Sherlock Holmes Investigates Jack the Ripper

[dbuske]

http://www.mediafire.com/?1p31seq472pvk6r
This is a link for the game: Sherlock Holmes Investigates Jack the Ripper






This game is an interactive documentary of the Jack the Ripper murders.
Sherlock Holmes guides you through information and photos of the murders.
At the end Sherlock picks who he thinks is the murderer.
Make sure to go to the credits after Sherlock picks the murderer.
Click on the green dot to move to the next room.  Click on the red dot to move back to the previous room.
Any click on photos will display information on the photo.

It is a nice introduction to the Ripper murders.
I updated the file link. 2-11-2011

[arj0n]

That's quick. Sp is it a demo or a complete game?
If complete, it's probably a short game?
Checking it out later.

[dbuske]

Its a full game, but shorter.  Pretty big download though.
It is a 7zip archive.  You need 7zip.


It is now a rar file.

[dbuske]

I will be re-uploading the Sherlock Ripper game probably on Monday.
I made some font changes and I made the small menu bar alot smaller to get it out of the way of the photos.
The photo descriptions are alot readable.

The archive is reuploaded to mediafire.
Has anyone played it.

It is a rar file archive.

[dbuske]

No one seems to be playing it.
It is alot better than Danse Macabre, really.

[LUniqueDan]

 Documentaries are rare in AGS (As I remember this is the 2nd - the first one was a short Quizz about a US politician).

But, cuz I was a lot into Victorian era lately and I'm actually playing SH vs JTR I'll give a try right now.

[cat]

Sounds very interesting, though i have to play last years games for the award voting first. I'll play this afterwards.

[dbuske]

Thanks for going to play it.  I like the documentary format and if the feedback is good enough, I will continue making them.

I updated the file and link.  I made font and gui changes to the game.  Some sprite work. 2-11-2011
http://www.mediafire.com/?1p31seq472pvk6r

[dbuske]

The final version of SHI-Jack the Ripper is uploaded.
I added a magnifying glass to look at photos.
I improved the visibility of the fonts.
I am quite proud of it.  I plan to nominate it for next years award.
Is there an award for research?

The absolutely final version of SHI-Jack the ripper was uploaded.
Added a new sprite for Sherlock Holmes.  Fits in with the design better.
Added a few more photos.
Changed the "look" sprite to a better looking magnifying glass.  Can be used to look at photos.
Repaired hotspots that somewhere along the way got messed up.
Better looking inventory sprites and top bar sprites replaced with better looking sprites.

[dbuske]

http://www.mediafire.com/?1p31seq472pvk6r
Here is the link to download the Ripper game. I just reuploaded it again.

[Cogliostro]

dbuske -

Okay, I'm going to list my first impressions, just thought I had in response to the documentary as I played the game in the order that they occurred to me.



FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

Because of my cheap video card, I switched from "Direct3D 9" to "DirectDraw 5".  I'm not sure this is the *cause* of any problem, however,  Holmes spends two seconds perfectly still, then flickers to half size, then back to normal.  The flicker is driving me nuts!

The music is well chosen, though I cannot capture in words why.

This is a personal choice, but I REALLY prefer to have the onscreen comments stay until I click the button.

The comments on the opening screen shift from directory's commentary to Sherlock's voice without any warning.  Something should have been done to indicate that, yep, now Sherlock is breaking the fourth wall and talking to the player.

When Holmes was done talking, the flicker went away?!

Okay, the changes to the toolbar == The first 6 are good, but save, load and exit are a mess.  Cursor images are alright.  I like the button-movement from room to room, it works well with the documentary nature, but having a giant Sherlock drift across the screen when I click walk, is just weird!

TWO RECOMMENDATIONS
1) Don't have the Sherlock character appear at all.  When he speaks, have his face appears "SierraWithBackground" style.  But as an on-screen character, it works against everything else.
2) Since the interactions are so limited, reduce the cursor to JUST the arrow and do away with the toolbar and statusline all together.  Honestly, Sherlock was carrying items.  That took effort and didn't add to the documentary.



OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

The idea that Sherlock is doing the investigations was obviously central to how you wanted to present the documentary but the murder scene investigations had none of the Sherlock-Holmes-Flair to them.  The basic bio of the victims obviously needed to be presented, the photos were good too.  However, after presenting those details you needed to have Sherlock pull out the clues that built up a case for one suspect.   (If you opt to build another documentary, consider doing it in 1024x768, the pictures did a lot to bring out the history, but were too small / low-res.)
 
Have Sherlock talk about police interviews with butchers, slaughterers, surgeons and physicians, and how they confirmed the alibis of more than 76 butchers.  Discuss how the police checked the schedules of boats to confirm that the murders did not correspond with the schedule of any one boat, thus eliminating another group of suspects.  A few more clues and a few more suspects eliminated.  This way the fictional Sherlock works his way into the historical investigation.

At the end you presented your two primary suspects in a rather haphazard manner.  You obviously wanted to discuss Druitt as a suspect.  Fine, but discuess him and dismiss him BEFORE moving on Tumblety.  Don't switch back and forth.



Finally, take this critique in a positive light.  You chose interesting material, did your research and actually put something out there.  However, it's a documentary, not a point-n-click, and therefore requires a different approach.

- Cogliostro

"When you eliminate all other possibilities, what remains, no matter how improbable, is the answer." - Sherlock Holmes