Dimhaven – The Lost Source invites you and your camera to look for your missing uncle on a strange island today

Put a camera in a game, and I’ll be there. Not a camera mode, no, no, an actual camera is what I need, and that’s just what you’re equipped with in Dimhaven – The Lost Source, a mystery, adventure puzzle game where you play as a museum curator looking for her missing uncle on a mysterious, remote island from the devs behind Quern.

Our protagonist is called Emily Ravenstone, a name so befitting of a fictional museum curator I feel surprised she didn’t already exist. She finds herself on this strange, “European inspired,” mist (Myst?) covered island that was once a tourist hotspot. I’m not sure why her uncle is missing, I suppose that might be a part of the mystery, though apparently this is just one part of a large puzzle that is the island itself.

Speaking of puzzles, these all look quite charming too. There’s the usual sort of position things and numbers in just the right way to unlock another thing, very Mystian of course, but there’s also slightly more oddball things like playing a faux NES game where you pilot a spaceship, or sketching on a photo of a sort of sudoku looking thing, or cleaning up… well I’m not sure what, a door handle maybe, with a sponge.

The photography element is key too. You can take pseudo polaroids on a camera you carry around with you, necessary for documenting particular clues you may come across. These all got stored in a notebook that you can seemingly rifle through at any point, which I find quite cute and deliciously tactile. The vibes are strong too. Almost like a weird mishmash of PS3 era lighting with PS1-esque character models. I’m just grateful for there being any amount of art direction at all.

Dimhaven – The Lost Source is out today, too, and there’s a demo for you to check out on Steam if you’re not convinced by it just yet. I’ll certainly be looking to pick it up when I can.