam version to be able to beat it.
One last note: I always write down honest review, because everybody need that, not just nice craps with some bullshit, but sometime I will appreciate very good games. So if this review insult you, but use it well :) Anyway every game is counting so :)
@hadik Thank you for the feedback! If you're up to go into more detail, could we ask what you weren't a fan of with the audio? We definitely felt like we tried our hardest on the audio this time around after working with five voice actors, producing around six original music tracks, and implementing sfx as well. If you could give us your thoughts on what we could do better in this regard, please let us know! The theme we decided to go with was "unstable genre," so that's why the genre shifts around constantly and at random! We also threw in an extra reference to the theme with our character's "unstable" mindset at the end of the game. Thanks for playing!
more than being enjoyable or fun, this game took me on a journey and changed the way i see the world. i think that's the most important thing art can do.
@sakura-magika Wow, that is seriously the highest compliment we can recieve, thank you so much! It means so much to hear you enjoyed the game and that it affected you like that. Though we hope you don't correlate donuts with insane people from now on. Thank you for the immensely kind words!
@nikiprotiv We're super glad you enjoyed the voice work! We can't thank our voice actors enough for their talent and flexibility to work within the three-day timeframe. Thanks for playing!
@j-star That means so much to hear! We're so glad that everything landed. Thank you for playing!
@jackaljk Appreciate the feedback! We definitely agree that the final puzzle is the most confusing and least-straightforward, we would have liked to make it a bit more clear in the jam version if it wasn't for those pesky time constraints. We're glad it still worked out though, and especially that you enjoyed - thank you for playing!
@lazzor ...Did the artifact ever really exist? What is reality...? (Seriously though, thank you for playing! We're glad to hear you enjoyed!)
@pat-cleaver Super glad to hear you enjoyed, thank you for the kind words! That's a great point, we'll add a changelog to the page to clear that up. Appreciate the suggestion!
Cooking Papa is life.
@lerg We're planning to make the game playable in-browser soon, and mostly likely porting to Newgrounds!
@maxthedoom Woah, that means so much to hear! We're truly honored to have our game deemed a mastahpiece!
@skvader-418 That means a ton! I tried making the driving controls a bit unwieldy, but I think I might have gone a bit too far with that haha. Thank you for playing and for the comment!
Hope to see more like this.

@xpoho Это действительно так. Спасибо за игру!
@itzemii Thank you!
@kuro Alley cat adores you too. Glad to hear the confusion resonated with you - thanks for playing!
@anchorlight Thank you so much! We just checked out your corresponding feed post and it's really an honor to be highlighted as your best overall for this jam, seriously. It means a ton to hear you enjoyed the game, and we appreciate you sending it around as well!
@knipsch Thank you, that means a lot to hear! And uh, best not to think about that too much...
@dreamerflow Thank you! (Here's a hint: The shape is circular and has a hole in the middle...)