Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove

Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove is the sixth game in the Mystery Case Files series. In this installment, the Master Detective is stuck in the deserted hamlet of Dire Grove during a (rather severe) snowstorm, and ends up searching for four missing college students doing their best recreation of the Blair Witch Project.

This game is notable for being the very first Hidden-Object game to have a Collector's Edition with bonus content (now a commonplace feature for these kinds of games), along its strange inability to run on anything past Windows 8.

Unused Text#

Callout.xml, the file that contains all of the Master Detective's lines, includes some test messages regarding the game's various attitudes the Detective's responses can be set to.

<Test>This is just a test string</Test>
 <TieredTest>
 <Normal>This is a normal tiered response</Normal>
 <Normal>This is another normal tiered response</Normal>
 <Normal>Yet another normal tiered response</Normal>
 <Motivational>This is a motivational tiered response</Motivational>
 <Snarky>What kind of click would you call that?</Snarky>
</TieredTest>

There's also test responses for trying to use an incorrect item on an object.

<TestWrongItem>
 <Normal>A custom TestTool wrong item response</Normal>
 <Normal>A second TestTool wrong item response</Normal>
</TestWrongItem>

Unused Sounds#

Default.mp3#

Two short, quiet beeps. While normally unused, it's used as a fallback sound in case one is missing. The next game in the series, Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull, would use a variation of this sound for the same purpose.

Hint.mp3#

This sound was played when using a hint in previous MCF games, such as Return to Ravenhearst. Since Dire Grove uses a new sound for this, it's most likely just a leftover from that game.

HO Find.mp3#

This swooshing, mystical sound was probably a placeholder sound for finding objects in a hidden object scene. The sound would later be used in 13th Skull's sound options.

hunterSpeakingLoop.mp3#

Susan (the student found in the hunting lodge) saying "I am the hunter" once. It would have been looped to create her chanting after solving her disk's puzzle. The final game instead uses a different, longer sound file, VO_Hunter.mp3.

loopTest.mp3#

A lighthearted musical loop, rather unfitting given the game's darker atmosphere. Judging from the filename, it was used to test sound looping.

Unused Graphics#

A temporary room graphic, most likely as a warning to developers if a location was broken during development.