Private Detective

[Danvzare]

Private Detective




Click here to download.

Summary:
Private Detective is a procedurally generated murder mystery game, where you must solve randomly generated crimes by finding leads, questioning suspects, and gathering evidence from the crime scene to compare with samples found in the homes of the suspects. It plays a lot like an adventure game, but with a lot more deduction and a lot less inventory object puzzles.

Details:

• Two-click interface: left-click to interact, right-click to examine.
• Contain mild references to violence, alcohol, and tobacco.
• Cases take six minutes on average to complete.

Specs:
320 x 200
32 bit color
d3d

[Mandle]

Oh sweet!!! I'm gonna download and play right now!!!

I love this kind of game and even started making something a bit similar ages ago when I first joined AGS but my coding know-how was not up to it at the time!

[VampireWombat]

Congratulations on completing the game. I'll give it a try sometime this weekend.

[CaptainD]

What you've finished already?!?!  Impressive.  Will try to find time to give this a look, it's a fascinating concept.

[Mandle]

I've played for about an hour and solved a few cases...

Getting the hang of the gameplay now. It has quite a bit more depth than I was expecting!!!

I think I could get pretty addicted to this game, especially when I start to specialize my characters in different skills.

I think I'll make an honest and burly detective next and call him Frank Burly after one of my favorite fictional detectives!

Oh, I noticed a typo:

"I think saw" should be "I think I saw" when you ask about proof.

[Danvzare]

Thanks so much everyone, it means a lot.

Oh, I noticed a typo:

"I think saw" should be "I think I saw" when you ask about proof.

Also, thanks for pointing out that typo for me. I just fixed it and reuploaded the game.

[Slasher]

Looks interesting..

[Mandle]

Way back in the day I played an online browser game called "Sleuth" for a while.

This game reminds me a lot of that one.

In Sleuth you could sometimes gain items that gave you bonuses to certain skills.

Like a microscope kit for a +1 to lab analysis and a gun for +1 intimidation etc.

I wonder if this game could do with a shop you can buy such items from depending on how many cases you had solved?

Might keep player interest a bit higher after solving the first few cases and figuring out the game mechanics as further goals to reach for?

Being able to develop your character further beyond the intitial creation screen could be a real hook in increasing the player's emotional investment in wanting to see their career through to the end I feel.

Just a thought...

[Retro Wolf]

Poirot Junior is on the case! Fun game to play, I advise using a notepad to make notes, and wear a detectives hat.
I make about a dollar a year in ad revenue on GameJolt, I don't do anything with the credit so thought I may as well pay your asking price.
Well done!

[Danvzare]

Poirot Junior is on the case! Fun game to play, I advise using a notepad to make notes, and wear a detectives hat.
I make about a dollar a year in ad revenue on GameJolt, I don't do anything with the credit so thought I may as well pay your asking price.
Well done!

Oh my goodness, thank you so very much!
You have no idea how much this means to me. Thanks again!

[Retro Wolf]

No problem mate.

[KyriakosCH]

Well done for the new game

[Cassiebsg]

It's nicely done and I it keeps me occupy for the needed 5-10 minutes. Not particular difficult (only did 3 cases, so don't know if the difficulty increases).

Needs some polish in it.
What are the 5 numbers on the top right of the menu for? They *click* but seem to do nothing.

Here's a few nitpicks, in case you decide to improve the game:

