Really great project, well done! My main complaint is how my "ending" happened... I think found all the clues and had 3 reds on one person. I get that I could have been wrong on 1+ of those things, but the way the ending is, it's pretty demotivating... no info, just "case ruined" and "gg". I'm guessing I mis-attributed something as suss or not, but that kind of feels like a guessing game. Some items/clue are a bit obtuse, some are confusing/misleading, though I feel like that's kind of par for the course for this type of game (point/click adventure with inventory system). Other than that, I really liked exploring this world and trying to find all the clues, and really liked the art and style. Congrats!
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Thanks for playing. I’m glad you enjoyed it! I agree that the phone clues all look a bit too sus as well. But I thought it was just me. (Not my part of the project) We also were a bit too scared the game was too easy but now it may have become a bit too difficult. The reason why there is no clear “who actually did it etc” is bcz the police is not gonna tell you who did it. To them you’re just a random cat!
SPOILER: If you let the bird call (drag phone to bird), it can talk to the police and gives more info. It also gives you an alternate good ending! But most might not realize the bird is actually talking human language :D
Heh, from the perspective of playing it, there was no reason for me to expect (while thinking I had solved the case) that it would be about how I call. It wasn't even on my mind, I just cared about whether I guessed the correct suspect or not, and the game was telling me that's what it was about. I think it also goes against something that has been in most point-n-click adventure games since the 2000s, which is that usually you can't get to a dead end through bad choices, you will always eventually make it if you try everything. It's either that or your choices matter all along and you learn that early. In your project, up until the phone call, your game followed this unwritten rule as well, so it feels arbitrary to throw that in there at the end for that reason as well.
Anyway, not a big deal either. :) Congrats again on a great project!
Oh, we had internal discussions about dead ends, soft locks and canonical truths to no end. But given the scope, time frame and the fact that basically everything in this game was done from scratch, every decision was final in its first iteration.
Even though I still like the Cluedo inspired randomization of the perpetrator and clues it did hamper the writing a lot. Not only did we have to have two versions of every letter and voice memo depending on if the person was to be exonerated by the clue, they also had to be logically consistent in either combination.
Anyway, thanks for playing!