Creepy archive-searching deduction game TR-49 has had the best launch of any of Inkle’s many games, the studio revealed today, meaning it sold better than games like Heaven’s Vault and A Highland Song, which took longer and far more resources to make.

“TR-49 is our best launch, ever, in 14 years,” Jon Ingold, the creator of TR-49 and co-founder of Inkle, wrote. “I admit I’m surprised!

TR-49 was made quickly, in nine months, he said, mostly as an experiment to learn open-source game-making engine Godot. It was also “an excuse to play with some actors”, he added, highlighting the game’s performative side that Inkle’s text-based games usually feature only lightly. TR-49 is partly an audio drama.

“One thing I think IS cool,” Ingold continued: “it’s a ‘one-sitting’ game. 4 hours; $7. No commitment required.” And one huge upside of that is “people SEE THE END!”, Ingold wrote. “This is huge for me, personally.”

It’s a success that may affect the studio’s future output, though it’s worth pointing out that Inkle has done short games before. Overboard! and Expelled! are both short, and A Highland Song isn’t what I’d call long. Nevertherless, I’m sure Inkle is considering using this one-sitting approach again.

“If we’re going to make that a sustainable model we might need to be able to make things a little bit quicker, but I love the basic concept of ‘compact games’,” Ingold said.

TR-49 is a game about searching an archive in a strange machine, looking for things that don’t exist in the outside world any more. It’s a code-related deduction game, really, as you search around looking for clues for codes that will reveal hidden secrets within. It’s really good. I gave TR-49 four stars in my Eurogamer review.