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A jam submission

He Detec!View game page

Solve puzzles to sneak into crime scenes and find clues.
Submitted by Ata Deniz Oktay (@atadenizoktay), totanizmas (@profhalfminded), Kerem Madran, Kardelen Erdinc — 45 seconds before the deadline
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He Detec!'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio#343.9643.964
Gameplay#493.8573.857
Overall#793.8753.875
Visuals#1493.5003.500
Authenticity (use of resolution restriction)#1604.1794.179

Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Did you work in a team?
Yes, we worked in a team of 4 people which consists of a designer, a programmer, a musician, and an artist. It was fun!

Was the resolution a challenge?
Yes, it was! Keeping up with various constraints regarding resolution was challenging. The hardest part was creating sensible art.

What did you learn?
Trying certain game mechanics, design principles, a different art style, and a specific music style was very challenging, and rewarding at the same time!

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Comments

Viewing comments 21 to 2 of 21 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+2)

Great game, I really like the concept and the pixel art is awesome! A little tutorial would have helped me to get started but trial and error worked too :D Overall you did a great job, I had a lot of fun playing your game, thanks for sharing :)

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

Definitely going to spend more time with this one! Intriguing mechanic, and I really like the grayscale graphics. The music and use of text really set the mood.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

Pretty nice visual style! Took me a moment to understand how the stealth mechanics worked, but pretty neat overall

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

It's a little hard to tell which figure is you at first, so a means of more quickly telling the player character apart from everyone else could've been nice(though looking at other comments it ssounds like you were looking into that already).
Once you figure that out though, this is good stuff. Would totally play a longer/more-expansive version too if one were made.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Yes, we are aware of such a problem, and already working on it. The version that we are going to release after the voting ends will contain more distinguishable objects and characters. Still, thanks for the comment!

Submitted(+2)

Took me a long time to get past the first level, and I still don't fully understand how the line of sight mechanic works for some of the enemies.  But it was fun to solve some of the puzzles and I liked the film noir theme.  I agree with some of the others that I wish the sprites were a little easier to distinguish.

Developer(+1)

I've actually designed tutorial levels for each enemy which we'll be implementing soon and we're working on more distinguishable visuals too. Feel free to check back in over the weekend.

Thanks for playing and commenting!

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

Very cool concept for a game! The puzzles were challenging but fun and the music is excellent. I think maybe the player and exit could've stood out a little more but I also understand the resolution challenge. In the end though, great job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it.

We're currently working on ways to distinguish stuff better, so feel free to check back in over the weekend.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+3)

You were right! This game is quite similar to mine. You have enemies that raycast an area in front of them, and you have exactly one turn to escape that area. It's definitely got that puzzle-y vibe.

I would say this game could benefit from a little more focus in the areas that are interesting. There is so much going on in the first level alone, and while I appreciate that you gave me time to get acclimated to the game's controls, there was so much to explain in that one level that my senses were getting bombarded on all sides.

You have bad guys who raycast two spaces in front of them. You also have guys that move, and they have more of a cross shape around them. Finally, you've got guys who raycast all the way down the tile map until they hit some colliding surface. All of that, in one level.

If the first level were only about one specific enemy type, for example, I think it would be easier for most people to wrap their heads around the gameplay. They would clearly understand how one enemy works before learning how the next one works.

Developer(+2)

Thanks for playing the game!

You are absolutely right about dumping lots of information in one level. We didn't have time during the game jam to create more levels though, so we needed to dump them into one level. When we expand our levels and their quantity, we might tweak this to better teach the game to the player. Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+2)

I detec right!

Loved playing this game from the theme to the gameplay all is awesome!!! congrats on this jam!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

I Detec right!

Nice black and white noire aestetics.

I liked the puzzles.

In the first level you are forced to learn to wait turns by space and to attac. Maybe it would be better to stretch the teaching to several simple levels. But nevertheless I had no problem to complete the game.

The music is beautiful and fitting. Good job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

I will definitely keep your suggestion about stretching the teaching phase into several levels, I might tweak certain things about it!

Developer(+1)

I designed the levels to make sure the players can grasp the basic instructions before moving on to more complex levels. We might expand the levels to add more challenging ones though, so stay tuned. Thanks for the comment.

Submitted(+3)

A tile puzzler was NOT what I expected going in, I can tell you that much!!

It was a fun little puzzler, but I feel a little more tutorial would've been nice.
Having two new enemy types in the first room while I'm still trying to figure out basic mechanics was a little overwhelming, and it took me WAY too long of going in circles before i realized I could press spacebar to wait for the duck-guy.

The sokoban puzzles were fun too, I'm a little miffed about having two shots but at the same time it was oddly engaging and challenging as it forced me to think about the puzzles as opposed to trial-and-erroring them as I usually do. 

