- January 11, 2026
- haoningwu
Dear Clara
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About Dear Clara
Dear Clara is a single player puzzle game with a mystery theme. It was developed by haoningwu and was released on January 11, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from players.
Step into the shoes of a Time Bureau detective in this uncompromising first-person murder mystery. Travel through written memories, piece together an interconnected timeline, and restore a victim's diary with pure logical deduction and zero handholding.
Reviews
- Unique and clever deduction puzzles that make good use of limited mechanics and require extrapolating information, delivering satisfying detective gameplay.
- Well-executed time travel mechanic offering interesting ways to explore different locations and timelines, adding depth to the investigation.
- Developer shows strong dedication with ongoing patches, responsiveness to feedback, and real voice acting, resulting in a promising debut from a solo creator.
- Technical issues including immersion-breaking bugs, janky mechanics related to time travel positions, input lag on certain platforms, and some AI visuals harm the experience.
- The game is quite short and feels like it would benefit from more polish and refinement, with rough edges and some puzzles (notably a math puzzle) being frustrating or unsatisfying.
- Lack of hand-holding and guidance can lead to getting stuck or confused, and some repetitive or annoying elements like loading screens and repeated audio clips detract from the flow.
gameplay
10 mentions Positive Neutral NegativeThe gameplay offers a clever and varied use of limited mechanics, with a strong focus on no hand-holding and player-driven discovery. The time travel mechanic is a novel and well-executed feature, though it can feel slightly janky and underutilized. Despite some bugs and rough edges, the deduction elements provide satisfying challenges and showcase the creator's dedication.
“I have not seen this much variety and clever use of limited mechanics in many solo dev games (including solo dev games that I love!).”
“Mr. Investigator also very much delivers on the promise of "no hand-holding." You can turn off hints and there is literally no guidance after the tutorial at all about any of the mechanics or what the boundaries of this world are.”
“There are some fun deductions, and the use of the time travel mechanic as a two-purpose mechanic is novel for the genre and well executed, if slightly underutilized.”
“It's a bit rough around the edges; I did encounter quite a few bugs, some of which also interfered with gameplay.”
“However, with this mechanic, where you end up seems to lag behind you and you can end up either in a door or on the opposite side of a door you want to be on - even after walking all the way into the opposite side of a room from the door, so you need to transport back and forth to somehow make this janky mechanic work for you.”
“Mr. investigator also very much delivers on the promise of 'no hand-holding.' You can turn off hints, and there is literally no guidance after the tutorial at all about any of the mechanics or what the boundaries of this world are.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
Dear Clara is a puzzle game with mystery theme. Common tags for Dear Clara include indie, psychological, detective, emotional, story rich and others.
Dear Clara is available on PC and Windows.
Dear Clara was released on January 11, 2026.
Dear Clara was developed by haoningwu.
Dear Clara has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Dear Clara for its emotional but disliked it for its gameplay.
Dear Clara is a single player game.