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Detective Monochrome's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creative use of art assets | #257 | 3.179 | 3.179 |
| Engagement | #260 | 3.214 | 3.214 |
| Overall | #302 | 3.071 | 3.071 |
| Overall polish | #338 | 2.821 | 2.821 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Cool game!
Cool little detective game. I thought the 'line of sight' feature was pretty cool, albiet sometimes responsible for some jarring moments where you think you are going to walk through an empty space then suddenly faceplant a wall. The music was a bit sore on the ears after a while, but I don't think it's bad - just needs a little variety here and there.
I thought the story was engaging, though I found the conslusion of the investigation quite confusing - maybe I missed something. The final act was really cool - I wasn't expecting the action-packed finale and I thought it was a great twist.
I also thought the LATTEr pun was funny, even though it was objectively dreadful (which all the best puns are)
Overall, nice work :)
Fun little game that kept me playing untill the end. I like the car chase at the end, I wasn't expecting that.
The things I would like to see improve is the music and more content.
Thanks for the feedback
Cool game, it was a bit hard to progress because impotant things aren't visible only if you are extremly near.
IT WAS ****** ALL ALONG!!!!!! :O
Cool detective game man!
Like the touch you added that shows content only when you're in the actual room.
I think there was potential to use this so showcase a crime scene.
Like you enter a room and there's blood everywhere.
You could even break the 1-bit rule and add red blood on the floor^^.
But yea cool game and nice chase scene at the end!
Quite an interesting game, it's a cool little story and was pretty fun to play! The music is kind of .. repetitive. But I liked the fading out mechanic, made it so you had to walk around and explore your surroundings more. I also really liked the car chase, it took a few tries to understand what exactly was happening but once I got it, it was quite a cool experience.
I kinda respect using game maker with it's limitations. Also I dig the idea of murder case mystery and the game being story driven. The BnW noir style fits it well.
Few issues:
-Movement is pain due to lack of the diagonal movement (I see there was a reason for that in the comments below, but still). I've had trouble walking through the doors lol.
-Tiles blacking out are kinda cool, but I've had hard time finding a way to progress from the first area because the stairs were hidden untill I was few tiles away.
-Controls - I decided to go straight into the game, and I could not even skip through the first dialog box. Had to restart and enter Controls first to learn the controls. It's kinda not needed to make a separate menu tab for controls, when there just arrows and e key - you could just add ("*press e to skip the dialog or interact with stuff*").
-The story - seems kinda basic. On the other hand the game wanted me to take a decision on who's the killer before I even gave it a thought or walked around , so maybe there's more to it.
Nice game!
I had a lot of fun with it, although I really wish I had diagonal movement, and the collision felt really precise for going through doors and such, which didn't seem necessary for this style of game!
I also wish there was more to the story, the actual murder case felt a little barebones, but I guess it's probably kinda tough to write a fully-fledged, interesting murder case while also programming a game in just 48 hours.
Also, you can easily cheese the car chase at the end by just cutting through the gravel. It wasn't super clear that I was supposed to just smash into her car, so I got in front of her several times, but didn't "win" the game and had to restart.
And the music loop was /very/ repetitive.
I absolutely adored how much flavor the game had though! I went and clicked on every single interactable item I could, just to see what flavor text would pop out!
All in all, a fun experience. Great work!
I actually made it so you could cut through roads easily in later levels so the player could complete the game and feel accomplished
I enjoyed the game! I liked how the objects faded into your view when you got near them, made looking for clues fun. The chase scene was also fun, I just took a shortcut to cut her off, not sure if it was intended or not.
I had to turn off the music immediately because it was very repetitive. Also I am not sure if diagonal movement in Game Maker is possible but that would be an improvement.
Overall, well done, this game is underrated! I think the reason this game isn't getting a lot of attention is because the thumbnail is not attractive. For your next jam I would suggest spending a bit more time on the thumbnail to draw people in and stand out in jams. (I made the exact same mistake too don't worry)
Thanks for the feedback.And yes it was intentional I made it easier to cut through roads after every track so the player can win and feel accomplished :)
well I did feel accomplished, I love feeling like I'm cheating the game, even if it was intentional by the dev
Diagonal movement is possible but it looked weird as i only had a 1d animation
The fades and the multiple endings were really cool! The rest of the game was solid, aside from a couple glitches and the music track. I also have to say I really loved the animation of the partner guy; it reminded me of Stan from Monkey Island. Good job!
Thanks for the feedback.Glad you liked it.
Interesting little game! Didn't really get what should I do in car chase, but I managed to push her out of road so that was probably it. I enjoyed it, but I had to turn of sound just few seconds in because of 3 tone tune. So I dont know if there is any other music or sfx. Thanks for game!
Thanks for playing the whole game and leaving feedback. :)
Spoiler about the game ahead, if you haven't play it and don't want to get spoiled about the plot don't read it
Gathered all the clues
So the brother was the only one without a witness, got it
Accuse the brother
"You have thrown an innocent man in jail"
What the shit?The game is quite fun to play to be honest, the story is just engaging enough to keep you going. Although my first playthrough I got spoiled who is the real killer by the ending above.
