Agent Thursday by cageinabird

[raw]
made by cageinabird for LD29 (COMPO)
A game about an undercover cop making his way through a murky criminal underworld.

In each scene, find the clues and talk to people, then piece it all together to work out who the boss is. There are three 'bosses' (Big Cheese, Chief, and Top Dog), but only one is the real boss.

Arrow keys to move.
X to interact with people and clues.
C to accuse someone with your gun.
H to check each clue you have uncovered.
M to mute the music if it gets too annoying.

I hope it's not too difficult and can be worked out, as it was hard to design puzzles of this nature.

Let me know if there are any problems with links/builds, or any showstoppers in the game.

All feedback, constructive criticism, unconstructive criticism, etc. welcome!

Edit: I've added a post-compo version for people who wish to play through to the end without enduring the slow dialogue. The post-compo version has the following changes:
- The default text speed is quicker
- Pressing either X or C will skip text
- You no longer have to find all items before making an accusation, but you will get a warning before hand.
- The player animation system has been redone (and is no longer an absolute mess).
- The hint screen has been polished.

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 3.56 221
Audio 3.00 394
Fun 2.92 649
Graphics 4.14 81
Humor 3.13 197
Innovation 3.07 555
Mood 3.78 94
Theme 3.13 676

Feedback

awanegenebayo
28. Apr 2014 路 03:44 UTC
Can't move anymore if i press x just after the end of the beggining talk
馃帳 cageinabird
28. Apr 2014 路 07:26 UTC
Ouch, not the start I had in mind! Thanks for catching that - I had to remove a bit of nonsensical code.
gikdew
28. Apr 2014 路 11:46 UTC
The visuals are awesome, and it has a really good mood (5 stars), I really enjoy playing it!
fserb
28. Apr 2014 路 11:49 UTC
I wish there was a way to speed up the dialogs. But very good graphics! :)
Split82
28. Apr 2014 路 11:49 UTC
I would appreciate if the dialogues could be skipped. I'm reading much faster than sentences appear. Otherwise I love the graphics and the mood.
CastEclipse
28. Apr 2014 路 11:51 UTC
Great work! But the dialogue is a bit slow, in my opinion. Please check out my game! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=34910
voxel
28. Apr 2014 路 13:30 UTC
I'd also like to be able to hurry the dialogue along a little and the music got old pretty fast, but I loved everything else. Definitely my favourite game so far
ApoorvaJ
28. Apr 2014 路 13:31 UTC
Dialogue speed up would've made it smoother, but great work on the art, music and puzzle design.
mrexcessive
28. Apr 2014 路 13:58 UTC
Great look and feel, talked to everyone and found clues, didn't get it right though. So hard to balance dialogue pace and making sure everyone gets to see the info.
zedutchgandalf
28. Apr 2014 路 14:40 UTC
This looks really good! Shame that the dialogue is slowing everything down so much...
TheMorfeus
28. Apr 2014 路 14:42 UTC
I hate the fact that you have to wait for the text to finish before moving
hexabeast
28. Apr 2014 路 15:20 UTC
Really AWESOME!
The game is complete, long, graphics are cool, audio is great, and that's really fun to play! I did not finish it because each time you are wrong, you need to re-find ALL the clues and it's really long, and the theme doesn't seems to be respected except if the guy we're searching is beneath the surface... I did not finish the game so I won't rate the theme but the rest of the game is fantastic! :)
馃帳 cageinabird
28. Apr 2014 路 15:59 UTC
I had a feeling not including a skip dialogue button would come back to haunt me. :p

@hexabeast: You only need to find the 5 items to make an accusation. It was to stop people accidentally bypassing the puzzles, but I understand that it could be frustrating.

@TheMorfeus: Yeah, in hindsight, there's no reason it should be that way. Down to laziness on my part more than anything.
Korwegian
28. Apr 2014 路 17:28 UTC
Very nice mystery.
burgerdare
28. Apr 2014 路 20:15 UTC
The controls feel a little clunky and sluggish, but the overall game was quite funny and charming in it's offbeat, quirky kind of way.
trueyomic
29. Apr 2014 路 04:48 UTC
Mostly great! I wish I had time to finish it, but having to hunt down all the clues from scratch again with slow dialog (which isn't a problem the first time around) is really tedious. I did get to the third scenario. Very fun; you get some good ratings from me.
lightsoda
29. Apr 2014 路 05:56 UTC
I like the look. It's a slow moving game, like others have said, a dialogue speed up or skip would've been nice. Overall a pretty good puzzle game, good job.
xhunterko
29. Apr 2014 路 08:25 UTC
Even with the bug of 'i need to get closer' when I'm standing right on top of the guy on the toilet having talked to everyone and not being able to accuse the person bug it's a nice game.
edibletoaster
29. Apr 2014 路 08:30 UTC
Pretty cool.
Mekuri
29. Apr 2014 路 20:04 UTC
Played the original version to give a fair rating :) The conversations is a bit slow, but aside from that the mood and graphics in this game are nice. Well done.
raulincze
30. Apr 2014 路 13:41 UTC
It's a bit annoying that you cannot skip through the text (especially if you're reading it for the second time).

