Messages

While on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmbxinvLONE

Is Harland black?
Is Harland a victim of police brutality?

Was Harland in covid-19 Quarantine?
Is his reward being healthy?
Was Harland bitten by a zombie?
Has Harland amputated any body parts while in the dungeon?
Was Harland suspected of being infected?

Hello guys
I am writing a dialogue with more questions. when the last option arrives I have no choice, I have no possibility to click, it goes automatically

If you want to avoid this, you could insert an option along the lines of "Bye then."/"I don't want to ask more questions now".

Was Harland locked up to preserve evidence?
Had he eaten or ingested something of importance for the case?
Was the real criminal also arrested?

Is the dungeon real? (Not metaphorical or virtual/computerized.)
Did he like being in the dungeon?

So perhaps we should run some more Black Stories? Should we let the next Black Story be #64 (again) or #65, BTW?

That was hilarious, Slasher! 

Ninjas in Burkas Chasing Dogs?

My, you don't disappoint, Jack! That's an incredibly detailed post, dare I say in SK's spirit.

(Now, constant reader, SK himself has taken to including these details and hints in his books, where he will tell where an idea came from, or where they will be linked by something or someone.)

Way before social media really became a thing, I behaved like alt.books.stephen-king was my social medium of choice. You could say this case was a trip down memory lane for me. Jack, if you haven't checked out the Castle Rock TV series, you will probably like it. Especially season two, about Annie Wilkes at a younger age.

Thanks for including everything I wondered about and then some.  I was wondering about the combination of officers a lot. Great to see how it could have been, as this game can't be replayed. It's incredibly hard to get the difficulty just right when you make these kinds of puzzles, but I'd say you managed to make them varied and hard enough. Great use of hints in-game through the captain! That's how I got the phone number puzzle.

I'll also compliment all the little interactions with the team. Good to know that my donut discount was put to good use. And also thank you for those details you didn't put in there, but which were there nonetheless. The perfect pentagram and the clue to Salzburg stand out to me like they could have been correct. Amazing.

[would]

Isn't that essentially the "Click X to continue" genre, heltenjon?

Not quite. But it would be a kind of joke game. Say that the game had five puzzles and six items. You then had to find six ways to solve each puzzle, one for each item. Not a challenge by any means, so I'm a bit off topic compared to what you asked for.

Actually, I'd find it funny if someone made an anti-puzzle game.

What if you're some incredibly gifted hero, like Batman or Shiva or Fedmahn Kassad or something in that vein. Then the game gives you these *impossible* problems to fix...and everything you do, works. Whatever object Batman tries to use, he can make it work to solve the situation. The wackier the solution, the better. (Batman comes to mind because this is essentially how the fighting in these modern Batman games work - you do some random movement on the control, and Batman performs masterful martial arts that fit the situation. So why not apply the same idea to adventures?)

 

I'm so relieved!  Thanks a lot to JackPutter for a brilliant game, suspenseful writing and fiendishly challenging puzzles!

Also thanks to all who participated. You can see from the amount of readings that more people had a look at this than us who posted the most. Even so, I'll encourage more people to tone in when such a game is taking place. If you're clueless yourself, there's an odd comfort in seeing that there are more would-be-officers out there also trying to crack the case.

Laura, great spotting on the last riddle! I lacked the knowledge necessary to recognize this message and wouldn't have been able to crack it.

Jack, I for one would like to hear about any Easter eggs we haven't commented on, and also a bit about your process in creating this. What would have happened had we sent other officers or made other choices? Did you plan that out?

I apologize in advance for not steering totally clear of some puzzle types mentioned in the lists you refer to. 

Okay, if I understand you correctly, you want the puzzles to be original. Or rather, the solutions. There's nothing wrong with a locked door, but if the key is guarded by a hungry tiger, then the obvious solution has become a McGuffin, and the next puzzle could be how to eliminate the tiger. I've always liked the kind of puzzles where you have to do A to do B to then do C. This often leads to a kind of errand running for npcs, which may or may not be your cup of tea. Combined with humour, this could work out well. If the local tiger whisperer has a bad itch, he ought to try to scratch himself with everything the player tries to give to him.

Another way is the code. To get past the door you have to solve a riddle/mechanical puzzle/code phrase. Some people like this, many do not. You usually can't solve this by trying everything in your inventory, and it's where people get stuck. I guess there's a reason so few are participating in the Crime Investigation Game thread...

I particularly like it if the player is allowed to try several ways of solving the problem. What if the key breaks, leaving you with a sharp object (a weapon?), hammering the lock breaks away a small metal piece but doesn't open the door...you see where I'm going. Failed attempts could pay off with items that could be used elsewhere or combined somehow.

Another fun approach could be that there could be several ways to solve a problem, but they would lead to different consequences later on. Say that if you open the door with a key, you accidentally hurt yourself somehow and need to be healed. But if you choose to hammer the lock, the sound alerts some guards who will now try to catch you. And wouldn't it be great if those same guards are helpful with bandages in the first scenario?

The last one in my ramble is combinable objects. Tried and tested. Not so much used are the items that could be combined in different ways. Given that there is magic in your example, perhaps adding A to B makes an opener, but adding B to A makes it a closing device. (Or B to C if that is easier to code. When dungeon mastering you don't have to worry about that.) A fairly devious puzzle would be that you have to combine A+B to make AB, combine C+D to make CD, and then use AB on CD.

Probably not what you were looking for...in a MAGS these things probably would take too much time.

The Chief's words about getting to the bottom and seeing if anything jumps out makes my mind drift towards Shudder Lake. But alas, I can't find it in the phone message. Can anyone see something related to the only body of water on the map? 

[not]

I was wondering what you are saying before the word

Spoiler

"nightmare"

[close]

in one of the endings. Could you write it here in spoiler tags? Your voice work here is otherwise very good and really enhances the atmosphere.

Spoiler

"In the mood I'm in, the only thing waiting for me will be some nightmare" - tried to sound tired, but this way it isn't easy to hear...

[close]

Thanks.

And oddly enough, now that I know what you say, it's impossible not to understand it. It's the same at concerts: If you know the lyrics from earlier, you understand everything they say.

[Potential Solution]

Chief, could we Potential Solution check out Sycamore Close? I get some vibes from the words more (beginning) and close (end).

I also find "spoiled my climax? All", making out "syca", but as I cannot find the rest in a similar manner, I guess that's just a coincidence.

I was wondering what you are saying before the word

Spoiler

"nightmare"

[close]

in one of the endings. Could you write it here in spoiler tags? Your voice work here is otherwise very good and really enhances the atmosphere.

I'm looking for "The three piggies a remediation" by Kostas Monastiridis. The link on this site is dead and everywhere else I've found directs here.

Do you mean this one?, I had it in my collection.

Code: ags

https://mega.nz/file/YEBRTahZ#uDzSceWEmHd4itpH55WTWLB-6gHDskBWULFZ_IKhOwU

Yes, that's the one. Thanks a lot! 

Thought I'd mention just in case, there's a torrent file for many hungreds of older games that were previously hosted on agsarchives.com: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=56578.0

EDIT: it looks like above game is not present there though...

Isn't the torrent file identical to the collection found on archive.org? I believed so...anyway I cannot use torrent on my current network. But thanks anyway. 

Edit:
I thought so because Peder wrote (back in 2018):

I will no longer update the database with any new games released effective immediately,
and the service will go offline by the end of the year or when the current library is fully available on archive.org, whichever comes first.

I'm looking for "The three piggies a remediation" by Kostas Monastiridis. The link on this site is dead and everywhere else I've found directs here.