Homicide Desk Patch Notes

These notes record what Shu’la Lab LLC posted around the September 1, 2026 Steam launch. Version labels match the public 1.3.x hotfixes. Where a post printed no clock time, this page says launch day or launch week instead of inventing one. The recap and undated promises sit on the Updates Hub. Buyer’s context is the Homicide Desk review.

Let Steam finish the depot before you assume a bug is new. Launch week shipped several small builds. Playing the first-hour installer is how black screens and leftover ollama.exe survive on a PC that is already fixed.

Pre-launch (demo and trailer)

Shu’la Lab published an official announcement trailer and a live demo (Steam app 4983690). The demo is the tutorial robbery — retail Case #000, The Pawnshop Key, with Tommy Vale. A later demo update tightened interrogation: suspects kept knowledge and consistency instead of inventing holes. Onboarding moved to the in-game phone. HR messages replaced popup tooltips. Those changes are the 1.3.x baseline, not extras after purchase.

If you install cold, run Getting Started on the latest patch, then interrogation. Do not treat a first-hour recording as current.

Launch — HOMICIDE DESK IS OUT NOW

On Tuesday, September 1, 2026 the desk opened on Windows Steam. The news post is a release note: the game is out, the 17 percent introductory discount runs through 15 September, and the studio promises new cases, investigation tools, and apps. List price is $5.99. Steam Achievements (22), Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing shipped. It is single-player. There is no multiplayer line hiding in these notes.

The same day’s later post, 1,000 PLAYERS, is a thank-you. Iraqi and saioufe credit people who bought, played the demo, wishlisted, reported bugs, or left feedback. It repeats the same content promise without dates. Do not read it as a patch that added a homicide.

Launch-day black screen (hotfix, then 1.3.4, then 1.3.7)

Some PCs booted into a black screen instead of the precinct desktop. Shu’la Lab shipped a launch-day hotfix, then 1.3.4 as black-screen hotfix part 2, then 1.3.7 as another launch-day black-screen fix. Three passes usually means the first depot missed a GPU, driver, or fullscreen combination. If you still cannot see the CRT desktop:

1. Confirm the build is 1.3.7 or newer (1.3.8 and 1.3.9 sit on top).
2. Verify integrity of game files in Steam.
3. Toggle fullscreen versus windowed once.
4. Check system requirements — Windows 10 64-bit, DirectX 11, ~13 GB for the model-inclusive install.
5. If a fully updated copy is still black, report it. A 1.3.0 screenshot is not current.

This page does not claim every machine is cured. It claims the studio treated the defect as launch-blocking and patched it three times in public.

1.3.8 — ten-language case text

1.3.8 is not a new homicide. It is the translation catch-up.

• Every case is fully translated in all ten interface languages: English, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish.
• Tutorial Case #000 had no overlay for French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish. Those players saw English prompts. 1.3.8 localizes the overlay.
• Later-added content in cases 001 — 03 had been followed in Arabic only. 1.3.8 fills those lines for everyone else.
• The arrest-warrant charge line was in that later-added set. Update before you file. Process, not the Case #001 killer, is on charging.

English and Arabic remain the two full-audio languages, with right-to-left layout for Arabic. The other eight languages are interface and text. 1.3.8 does not add French or German voice-over; it stops mixed leftover English (and missing Arabic-only lines) in a localized playthrough. If you started Case #000 before 1.3.8 in one of the seven overlay-missing languages, reopen the tutorial screens so you are not following English HR text by habit.

1.3.9 — ollama.exe / llama-server.exe left running

Interrogation replies come from a language model that ships inside the game and runs on your PC. That is why the install is large. The launcher starts a bundled server (ollama.exe or llama-server.exe) beside the window.

Before 1.3.9, quitting closed the window and left that server running. Steam still showed an in-session game. The process kept RAM and could block a second launch. 1.3.9 ties the server’s lifetime to the window.

If you are on 1.3.9 and Task Manager still shows the process after a clean quit, end the leftover task once, relaunch from Steam, and avoid killing it mid-save (Steam Cloud is on). Report the build number on Discord or to devs@shulalab.com. The model is local — nothing you type is supposed to leave the machine. Steam’s broadband requirement is for the client and updates, not for shipping questions to a studio server.

These notes will not date a future case, spoiler Case #001, or pretend 1.3.8 added forensics. When Shu’la Lab ships a named case or app, this page gets a new heading. Until then: update to 1.3.9 or newer, finish The Pawnshop Key, then use the Walkthrough Hub. Official URLs sit on the Links Hub.