For context to non-MCF fans, "Mystery Case Files: Fate's Carnival" released in 2013 and mostly doesn't have any major bugs besides occasional laggy cutscenes that I have encountered. "Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove" released in 2009 and famously does not work at all for post-Windows 8 systems. After over a decade, Big Fish Games has decided to green-light remastering Fate's Carnival and not Dire Grove for some reason. I don't know what this "digitally remastered" version entails.

It is also important to note that BFG is suing Elephant Games, the original developer of Fate's Carnival, over acquiring Elephant's games' assets and source code after the contracts between Big Fish and Elephant have already been terminated around March of this year. Not only is it unlikely that paying for this version will compensate Elephant Games, but it seems that BFG does already have the assets and source code to Fate's Carnival based on this announced "digitally remastered" version, although it's possibly too soon to fully tell.

The chances of this being the only MCF game we get this year is surprisingly not zero (due to GrandMA Studios' contracts also being terminated). Note that GrandMA Studios also planned) a sequel to Fate's Carnival before their contracts were terminated. It's possibly but not confirmed that this "digitally remastered" version of Fate's Carnival was done by BFG's new internal studio.

EDIT: I have discovered that the original version of Fate's Carnival has already been delisted, so you'll have to wait until this "remaster" comes out to buy it from Big Fish directly.

As far as I can tell, people who've already bought it still own it (I did buy Fate's Carnival on Big Fish's website a while ago and it's still in my order history and on my computer for now). This notably breaks from precedent where Big Fish normally keeps both the original game and its remaster on their website (e.g. Drawn: The Painted Tower, Living Legends: Frozen Beauty, Awakening: The Dreamless Castle).

You currently can still officially get the game from WildTangent, GameHouse, and iWin until Fate's Carnival's "remaster" comes out, probably around this November as is tradition for yearly MCF games.

Whats your favorite game in the series or from Big Fish Games overall?

best Hidden object series ever

I used ChatGPT to summarize the things I remember when I was playing it, not sure which publisher released this game though.

Old Windows PC 2D hidden-object/puzzle game, probably played around 2015–2018 but possibly released years earlier. The player is never visible. Every location is a completely static, pre-rendered 2D scene viewed from a fixed first-person perspective. I am not sure if there are no 3D models, free movement, or camera movement. The mouse is used to click and collect objects.

The game has a surreal, childlike dream-world aesthetic: painted rooms, toys, statues, cardboard/paper cutouts, painted trees and other artificial-looking scenery. The first area is a room where the player is apparently trapped and must find objects to escape/progress.

Important visual memories include a large peacock with its tail spread open and a stationary leprechaun-like figure incorporated into/next to a tree. These are scenery/objects, not living NPCs.

The overall game feels like exploring a bizarre child's dream, theatrical set, or giant handcrafted playroom rather than a normal fantasy world.