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GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/josepvalls/secrets
Game description
A "whodunit" meets "guess who?" in a diegetic mystery interactive experience where you have to use logic and reasoning to uncover the culprit of a petty theft.
Theme interpretation
At the core its a mystery game with a secret that the player must uncover. The whole game is themed around teenagers keeping secrets and lying to cover for their friends. The original idea was to uncover a chain of secrets that would lead to the culprit but we needed to downscale the idea for the jam.
We used the wildcard "speed run" by adding a counter that both tracks the number of inquiries and the time spent looking at the clues.
We used the wildcard "cheat mode" by adding several ways to cheat in the game.
Wildcards used (optional)
Let players break the rules with things like infinite lives or invincibility
Make time the enemy
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Comments
This is so great! I had so much fun with this, played it a couple times and tried cheat mode too. I love puzzle games so this was right in my alley. I loved how there are always 9 liars and that they have a feature in common, it helps a lot with the guessing. The sticky notes are a great addition but they do make the scree a lot more cluttered. The soundtrack in the back is lovely and cute, so is the art. There are so many parameters that kept the game refreshing in every run. Very well polished game!
Keep up the amazing work
I like how the mechanics are simple, yet with enough parameters to make the player investigate for real.
The sounds add a nice atmosphere and the graphics are cute.
The sticky notes are a handful mechanic however the board gets cluttered pretty quick.
I replayed it once and couldn't beat my high score, let alon any score in the leaderboard.
Great job! Unique feel, and the sound and art merged really well together. I also really liked the 10-minute call mechanic. It gave me enough time pressure to feel like I needed to try to move quickly, while also realizing that the real time pressure was introduced by getting more clues.
Also love that you added a leaderboard! Super nit: I wonder if you could have hidden the leader board until the end of a run. When I played, someone had beaten the game in 10 minutes, which immediately had me wanting to get within that range on my first played.
They may have cheated. There are a couple clues about cheating right in the game page. Did you notice what name they were using? Cheating is one of the wildcards in the jam 😋
And yes, having the leaderboard in the beginning was part of the time challenge, which was the other wildcard. But I agree the leaderboard at the end may make more sense.
Great game! Loved the use of the theme and the art.
Plays great and looks great, unfortunately I am terrible at it
Cool game! Smart to make the amount of suspects, make it so you have to discern who the suspect is with the information given. The sticky notes mechanic was a good idea, but for me, it was easier just grabbing a pencil and paper to work it out lol
Pen an pencil is how the game was designed. We wanted to make the UI resemble playing just like that but we had to make some concessions. Thanks for playing!
Loved this game! The only issue I had was the sticky notes. I asked all the suspects questions, so the sticky notes covered a lot and made it harder to go back and look through the suspects. I also ran out of the sticky notes from the side like "Innocent" and "suspected liar", I wonder if the sticky notes could be substituted with symbols at the bottom of the suspects photo to reduce the clutter. Overall, it was a great game.
Great graphics, sound, execution. I played it a few times and while logically it had to be a specific character each time it said I was wrong. So the only small downside is that it doesn't tell you WHY you were wrong (you just lose the game with no explanation given) - I don't know if it was a bug or if I just suck :D (probably the latter) - iut would be great to see a summary at the end of said what, who lied, and who the real culprit was.
Also had quite a big problem with the postit notes getting in the way so I couldnt see people any more, and it would help to make eg teh liar ones smaller etc.
That is a great idea. We will look into adding that. Actually, if you figure out the “cheat mode” it will tell you what is the common trait among the liars. And about making the notes smaller or maybe some other kind of token. We will see what we can do.
Fun game! It took me a bit to figure out the trick but once I did I managed to hit the top 3 scores. Only feedback is that it's pretty hard to tell the eye colors apart, and the mouth expressions (not sure if the mouth expressions are a trait, but if they are it's tough)
Thanks for the feedback. Mouth and nose shape are not traits used to tag liars at the moment. We’ll try to make eye color more visible.