Spoiler

-  First the time, you are showing a clock saying AM/PM, but when talking to suspects they say "leaves at 1:00 and returns at 5:00"... And I'm left wondering: Is it 1AM to 5AM? 1AM to 5PM? 1PM to 5AM?
I've noticed (on my third case) that a suspect was returning at 13:00 so... you have a clock referencing hours as AM/PM but then use 24H in the dialogues... Make it consistent, please. And if you can't decide which to use, make an option and let the player decide AM/PM or 24H.
- I've also noticed that knowing the time that the suspects come and leave is totally useless, so I no longer ask them for their habits (I can ask that at the BAR... how does the bartender know that anyway, yet has no idea where they live?) But the tactic I used on my first case was: knock until nobody answers, then "break in".
- You should have a button just to pass the time, as it would look less odd than knocking on the suspects door every hour... So... if you add that, then maybe let the suspect be more cleaver and start getting suspicions if you knock on the door one too many times and have no new question or accuse him. Maybe making the suspect "clean" the house from evidence if that happens or something, thus making knowing the habits more important than it currently is.
- They crack under "pressure" pretty fast. Wish all murders were this straight forward when accused of a crime. Maybe add some more random sentences for them to say.
- Also is there more than one body?? It's like I'm at the same crime scene every time.
- One last thing: why can't I compare a gun/knife with a body? How am I going to check if this is the gun/knife that killed him/her? (as in the wounds are consistent with the weapon)

[close]

[Mandle]

Cassie: If you examine the body it tells you what kind of wound it has. The killer might have the same kind of weapon.

There is a way to pass time: have a drink at the bar, but I think it passes a few hours.

[Danvzare]

It's nicely done and I it keeps me occupy for the needed 5-10 minutes. Not particular difficult (only did 3 cases, so don't know if the difficulty increases).

Needs some polish in it.
What are the 5 numbers on the top right of the menu for? They *click* but seem to do nothing.

Here's a few nitpicks, in case you decide to improve the game:

Spoiler

-  First the time, you are showing a clock saying AM/PM, but when talking to suspects they say "leaves at 1:00 and returns at 5:00"... And I'm left wondering: Is it 1AM to 5AM? 1AM to 5PM? 1PM to 5AM?
I've noticed (on my third case) that a suspect was returning at 13:00 so... you have a clock referencing hours as AM/PM but then use 24H in the dialogues... Make it consistent, please. And if you can't decide which to use, make an option and let the player decide AM/PM or 24H.
- I've also noticed that knowing the time that the suspects come and leave is totally useless, so I no longer ask them for their habits (I can ask that at the BAR... how does the bartender know that anyway, yet has no idea where they live?) But the tactic I used on my first case was: knock until nobody answers, then "break in".
- You should have a button just to pass the time, as it would look less odd than knocking on the suspects door every hour... So... if you add that, then maybe let the suspect be more cleaver and start getting suspicions if you knock on the door one too many times and have no new question or accuse him. Maybe making the suspect "clean" the house from evidence if that happens or something, thus making knowing the habits more important than it currently is.
- They crack under "pressure" pretty fast. Wish all murders were this straight forward when accused of a crime. Maybe add some more random sentences for them to say.
- Also is there more than one body?? It's like I'm at the same crime scene every time.
- One last thing: why can't I compare a gun/knife with a body? How am I going to check if this is the gun/knife that killed him/her? (as in the wounds are consistent with the weapon)

[close]

Firstly, the average difficulty of the cases increases after each case, for about 25 cases. But nah, the game doesn't get much more difficult, although there's always the chance that you'll get a really difficult case.

Secondly, the numbers at the top of the case screen change the music. In case the song that's currently playing is annoying you for some reason. My beta tester suggested implementing a way to change the music, and that was the first idea that popped into my head. I should probably have put a label there.

Now as for your nitpicks. Thanks very much for the feedback.
I really should have kept the times consistent, and added a "pass the time" button, and included some sort of reason to not knock on the suspect's door over and over again. And I also should have made it so you could use the weapon on the body, as well as right clicking to examine the body (because it seems more intuitive than the current solution of simply right clicking on the body). So once again, thanks for all of the feedback, and all of the suggestions on how I could solve these problems.

- I've also noticed that knowing the time that the suspects come and leave is totally useless, so I no longer ask them for their habits (I can ask that at the BAR... how does the bartender know that anyway, yet has no idea where they live?)

