What would you like to see in a police-themed game?

[Knox]

Hi!

Ive been working on my little police-game project for a while now, mostly getting the gui's/menus done, some placeholders, etc...Monkey's is also helping majorly in the script area to setup the "base" mechanic/gameplay of the game...Im now starting to slowly put the game story together, and I was wondering what kind of events/subjects/characters you would like to see in a police game (like police quest).

It would be great to get your input on this, I would love to include as much as I can of your suggestions!

Example:

-Play as a swat member, a homicide detective, pulling over a drunk driver, arresting a vandalist/arsonist, drug raids, the subject of police brutality, Internal Affairs, planting evidence, etc...

Any idea is appreciated, as crazy or simple as you can think!

[Questionable]

Incorporate abuse of powers somehow.

[Calin Leafshade]

The best law enforcement tales in my opinion always involve the protagonist defecting from a corrupt system (Deus Ex) and/or being accused of something he didnt do. (Max Payne)

[Stupot]

All of the above

But the main thing you want is a plot.  Without that it'll just be a series of pointless tasks.  If you pull someone over for DUI, then make that person a vital character, or someone who at the very least has some piece of information you need for the bigger picture.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I'd rather see a game that tries to honestly depict how the stress and danger of being a police detective (depends on what you do) affects their ability to function day to day.  Police Quest never bothered to show Sonny with the shakes or have trouble relating to people off-duty or being jumpy around people with toy guns so it would be interesting to see a game tackle some of the adjustment and cope issues a person who is shot at and who has shot people (perhaps even killed them) would have to deal with.  Yeah, you could go overboard and have the guy a basket case like a lot of serial killer movies do but I'm not really talking about that, I'm more talking about factoring in some of the fallout from the negative aspects of the job into the gameplay and narrative.

[Knox]

Wow very good input...I totally agree to have a plot and not just a bunch of tasks. What I was thinking of doing actually is having the main character battle depression...which is common in law enforcement...divorce aswell since the stress of the job greatly affects married life.

Then theres alcoholism aswell, but I feel thats been done too much

There are some "random, pointless" events in the game for sure (cause that happens everyday in an officer's life), but there will be some incidences that seem random and pointless but turn out to be very important in the end...

[tzachs]

Hmmm, here are a few:
1. I want to be the one that come to conclusions, I don't want the character to do that for me. Discworld Noir and Fedora Spade managed that pretty well.
2. I want to see the inner working of the police department. Both the team I'm working with (the big cases are not just a work of a single policeman but of a whole team), and the inner politics that dictate which cases are more important, who does what, etc.
3. Good cop bad cop, stakeouts, recording the suspects without their knowing, all sorts of cool stuff that cops do...
4. What goes on inside the investigation room? The Energizer managed that pretty well  
5. Paperwork  

[xenogia]

The game I'm currently working on deals with police corruption and the attitudes of said police officers that snitch each other out.  

[Mr Flibble]

I'd like to see The Wire.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

1. I want to be the one that come to conclusions, I don't want the character to do that for me.

I think this is really important in any kind of detective game where you discover clues.  I realize that for the designer the goal is to have the player constantly weaving through a whodunnit list of suspects until the very end where they are hopefully surprised at the result, but I find a game more satisfying if it allows you to logically deduce your way through a crime without forcing you to trudge through useless clue after useless clue until they magically all add up at the end.  It's just not satisfying to me that way, and I'd like to see a game that took a more hands-on approach to crime solving, allowing the player to collect or miss evidence, to thoroughly examine it at the precinct with the right tools (microscopes, etc) or not, and come to a conclusion that may or may not be correct depending on their deductions in spite of how much 'narrative' they've gone through.

Yeah, this will make people with walkthrough-itis breeze through games but you know what?  Fuck them.  They are intellectually lazy to start a new DETECTIVE game with a walkthrough right beside them, anyway.  People like that deserve no consideration at all because they're offering none in return.

[blueskirt]

Those are all pretty great suggestions. I second the idea of having to deal with real life problems and the psychological effect of being a cop. I also second the idea of abusing power, I remember having a discussion with a friend where we talked about a possible Police Quest/The Shield game where the game could either be solved by following the rules, either by bending or breaking them, to arrest the criminals or simply for your own profit.

