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It was about 1 month of preparation, just doing bits at a time. I enjoyed it, apart from perhaps those tedious cardboard skylight covers. The colour-code program was made in a few evenings.



The light (ICE) puzzle involved butchering an LED light â€" see pic â€" totally worth it!



Props such as the treasure chests and Halloween skeletons were borrowed from friends and family. The Lego models were already made and my wife was responsible for executing that particular puzzle. An ad-hoc snake piñata was constructed literally the night before as we had an epiphany that it would be the perfect ending to the second game â€" for the second group that it â€" yes, we had to split the kids into two groups â€" school friends and local friends â€" because there’d be too many kids otherwise. The difference between the two games was a slightly different ending where the final clue revealed by the completed jig-saw puzzle directed you to the birthday snake rather than the birthday cake as the cake was demolished mid-party between games.

Mia (aka monkey425) had her birthday recently and this year we did a room escape theme party! It was heaps of fun and no one got hurt! Check out the 3 min video!

Furthermore, fellow parents might be familiar with the show Teen Titans Go - the characters make an appearance in a colour-code type puzzle which involved using AGS! The most exciting part of this puzzle is once the correct colour combination is entered, the program makes use of AGS's completely-useless-until-now CD-Eject function and the next clue (a DVD) is spit out of the laptop!

Apologies folks - I'm in an awkward time zone so couldn't quite make it to the awards unfortunately. Apparently Ponch has got my trophy!

I decided to pimp up my game with some solid voice acting. I've now got about half the AGS community on board!

Who would have thought over 6 years later this insane executive decision would have paid off!

Thanks to half the AGS community who voted! That's awesome!

Sorry for the bump, but just wanted to share this.

My nephews. Apparently they're obsessed with my game!

Game soundtrack now uploaded to the host site at Game Jolt:

https://gamejolt.com/games/SLEUTH2020/564147

Twenty-two original tracks! Music primarily by Vincent Olmsted (CometMorehouse) with supplementary tracks by Andrew Smith (DrewCCU). The guys, particularly Vincent, have done an outstanding job following my vague instructions and were somehow able to produce the perfect soundtrack!

Enjoy!

[Category]

FYC






SLEUTH (2020) is a rebooted "idiotic point and click" version of the original 1983 text-based “whodunit” DOS game of the same title.

Game page --> HERE

Category	Yes / No	Comment
Best Writing	Maybe	Some people seem to find the dialog funny!
Best Character	No	Detective Daniel Wilkins, our one-dimensional clichéd super sleuth!
Best Gameplay	Maybe	I think the game mechanics are consistent and intuitive
Best Puzzles	No	NA
Best Background Art	No	Cute, perhaps, but probably not award winning material. (I drew these graphics 19 years ago!)
Best Character Art	No	See above
Best Animation	No	See above
Best Music & Sound	Yes	All original music, primarily by Vinny Olmsted (CometMorehouse)
Best Voice Work	Yes	All-star cast of AGSers!
Best Demo	No	NA
Best Non Adventure Game	Yes	It's not a graphic adventure but a kind of simplified "Cluedo" game
Best Short Game	Yes	Short n' sweet. But can play multiple times (randomised each game)
Best Programming	Yes	There's some tricky programing involved with randomising each game! Also, there's some funky programing involving dynamic sprites!

Thanks again to all those who helped me with this project! It's been in the pipeline for some time!

Enjoy!

I recently contacted Eric Miller, the developer of the original game, and he responded!

Is it still possible to give that $10 contribution? 

Assuming Eric N. Miller is still alive, then sure, why not.

There's contact info on this webpage:

http://www.calcaprt.com/share.htm

I should probably contribute $10 royalties now..

Cheers Mandle.

Fun fact #2: The majority of the graphics in this game were drawn 19 years ago! A select few files here with timestamp:




Fun fact #3: The 1983 version of the game was created by Eric N. Miller of Norland Software and he suggested a $10 contribution if you found his game entertaining. My game on the other hand is free. The ecstatic and bemused look on peoples' faces is the only reward I need. You can play the original game at Classic Reload here:

https://classicreload.com/sleuth.html

Forgive my naivety.

Fun fact: the game contained exactly 1500 WAV files!

They've now all been converted to OGG with the help of good old Audacity and the download file is looking a bit slimmer now at 96MB.

All good. Happy gaming!

Whoa hadn't noticed the file size, did you use WAV files for all the voicing?!?!?

Yeah, they're WAV. There's a lot of them too..

What should I do??

[Detective Daniel Wilkins]

Forget Holmes. Forget Poirot.
Detective Daniel Wilkins is the man for the job!

SLEUTH (2020) is a rebooted "idiotic point and click" version of the original 1983 text-based “whodunit” DOS game of the same title. A murder has taken place at Bastard Estate and you must interrogate the resident houseguests to find the murderer. Be quick, or else the murderer may decide to get rid of you first! As is customary in these sort of detective games, you should also find the murder weapon for good measure.

Game page --> HERE

Thanks again to all those who helped me with this project!

Enjoy!

FYI.. I'm releasing this game tomorrow! Just in time for Xmas!

Just been polishing / ironing out all the kinks recently and have done a bunch of test runs with my daughter who seems to approve.

Thanks Cassiebsg - I've used 'Sleeping' rather than 'Incompetent' - less harsh!

Crikey! It's been a month since I last posted! Don't worry folks - I've been busy! I made a simulator of my game to generate some statistics on outcomes (see screenshot). Since the game uses randomised elements the outcome (total moves) is part luck and part strategy falling within a normal distribution. The simulator was also useful for general testing. It would have been a shame to make this and discard it so I've included it as a sort of 'Easter Egg' in the game together with another Easter Egg inside that one. Anticipate game release sometime this month!

Cheers Adeel. Yep, it's nearly done, thank fuck! I just remembered you and a few others auditioned for the game (somewhat reluctantly) but unfortunately didn't quite make the cut. There's one audition I recall being particularly terrible / hilarious (local gal Resulka) and yours I'm happy to say was only second-most terrible. I need to acknowledge you guys and gals in the game somehow.. I'll have a think about it!

'Bumbling' sounds funnier. 'Sloppy' seemed appropriate too. See competency matrix below. Ranking is based on objectives achieved, or if everything is achieved then the number of moves (room changes) to complete the game.

Ok guys, some exciting new game stats:

Music: 100%
Dialogue & voices: 99.9% (still need to tweak volume here and there)
Graphics: 99.9% (touch-ups here and there)
Scripting: 99%

Thanks to all those who have got in touch recently re credits.

I'm really just at the 'bells & whistles' stage. I actually revisited the source material (the original 1983 Sleuth via a Let's Play vid) for inspiration and recalled you got a 'Sleuth ranking' once you'd successfully completed a game. Here's my proposed rankings in order of competency:



Can anyone suggest a category between 'incompetent' and 'rookie' ?

Ok guys, some exciting new game stats:

Music: 100%
Dialogue & voices: 99%
Graphics: 99%
Scripting: 95%

Thanks to all those who recently contributed to the voices. Also huge thanks to Vincent Olmsted aka CometMorehouse for composing music. It sounds awesome!

Slowly getting there. Just chipping away bit by bit whenever I get the chance.

ETA sometime this year hopefully! 

Thanks J McD - I'll send you an email shortly.