Investigate by Adrocodes

[raw]
made by Adrocodes for Ludum Dare 48 (COMPO)

Game concept

You are a detective who likes to do things against the book, however, your years of scaring and threatening suspects may be coming to an end. You have one more chance to prove to your superiors that you can get a confession out of a suspect the "right" way.


You will be presented with several question options while interrogating the suspect. You must choose to either;

  • Present evidence (blue)
  • Relate to their likes (Teal / Dark Green)
  • Antagonise them using their dislikes (Red / Orange)
  • Lie to them for to get a confession quicker (Light Green)

You will need to balance your questions to avoid angering the suspect. This will only prove that you can't be trusted and will result in you being FIRED.

How does this fit the theme?

The idea is that you are trying to dig deeper and deeper into the case to get the conviction while trying to follow the rules. It might be a bit of a loose interpretation however.

Screenshots

Screen Shot 2021-04-26 at 2.03.52 am.png

Screen Shot 2021-04-26 at 2.04.04 am.png


The game was developed using the Godot engine and is also my first LD Jam. I ended up switching ideas & engines halfway through. Art and Sound is not my strong suite (if you can't tell). Hopefully the idea of the game is fun and is explained somewhat okay in the intro.

Ratings

Overall 859th 2.583⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 840th 2.474⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 622th 2.921⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 821th 2.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 661th 3.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 687th 2.079⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 707th 2.763⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 17🗨️

Feedback

Spydercrawler
26. Apr 2021 · 03:50 UTC
I really like the concept, and the visuals are really great, but it is really quite difficult. Also, a better
tutorial would have been nice. I have had multiple attempts, but every time I think I am getting somewhere I run out of time or have one of my meters fill up. Even so, the game looks great, and it is clear that a lot of time and energy have been put into making this. Nice work!
🎤 Adrocodes
26. Apr 2021 · 03:57 UTC
@spydercrawler thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely look at implementing a better tutorial for my next jam/game! The balancing of the cards was quite difficult, maybe after the voting is over I will tweak that and increase the time a bit :smile:
mdotedot
26. Apr 2021 · 06:43 UTC
Nice graphics. Didn't get the confession on multiple accounts.
NoelOskar
26. Apr 2021 · 12:30 UTC
I really like the idea, but the rules are a bit unclear, instead of a wall of text it's better to explain stuff through gameplay, since the player will just forget it all
🎤 Adrocodes
26. Apr 2021 · 12:36 UTC
@noeloskar thanks for the play and feedback. I definitely dropped the ball on that front. Something to improve on the next jam for sure!
Vaanrile
26. Apr 2021 · 15:40 UTC
Really interesting concept overall ! The graphics and presentation are quite pleasing.
However, I think the balancing can vary a lot from one game to another : in one game, I had blue square every time and ended up winning without thinking too much by always clicking on them, and in another one, I almost ran out of time because of bad luck in the square distribution.
This point aside, good job for making this game, it was a nice experience !
DragonsBeardGames
26. Apr 2021 · 22:04 UTC
Really cool concept, but I was very confused and couldn't figure out what I was actually supposed to be doing.
Chensu
26. Apr 2021 · 23:04 UTC
Love the art style of this game :) The UI is spot on.
Threeli
28. Apr 2021 · 01:13 UTC
Nailed it on my first go, but after reading other comments I'm wondering if I was just lucky?! I understand it's RNG based, but it seemed like there were only two rounds that featured unbalanced choices. Again, I may have just been lucky, but maybe that's a place you could look at?

I wish there was quite a bit more here, because I enjoyed the few moments of game I got. Good work!
Fatebreak
28. Apr 2021 · 18:19 UTC
Interesting idea. I think it would have been more interesting if there was actually text and maybe a through story instead of randomly generated choices, but that is probably asking too much for a game jam haha. It's a very interesting set of mechanics though and I'd really like to see it expanded further. Nice job!
Last Angle
02. May 2021 · 12:20 UTC
I like the idea of this game, but was a bit confused while playing it. After a while I understood a bit better what I was doing, but it was still very hard to win. The graphics are really nice, they help set the mood!
TheGreenWorm
03. May 2021 · 17:28 UTC
The main thing I would suggest is adding some names and action types under your cards. Pixel art can be misinterpreted, and the cards aren't affordant enough to know what they'll do. The idea seems cool, but it's hard to know what the choices in front of me will end up doing.
Francesco
15. May 2021 · 22:59 UTC
I like the idea, took me some time to figure out the whole gameplay with the hints given below the "Trespassing" bar though. I think the game could be extended to more levels exploring the mechanics possibility, and set to a police movie soundtrack.
Brice Mahier
17. May 2021 · 12:27 UTC
Was fired a countless number of times. 10/10, would be fire again!
ColeSlaughter
18. May 2021 · 06:54 UTC
[We played your game on stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1023830637?t=03h20m25s)

I like the idea you're going for here, but I couldn't 100% grasp what my actions were doing all of the time. Still, I understood enough to be able to reliably win, which was fun to learn. I also really enjoyed the art with this one, and the fact that each "suspect" was unique with their interests and whatnot. Nice job!