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[newspaper_guru]

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Story & Idea

Spoiler:

Well, after having a look around the forums and the large variety of games available for playing, I noticed that a like REALLY BIG part of them were basically RPGs (I'm making sense, I know.)
Anyways, I've been planning to launch my first own REAL project on the forums here, as I've been occupying myself with the program, but haven't ever made a real game that... you know,
actually makes sense, isn't totally bug-infested and isn't a complete and utter failure. So why not make an adventure game with puzzle elements, I thought to myself.
Anyways, that's exactly... well, WHAT I DID.

The idea was to make a game in which you don't have a mixture of following some 'EPIC' (repetative and boring) story and battling randomly generated enemies that are computer controlled
(meaning dumb as a loaf of bread). And what does a game with a good story need? Tension. What can directly be connected with the word? Murder. Detectives. Solving mysteries and slowly uncovering the veil laid over the WHOLE story. Is there anything more exciting?

Now, let me get to the story. I'm a starter, the game is a start-off-with game, so it is very short compared to the normal stuff posted here - estimated playing time 3 hours.
You play a detective in a small town, where, one dark night, the major gets murdered. The guards fetch everybody seen outside their houses in the night, and bring them to the place of crime.
You get a selection of six suspects - all of them could have done it, but who is it really? Are they telling the truth, or plainly lying for not to be discovered?
All of the suspects give you information about their current status, relation to the victim, location and activity at the time of crime execution.
Now it's your job to find out who really killed the major, the real truth far from sight as there is no possible conclusion out of the statements the suspects left.
Who did it? Who is lying?
But, as these stories always are, the murderer doesn't want to point out to you who he really is, so you start your investigations. Explore the town and talk to everybody you can find.
In the end, with logical thinking, logical conclusions, puzzling ability and patience you'll be able to uncover the dark story of what really happened that mysterious night,
where the major's maid found him lying dead in his office.

Basically, I created a very simple, short adventure game, salted with a tad of satire, and with (hopefully) a lot of searching and puzzling fun included.
Most important thing: Explore. Talk. Check everything out.

Main Characters and Suspects

Spoiler:

-- Main Characters

Detective Jones
Basically, this is you. You are the local Detective, and have the job to investigate the murder of major Travis. You are naturally neutral towards people, and are not prejudice.
You are polite towards anybody, and you are sometimes quite humorous.


Axel
Axel is basically your loyal assistant. He accompanies you at the start and the end, and does a parallel investigation with identifier Joe whilst you continue your voyage through
the mysteries of the town and its inhabitants. He helps you out if you have problems and always gives useful tips.

Joe
Joe is your identifier and waits for you to bring him interesting evidencial objects over his doorstep. If you have stuff you think might bring you further in your investigation and
don't know what to do with it (you'll notice when), he'll break the mental and physical barricades you have. Actually, talking to him won't be optional, you will have to somewhere along the line. *SPOILERS*



-- Suspects

The Maid
One of the main suspects is the maid. She actually found the major and alarmed the guards. She seems innocent although she seems not to like telling a lot about herself.


The Gardner
The Gardner, who also is the major's uncle, was serving him by keeping his garden fresh, although you are mystified when finding out the guards found him in the garden in the middle of the night...


The Librarian
The librarian hosts most of the major's books in his library, and was, according to him, on the way to fetch a book when he was seen by the guards. He seems very defensive though.


The fortune teller
The mysterious and incomprehensible fortune teller was seen at the major's pond at night, whereas she claims just to have enjoyed the night. A very mysterious personality.


The Baker
The local baker claims to have been delivering a stock of breads for the major's breakfast when she was seen by the guards.


Sam
Sam just claims to be a boy from the street, although he seems mischievous, as he already admits having stolen bread, and always seems to be up to something.

Features

Spoiler:

Although the game is not massive, it does have some nameable features I'd like you to know about.

• A very varying story and gameplay; no really boring aspects
• A wide range of events and people to talk to
• Nifty, realistic dialogues you don't need a dictionary for
• A tad of sarcasm and other funny contents
• Quite realistic story and realistic event scripts
• A well-chosen and nicely fitting sountrack containing beautiful music
• Artistic use of sound effects in cinematic scenes
• Important sprites and faces not default
• A puzzling system containing hints - find out yourself what you have to do!
• No battles at all, only exploring and logic thinking required
• Intense story - fun to follow and play
• Nifty GFX Designs
• Tried to keep Bug-Quote low

At this point I must say that I mainly focus on Game Design, Writing and Graphics, so I must say here that my Mapping skills are not really... let's say GOOD.
I am quite a beginner in mapping and the use of parallaxes, but I have still done my best and added quite realistic lightings to some of the maps.
But please have mercy concerning that aspect, and please consider all in all that this is actually my first project!

