Red Flags

Three people have vanished after first dates on the same dating app. The papers call it the Lonely Hearts Killer. The precinct calls it a staffing problem. You call it Tuesday.

You're going undercover.

Build your cover profile, pick who you're dating, and meet five suspects. One of them is the killer. The other four are just weird. Your job is to tell the difference before the killer invites you somewhere quiet with no phone signal.

Red Flags is a tongue-in-cheek pixel-art murder mystery played with dice. Every date runs three courses: Drinks, Dinner, Dessert. Each course, you roll 4d6 and split them into two pairs:

• Chemistry wins hearts. Keep your suspects interested.
• Instinct finds clues. Notice the things they'd rather you didn't.

You rarely get to do both at once.

Everyone has quirks. The mortician with eleven identical hoodies. The beekeeper who no longer feels pain. The dentist who could identify you by your teeth. Only the killer has tells, and every clue adds a red flag, so the count lies. Read your case file. Call the station once for a lab result. Make an arrest when you have two real tells, or it won't stick.

And whatever you do, don't say yes when someone pops the question. Unless you're sure. Are you sure?

Features:

• Five suspects per case, built from parts and fully animated. They breathe, blink, laugh, lean in, check their phone and, now and then, stare.
• Someone new every case: the killer is random every time, so no job, look or gender is ever the villain.
• 26 date venues, from tapas bars and jazz clubs to axe throwing, a haunted house tour, a drive-in slasher double feature and, if you're very unlucky, their place.
• Twists mid-date: power cuts, exes walking in, unattended jackets, karaoke murder ballads, and a knock at the door they won't answer.
• A patient killer who cuts dates short to keep you coming back, and who doesn't take kindly to being ghosted.
• Encounters between dates, including 2am voice notes, flowers you didn't order, and a wave from across the street.
• Eight endings, from Case Closed to Deep Cover to Season Three.
• A Case Report after every run, with a date-by-date recap and the killer's name flashing on every date you missed them.
• Play your way: play as a man, woman or nonbinary detective, dating men, women or anyone.
• Runs anywhere: one small file in your browser, on desktop or phone, in landscape or portrait. Progress saves between dates.

Content note: This is a comedy about a serial killer. There's no gore and no violence on screen, but the game deals with murder, missing persons and dating danger, played for dark laughs. The joke is always on dating culture, true-crime fandom and your own terrible instincts, never on victims.

Credits: Story, rules, characters and writing: Julian Grant Palette, light ramps and pixel font: Odiriuss, from PixelArtGameOpus (MIT License) Red Flags is a BITIBITS Game.