5. Paperwork 

As long it doesn't end up being a puzzle. I always prefered PQ1-2 and Blue Force over PQ3-4 for the simple reason that as the series progressed, they kept adding more and more police procedure to follow, to the point where it became absurd. The first games were just stuff like "Call backup", "Draw gun", "Tell rights", "Show badge" or remembering to put gloves on when you collect evidences, the kind of stuff you see in police movies and TV series. The games made you feel like a cop without being anal about following the police procedures.

The series lost me when I had to write the very exact time on speed tickets, assign every evidences I found to the right case, assign everyone I brought in jail to the right crime, or use the notebook icon on every hotspots at the crime scene because later I'd be asked to fill paperworks.

[Vince Twelve]

I'd like to see The Wire.

I have longed attempted to think of a way to make a game that would in any way approach the greatness of this masterpiece.

[poc301]

If you want to make a game as great as The Wire, move to Baltimore, MD.  We're all good like that here.  You wouldn't even need to put any effort into it.

-Bill

[Knox]

I wasnt familiar with the Wire or Shield ...however I really got into Southland but I think its cancelled (?)...

Ill get the dvd's for those 2 shows and check them out "for research",

Any other really realistic/good police shows/movies/books you would recommend?

Oh, I just downloaded The Energizer, tzachs...seems interesting

[GreenBoy]

I've never been that keen on the idea of a police themed game but after reading this topic I'm actually really interested.  Sounds like there's some wicked potential for story line.

[monkey0506]

mostly getting the gui's/menus done, some placeholders, etc...Monkey's is also helping majorly in the script area to setup the "base" mechanic/gameplay of the game..

I just wanted to step in to note that although I can't really comment too much on exact details or Knox will slice me into small pieces and feed me to the other members of his "team" (:) the GUI system currently in place is already extremely impressive, and there's work yet to be done.

So on that note, don't be bashful about suggesting something just because you think it can't be done (or can't be done in AGS). Besides, Knox has got me on the programming..what's another few thousand lines of code at this point?

[Stupot]

Sounds intriguing.  Can't wait to see.  I like GUIs.
But it seems weird to have all these impressive sounding bits and bobs and no story.

Some more hard-hitting themes I'd like to see dealt with:

*Letting pregnant women piss in your stupidly shaped hat.
*Sitting on horseback in the city centre for no apparent reason.
*Making teenage boys pour their cider out onto the grass.
*Visiting schools to let kids play with the fingerprint kits.
*Calling your boss 'Marm', because she's invariably female.

[Snarky]

I want one of those boards where you put up surveillance pictures of all the suspects with name tags over them and draw lines to show their relationships so you can see how it all connects up to the kingpin! Those are awesome.

The Wire obviously has a lot to say about department politics, juking stats, the chain of command, political pressure and so on. A lot of story material there. What I think is really interesting, though, is the relationship between police and others: the CIs, the criminals who are tolerated in return for favors, the unwilling witnesses pressured to testify, the prosecutors, the judges who write warrants, the MEs... and of course the criminals who are targets of investigation. (The Wire is interesting here because the cops generally know who they're after; it's not some whodunnit case they have to solve. They just need to prove it.)

[Wonkyth]

I've always wanted to see an Inspector Rex game.
But I suppose that'd be a bit tricky as in that they always know "Who-dunnit" and it's just a matter of seeing how they catch them.

[Knox]

But it seems weird to have all these impressive sounding bits and bobs and no story.

I know! I assure you Monkey and I will work on this to make sure its not just a collection of random events. I dont think all the ideas I have for this game would be remotely possible if Monkey didnt agree to take over programming...he's a genius

I like those suggestions, like the peeing in the hat. I thought maybe it would be cool to pull over a kid for spitting gum on the pavement, then taser her for not complying to the player's commands (abuse of power). The gum will be mint flavor.

to the other members of his "team" ()

...haha, Ive got Batman and Kevin Federline working on this too, by the way.