It's still a great game you have here, I was really sucked in. Good job!
benmcnelly
30. Apr 2014 路 17:01 UTC
I think the theme is intact from the get go, I mean you are very literally looking for clues, and things are hidden under the surface, no one is who they seem...
TeamInCharge
30. Apr 2014 路 20:31 UTC
It is proper old school! Awesome. I also thought about doing an undercover game... you pulled it off! :)
madmaw
01. May 2014 路 00:57 UTC
Any game with a guy on the crapper is a good game
teambrookvale
01. May 2014 路 02:51 UTC
As others said the dialogue is somewhat slow but hey it's a full proper game! Loved the graphics and atmosphere. Awesome
BuKaneerz
01. May 2014 路 21:05 UTC
This is a good work !
impressive graphics !
iambored2006
01. May 2014 路 21:09 UTC
I haven't played a detective game in years! Only in LD can you find this stuff. Anyway, I'll come back to it later to finish it.
GrooveMan
02. May 2014 路 16:05 UTC
Hooray for mystery games! I enjoyed interrogating the bar staff and collecting clues, but it sometimes felt like the conclusions it tried to draw you to were vague. I would have expected a more sombre piano jam, considering the aesthetics, too.
xdegtyarev
02. May 2014 路 20:11 UTC
great mood and visuals! pretty awesome, congrats!
malmazuke
03. May 2014 路 02:01 UTC
Too slow!
Cake&Code
04. May 2014 路 10:09 UTC
I think it took too long to get from the intro to the actual action and there was a bit too much dialogue that took too long but the game itself has real potential, I'd love to see it get an even more post-post-compo version!
Thorig
04. May 2014 路 18:55 UTC
Too bad you can not skip the text, but a nice game.
JavadocMD
04. May 2014 路 20:32 UTC
Very fun and you accomplished a great deal in the time constraints. Well done! The art and character design is beautiful. As for the mystery itself, I was a bit surprised to have to think so far outside of the box on the last puzzle, but it was rewarding once I figured it out. I did have to brute force the second stage, I think mostly because there's a lot of conflicting information to deal with. But in the end it was very enjoyable. Going to go try the Post-Compo version now!
Penguincat
05. May 2014 路 04:34 UTC
This was pretty good, except I don't like how you lose control over the character when dialogue is popping up (even in the Post-Compo version). Also sometimes the game stops responding to my input. But overall this was well put together, nice work!
mustaine
07. May 2014 路 01:08 UTC
Love the atmosphere and the exploration parts of this game. Lots of keys to memorize, put the game keys on the HTML page so people can remember without mashing the wrong button.

Player monologue sometimes blocks movement, frustrating.
bombjack
07. May 2014 路 09:53 UTC
I like the ambiance
arrogant.gamer
07. May 2014 路 20:48 UTC
Great mood, and lots of really fun and funny clues. I wasn't able to solve anything, though: in the first two rooms I got two under-cover cops. I wasn't feeling great about my chances, so I gave up before the third room.

Also, great use of the theme! Really unexpected.
馃帳 cageinabird
08. May 2014 路 06:51 UTC
There's nothing wrong with your solving skills, arrogant.gamer, you got the right guys!

That they are undercover is part of the story. I tried to make it a little clearer in the post-comp version.
matt_j
08. May 2014 路 21:19 UTC
Controls were a little annoying. I like the style, however. Certainly needed an ability to jump through dialogue.
PaperBlurt
12. May 2014 路 14:18 UTC
Such noir!
Very fun.
Good gameplay.
No need to say more!
Ryan up in here
12. May 2014 路 16:17 UTC
5 stars all the way. You win.
Crowbeak
19. May 2014 路 00:37 UTC
I like how the game gives you everything you need but doesn't just hand you the answer. I suspected the culprit from early on, though, so it was nice to be right. I also like the fact that you have a pianist going behind the piano music.
taocayo
20. May 2014 路 00:36 UTC
Lots of stars on the mood, graphics and humor. Specially on the graphics. Liked how the story wraps on itself with the liars and health records.