Don't worry, there's an ingame reason why the bartender knows all the habits of everyone, yet appears not to know where they live.
Although I doubt anyone here will ever play long enough to find out.

There is a way to pass time: have a drink at the bar, but I think it passes a few hours.

It passes four hours, unless it 9pm, 10pm, or 11pm, in which case time will pass up to 12am.

[Cassiebsg]

Oh. Hadn't realized it passed longer time.
Maybe add a "Help" button explaining this things? I thought it passed 1 hour like the rest of knocking randomly on doors. I have only used the drink once or twice, and that time I didn't even knew how the time passed and that knocking on a door make it jump one hour. Also on my second case I was baffled that I no longer could examine evidence. Took me a long time to figure why I couldn't (again a help here would have been nice. As I thought those random text numbers were my detective skills (how often he's successful in his interrogations and such). (And I'll admit I didn't read the statics, cause again, I thought it was just the description of my detective, like in a RPG).

@Mandle, yes I realized that looking at the body tells what kind of wound killed the victim. But you know, just cause I found a knife/gun at your home, I don't automatically assume that you used it to kill your neighbor. So yes, it would be nice to be able to compare if the weapon found is indeed the murder weapon. Meaning that maybe other suspects could also have weapons laying around. Again, it's a nitpick. Was just I expected to be able to compare the weapon to the wound. Now I know that if I find a weapon, it's the murder weapon.

I haven't tried it yet, but what happens if you accuse the wrong person or only have found 1 o2 clues? Just curious.... guess I could give it a try in game.

[Danvzare]

@Mandle, yes I realized that looking at the body tells what kind of wound killed the victim. But you know, just cause I found a knife/gun at your home, I don't automatically assume that you used it to kill your neighbor. So yes, it would be nice to be able to compare if the weapon found is indeed the murder weapon. Meaning that maybe other suspects could also have weapons laying around. Again, it's a nitpick. Was just I expected to be able to compare the weapon to the wound. Now I know that if I find a weapon, it's the murder weapon.

You know, it's possible for all four suspects to have a weapon, and it's also possible for the murderer to not have a weapon.
It's also possible for a suspect that isn't the murderer to have a weapon that matches the wounds on a body, and for the murderer to have a weapon that doesn't match the wounds on the body.
It's possible for the victim to have been killed by a blow to the head, and all suspects having hammers. Likewise, it's also possible for none of them to have hammers.

So for example, Blue could be the murderer, and have killed the victim with a gun, but have thrown away the gun, so you instead find a knife in his home. While Yellow could have a gun, because Yellow really likes guns. At least, that's my logic.
The idea was that if you found a weapon, you'd add it to your list of clues pointing towards that suspect if it matched the wounds on the body. The reason why weapons are so rare though, is because they're a free check. You can check all weapons against the wounds on the body, with no stats being involved.

I haven't tried it yet, but what happens if you accuse the wrong person or only have found 1 o2 clues? Just curious.... guess I could give it a try in game.

If you don't have enough clues, but still accuse the right person, they'll still confess. (Have you ever noticed that they always seem to confess on detective shows.)
If you accuse the wrong person, they don't confess and you're told that you accused the wrong person.

[Mandle]

One thing that I find really slows down the gameplay and makes me a bit discouraged is that the evidence inventory is only two lines high and fills up to about 5 lines pretty quickly.

Using the up/down scrolling arrows to navigate it to find one item and then using them again to compare it is a bit of a bother.

Maybe a pop-up window when you hover over an icon displaying all items could be a good solution?

[cat]

I tried it but I don't really get how I'm supposed to play. I can only compare a limited amount of items - how can I know which ones I should compare?

[Mandle]

I tried it but I don't really get how I'm supposed to play. I can only compare a limited amount of items - how can I know which ones I should compare?

You can compare threads with coats, footprints with shoes, etc.

Have you broken into any suspects' homes yet? That's where you find the items to compare the clues at the crimescene with.