Screenshots

Spoiler:

Showing Screenshots without including spoilers is quite hard, so I'll just show you some Screens of maps, dialogues and funny things.

Credits

Spoiler:

Writing, Story, Eventing, Mapping and the usual Crap
newspaper_guru


Scripts
Mr. ? (Credits)
DeadlyDan (Font change)
OriginalWij (Fixed Lighting Script)



Graphics
Celianna (Faces)
newspaper_guru (IG Graphics, other GFX)
Arnou (Lighting Tutorial)



Music
Sean Beeson
Michael J McEvoy
Wingwalker
Murray Gold
foro_fellah



Sound Effects
Soundbible.com

Updates

Spoiler:

UPDATE [GNT v1.1]

Notes;

Bug fixes:

-> Jogo doesn't sell twice
-> Coin Quests can still be done while looking for the Book on Encoding
-> Pebbles quest can be done without any failures (thanks to hkoz for spotting this bug, I finally found my mistake )


Other fixes:

-> Many typos (mostly capital letters) removed (Thanks to Kiba94)
-> Credits modified
-> Game data archive encrypted


------

Download

Spoiler:

The File is about 67 MB, compressed and zipped. Currently only have MediaFire Mirror, will maybe upload MegaUpload & RapidShare mirror soon.

Mirror 1


Yes, the Download Button is self-made. Yes, it is awesome.

This post has been edited by newspaper_guru: Nov 8 2011, 08:41 PM

[newspaper_guru]

Wow, thanks to the mods for such a quick approval!
Anyways, I double-checked it once more for any bugs and didn't find anything, but I'm a blind bat so if you guys see anything, let me know immediately

[hkoz]

look interesting (downloading it)............

[Kiba94]

This is pretty excellent for your first project! I have a few qualms about spelling/capitalization errors, though. For example, "Gardnr" and "Good Night, Travis". Those are just little things though.

Also, some sprites seem to glitch if you talk to them from different directions, i.e. the Fortuneteller in the initial suspect questioning.

Overall though, it's an awesome game, and certainly interesting. A few test runs wouldn't hurt though~

It might be a good idea to say how you enter and exit rooms/doors. I was kind of confused for a bit there.

This post has been edited by Kiba94: Nov 5 2011, 11:14 PM

[newspaper_guru]

This is pretty excellent for your first project! I have a few qualms about spelling/capitalization errors, though. For example, "Gardnr" and "Good Night, Travis". Those are just little things though.

Also, some sprites seem to glitch if you talk to them from different directions, i.e. the Fortuneteller in the initial suspect questioning.

Overall though, it's an awesome game, and certainly interesting. A few test runs wouldn't hurt though~

It might be a good idea to say how you enter and exit rooms/doors. I was kind of confused for a bit there.

Yeah, I must admit that typing is not one of my big strengths, but I do my best not to write senseless crap ^-^
Also, my primary language is theoretically German although I am sorta bilingual - but, you see, in German, you write every f*cking noun with a capital letter, so I sometimes accidently do the same in English :3
I think I'll just have to go over it all again and try to find all the typos and errors. My friend actually playtested it and checked out every corner of the game, and we actually noticed 2 quite fatal bugs.
I've already fixed them and will upload them as soon as I've fixed the typos and some more minor errors, but I'll list them here so you don't actually bump into them by accident, because they'll make
continuing impossible.
* SPOILERS AHEAD *


-> Do not ask the medicine man twice for medicine when buying it, he will sell it again and take your second Gold Coin, which is vital for gameplay.
-> Finish all secondary (Gold Coin) quests before finding the Book on Decoding, because you won't be able to do them then, and you actually need a min. of 1 Gold Coin left

This post has been edited by newspaper_guru: Nov 6 2011, 08:35 AM

[newspaper_guru]

UPDATE [GNT v1.1]

Notes;

Bug fixes:

-> Jogo doesn't sell twice
-> Coin Quests can still be done while looking for the Book on Encoding
-> Pebbles quest can be done without any failures (thanks to hkoz for spotting this bug, I finally found my mistake )


Other fixes:

-> Many typos (mostly capital letters) removed (Thanks to Kiba94)
-> Credits modified
-> Game data archive encrypted


------

[hkoz]

I have completed the game and heres what i think about it:-

-The game is simple yet very addictive and attractive although its short but i really enjoyed every moment in it.