The game has some bugs, like the "greatest murder mystery ever" dialogue will actually soft lock you from re-entering the first floor after you went up to the second floor, and on my second run I encountered a bug where if you press E too much times when walking up the stairs, you ended up being stuck in a loop of entering second floor over and over again. BGM got annoying after a while because of it being in such a short loop.
Gameplay wise, I'm also not a big fan of the game just teleport you back to the station (Police station? I think it was miz jam investigation house or something?) as soon as it deems you have enough clues to find the killer. That I think is like the most important player decision in a detective game being taken away. The rendering distance is also pretty weird at a lot of places, for example, walking behind the victim's house while directly colliding with it doesn't make it show up. The chase sequence in the end I think it's a nice touch, but I don't think its well done, cuz there's no build up for the tension or anything, the lack of music doesn't help either.
Plot-wise, like I said, I was actually tricked into thinking the brother was the killer because the mom actually has an alibi with her son. I know the real plot is that she didn't washed the dishes so they are dirty, because she went to kill her husband. But (1) lady, that's a dishwasher, couldn't you literally just press like 3 buttons before you walk out to kill your husband? (2) Lack of information on who actually discovered the body and when threw me off, since its quite possible that the body was found right after he was killed, which means that she stop doing the dishes since she found her husband's body, which make sense? (3) Does little Timmy not heard the fact that his mom fired a pistol right outside of the house? Were the snacks that good?
Well overall I still think its pretty sweet for a short game, but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement.
SPOILER ALERT:
What actually happened is as follows:
The wife killed the husband elsewhere.
As shown by the trails of blood.
Dumped the gun.
And staged the body.
She actually told timmy to alibi her as timmy is a little boi and doesnt understand
And the brother was actually making coffee when lil timmy was sneaking around stealing stuff.As shown by interacting with coffee pot.
I also agree when you say I should have provided time of death.Totally overlooked that.
(1) Trails of blood itself isn't enough of an evidence to make the first conclusion, since the trail ended right before the gun, its more possible than someone killed the victim there, walked away and dump the gun. Since if she carry the body there, the trail of blood should lead to inside the house after she set up the body and walk back into the house. (2) I actually like the unreliable alibi thing, but that means his witness statement was ignoble so its just her v his word in the end (3) Making coffee for an hour between 10-11pm?
I didnt want to make it too obvious so i made it so that blood trail ends after three blood drops and they are actually coming from outside the crime scene.He was not making coffee from 10-11 pm it was just that lil timmy was waiting for his uncle to leave so he could steal the stuff he went to make coffee just for 5 mins.Lil timmy never said he was gone for 1 hour.
This was a cute little story! I'm curious if the suspect I chose was actually the murderer... but the car chase was pretty cool. I also liked that you had to go into rooms to see what was in them. I would of rather had silence than the repeating 4 notes used for music. Good job overall! Edit: sorry for the double post. My internet was acting wonky when I hit submit.
Thanks for the feedback
If u made it to the car chase u did pick right suspect.Other selections ended the game with a short text.
For some reason the game wasn't taking any of my input so I couldn't play :(
did it show any type of error.
Nope:/
Thats so weird?!?
Really cute game, I loved exploring the area and getting +1 clues for everything i could find! I really liked how things would fade in to view when entering different areas of the same room, it really helped with the exploration side of things, which I am a sucker for :') I was going to mention the music but it has been mentioned before so i'll leave that, but overall good game :)
Thanks for the feedback.As I am sure you know feedback to a game developer is the best thing one could ask for,
Great little game, I liked the fading mechanic, it made me want to expore everything more. I also liked that you took the time to come up with a nice story and used lots of different bits from the asset pack. I enjoyed playing.
After going inside from the crime scene and interviewing the family I left the house again and couldn't get back in and couldn't find anything outside. Perhaps I missed something? Also, the music being the same 3 notes over again got very repetitive very quickly, but I see you addressed that issue below.
Good job!
Huh that's weird i made it so that you could'nt leave the house again.Anyway did you make it to the car chase?As it was in the end and if u faced this issue I am thinking u never made it there.
Unfortuantely not, I got stuck back outside again. Not sure how it happened, will probably give it a replay later and not go back through the door :)
Did u interrogate all 3 suspects.Cause I made it so it will automatically take u to the car chase if u found 7 or 8 clues i think.
Only got 2 of them before I left
That was a fun little game.
The fading effect of the unused object didn't allway work well for me.
(I even bumped into a wall I couldn't see once.)
It wasn't game breaking at all and it sometimes looked really great.
Thanks for the feedback
Detective me ready for duty !! :D
maybe try making player not to get stuck on walls i had hard time going through rooms
but its cool game i love the story good quality
Thanks for the feedback
This is the first entry I've seen using the monochrome one and it's very fitting I think. I reaaaaally hate the music though, sorry - it's like three notes that keep repeating and it's very off putting :D A toggle would've been nice :D
I really like the mechanic that stuff only appears once you get close and I love that you can investigate almost everything. It's a really creative approach and I would love to see a more fleshed out version of that mechanic!
Thanks for the feedback.I actually made the music randomize it's notes but due to a silly mistake in gamemaker (I have to always write randomize()) the notes never changed.
I also wanted to know because there is no criteria for music will my points be reducted somewhere else.
I usually don't rate music at all unless it's very very good because I myself suck at it and usually never include it. So in my personal ratings, I usually disregard music :D