And, of course, the music was an absolute jam :)

Well made game, I'd love to see it expanded!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for the insightful comment! We haven't stopped working om the game, so feel free to check back in next week.

The resolution limit was a challenge in terms of text, so we put the instructions on the game page.

The reason we limited Sokoban retries was adding flavor to the challenge. You don't need a perfect solution to get a clue, and trying to figure the "whodunnit" part with clues of lesser "quality" is part of that zest. I'm glad it made you feel differently about approaching the puzzles, and hope you didn't find it frustrating.

But the clues, suspect info and which suspect is the killer changes each time, so playing it a few times until you figure out the puzzles is always an option. Maybe we could communicate that better going forward.

Submitted(+1)

I would definitely keep the Sokoban mechanic, just explain the clue-quality aspect. Now that I know the quality of your solution will affect the quality of your clue, I definitely like it a lot more! (originally I thought it was a pass/fail system)

Developer(+2)

Thanks for playing the game!

We did not have enough time to create a tutorial level during the game jam since we only worked on the game for about 30-40 active hours, maybe even lesser. I have thought of creating a tutorial on my mind though! Considering that we'll expand and polish the game a little more, I definitely will try to create a tutorial that explains the main mechanics of the game. Also, thanks for your detailed feedback!

Submitted(+2)

A very interesting little puzzle game.  It's a really nice idea but I must confess I couldn't even figure out how to get past the first room :( Black and white was definitely and interesting choice on top of the resolution challenge.  Love the harpsichord jam though!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

As soon as we settled on the concept of "old-timey mystery novel detective" I thought "HARPSICHORD!", and I'm not even sure it's era appropriate. Just that its old-timey, snobby Europeanness would work in this setting. As a team, we're impressed with Kardelen's audio work as much as the audience is. There's a link to her itch page on the game page, so maybe check out her other work?

We have heard a lot of feedback when it comes to distinguishing sprites and objects and the character and we're working on it, so feel free to check back in soon. Thanks for the comment!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

The first room is kind of a tutorial room that aims to make the player understand the stealth and detection mechanics. You must use the "Space" button to wait for a certain amount of turns to successfully complete the level. The roaming enemy on the bottom-right part of the screen can be taken care of like that!

Submitted(+1)

Welp that's totally my fault for not reading the controls 😅 I see the Space to wait part now

Submitted(+1)

The music is really nice! Especially the one during the Sokoban part. It helped me to focus on the puzzle. :) It was really fun, I wish it was longer haha

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

We got lots of positive feedback about the audio in the game, which is so great to hear! We'll be trying to add more levels to the game this week. Maybe if you check the game again in a week, you may have more to play!

Submitted(+1)

A nice little game. I really loved the puzzles as they were at perfect difficulty. The music was great and captured the theme of the game nicely. I thing t=if you increaase the colour palette of it, it'll be helpful to recognize the character more easily. One thing is, I think the game is rendered at 64x64 res, but the UI is not. Great game though.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

We got lots of feedback regarding the color palette and general art decisions, we will be improving them! Also, thank you for your comments about the difficulty of the levels and the audio!

I tried my best, as the programmer of the team, to make everything suit resolution restrictions but yeah, certain UI elements and animations are not pixel-perfect, which would make the game in general more successful in regard to resolution restrictions. It was a hard but fun journey!

Submitted(+2)

I detec right! I like the ambition here in fusing so many seemingly disparate concepts in roguelike puzzles, sokoban, and whodunnit detective logic. In looping between the stealth tactics and sokoban sections, there's something really neat about using the same interface to play very different feeling games.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

I'm glad to hear that you liked certain design aspects of our game, we definitely want to expand and polish it a little more!

Submitted(+2)

Nice game with good music. I had fun solving the puzzles.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

Nice puzzles! The music is great, really fits in with the game. I also like that the clues are different with every playthrough!

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Developer

So glad you've noticed the clues switching around! There's a neat little trick under the hood that I'm particularly proud of. And I'm also impressed by how Kardelen worked wonders with the audio with such limited time and references.

Submitted(+2)

I've enjoyed the puzzle solving, i had problems recognizing the icons to detect the criminal, but it was very fun overall. Good entry!

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

This game really reminds me of another Game Jam I made a game for. It is called truth seeker. But this game was made a lot better, Love the puzzle solving and then checking out who has done it. Sweet graphics as well.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

I just checked "Truth Seeker," and yes, they look similar design-wise! I'm glad that you've liked the puzzle-solving and graphics!

Submitted(+2)

Interesting design of puzzles in 64x64 resolution!

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

Submitted(+2)

Haven't  had chance to play for long but what I did see was interesting and nicely done. Some way of differentiating things would have helped but not sure how you'd achieve that given the limitations, maybe a larger palette...? Anyway, good work!

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

We definitely will work on making stuff that is interactable look more differentiable from the rest!

Viewing comments 21 to 2 of 21 · Next page · Last page