-I really liked the story its connected and reasonable specially when u know the real culprit and his reasons .

-It could use a little more polishing in the end scene.

-The soundtracks are amazing i really loved how they were used in the game (my favorite is the one in the library).

-The gold coins quests are very funny and easy .

-The game could use a some puzzles.

-I really hope i could see another episode of the game .

-I really encourage anyone to play it its so much fun specially when u know the real culprit XD.

[newspaper_guru]

Thanks a lot for all the comments, you guys are awesome!
I probably won't directly develop a sequel, but I definitely will develop a longer, better sequel in future with more puzzles.
Still, I'd really appreciate further comments, it's just awesome when you notice other people actually playing your game and liking it

This post has been edited by newspaper_guru: Nov 13 2011, 04:23 PM

[mike_buxton]

Hey! Fantastic selection of music. The tone was set beautifully.

Why was this not submitted for the 1-month contest!? I totally would have submitted this!

So I'm a really big fan of games of this genre! Battle systems are OVERRATED. I have to admit though I had trouble labelling this game within the detective genre... The gameplay is more fetch-quest oriented rather than a search for clues, and the big reveal at the end was a little too blunt for my tastes...

Your best ingredients for creating a solid mystery are suspicion, doubt, and intrigue. Throw in a few red herrings and mix with a plot twist or two for best results. A little bit of conflict in the middle couldn't hurt as well (conflict doesn't equal fighting, bear in mind). If I were to compare a detective mystery story to a murder weapon, it would be subtle and delicate like a poison, rather than say the qualities of a baseball bat. References help and if you haven't already checked out some the Japanese have volumes of really good dramas centered around murder mysteries. I suggest the latest Conan live-action (~11eps) to get started. http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-drama/d...ive-conan-2011/

No idea if you like that kind of stuff but its something I really enjoy and so I just wanted to share...!

Eventing in the game was intuitive but as a player I kept asking myself things like

Spoiler:

"why does the baker have a key to Travis' chest?"

these types of things as well as mismatching faces with character sprites adds a dissonance to the experience and takes away from the gameplay. I liked how all the areas and resources of the game had a use and a point, so that there was no waste. Good use of scripts, with the lighting and ambience.

I had a lot of fun playing through this game and I am really looking forward to your next project. The game I recently made is of similar style to this and I'm glad to see more people interested in this less-publicized genre. Lets work together to spread our uniqueness to the world!

[newspaper_guru]

Hey! Fantastic selection of music. The tone was set beautifully.

Why was this not submitted for the 1-month contest!? I totally would have submitted this!

So I'm a really big fan of games of this genre! Battle systems are OVERRATED. I have to admit though I had trouble labelling this game within the detective genre... The gameplay is more fetch-quest oriented rather than a search for clues, and the big reveal at the end was a little too blunt for my tastes...

Your best ingredients for creating a solid mystery are suspicion, doubt, and intrigue. Throw in a few red herrings and mix with a plot twist or two for best results. A little bit of conflict in the middle couldn't hurt as well (conflict doesn't equal fighting, bear in mind). If I were to compare a detective mystery story to a murder weapon, it would be subtle and delicate like a poison, rather than say the qualities of a baseball bat. References help and if you haven't already checked out some the Japanese have volumes of really good dramas centered around murder mysteries. I suggest the latest Conan live-action (~11eps) to get started. http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-drama/d...ive-conan-2011/

No idea if you like that kind of stuff but its something I really enjoy and so I just wanted to share...!

Eventing in the game was intuitive but as a player I kept asking myself things like

Spoiler:

"why does the baker have a key to Travis' chest?"

these types of things as well as mismatching faces with character sprites adds a dissonance to the experience and takes away from the gameplay. I liked how all the areas and resources of the game had a use and a point, so that there was no waste. Good use of scripts, with the lighting and ambience.

I had a lot of fun playing through this game and I am really looking forward to your next project. The game I recently made is of similar style to this and I'm glad to see more people interested in this less-publicized genre. Lets work together to spread our uniqueness to the world!

Thanks a lot for your feedback!
Yeah, when I looked around the forum, I was baffled by the dominating majority of battling RPGs, and I knew that I didn't want my game to be just another one in the crowd.
I didn't enter for the contest for several reasons - first, I wasn't even finished by the deadline, so I would have entered a very short and incomplete game.
Second thing is, this is my first game, and I know that a first game is never perfect.
All of you pointed out flaws which aren't based on the game's length, although many can be justified that way.
Thanks a lot for the critic and the compliments!

[Akaa]

looks very interesting
i love detective like games, i wanna download it but the link seems to be broken..