W, A, S, D - Move 

E - Interact 

F - Check Notebook for tasks and notes

Mouse - For Notebook interactions

PLEASE READ BELOW FOR A HOW TO - THERE IS NO IN-GAME TUTORIAL

Lord Dracula is ambushed in his castle by four adventurers. He is mortally wounded, but casts a confusion spell and locks himself into his coffin.

The adventurers, with severe short term memory loss, call upon you, Inquisitor Dax Skulder, to help seal Dracula in his coffin forever.

But the binding ritual is delicate, and you must discover the events of the ambush in detail before you can cast the correct spell. 

Inquire, investigate, take notes, solve the puzzle, and reclaim the night from the Lord of Darkness, before he can rise again and unleash his storm of vengeance.

Minutes Before Nightfall is a game, where you, the player, must explore Dracula's castle, talk to adventurers with memory loss and investigate clues to determine the events of last night's ambush. You must, using the clues you find, determine who attacked Dracula with what weapon in which room, and in what order. 

The game is a zebra puzzle (Einstein's puzzle) where every clue helps you match characters with locations, attacks and the order in which they attacked Dracula. Use your notebook to click and drag clues to the attack order slots in the upper left portion of your notebook screen. The clues are located in the lower left portion. Locations must be slotted in the WHERE? slots, characters into the WHO? and weapons into the WITH?.

Use the right page of the notebook to both get hints on where to explore (the TASKS button on the upper right edge of the notebook) and to read your deductions which will let you solve the mystery (the NOTES button). Tasks are automatically crossed out when you discover the related Note. Not all interactable objects give clues. Interact with objects using the E button, and open and close your Notebook with F. For notebook interactions, use your mouse. 

IMPORTANT - If you have the correct solution, the coffin in the left notebook page will turn green.

IMPORTANT - When you solve the puzzle, you must go to the coffin room and interact with the Altar to cast the ritual. Solving the puzzle in the notebook won't trigger the victory condition.

SPOILERS BELOW - If you are unable to solve the puzzle, check the table below for the correct answers. Please do so after at least one playthrough.

Click here for the cheat sheet, last spoiler warning.

First Event: Scout, Holy Water, Kitchen.

Second Event: Barbarian, Stake, Dungeon

Third Event: Mage, Fireball, Laboratory

Fourth Event: Knight, Garlic, Study

This game is made for the Brackeys Game Jam 2024.2. 

3D assets used from: https://kaylousberg.itch.io/