itch.io

I love this game a lot, but I was wondering:

Are you planning to ever make an alternative version of the audio cues that's more accessible to hard-of-hearing people, but still preserves the same sort of effect? I love recommending this game to people, but I've had a few friends who were disappointed that they missed out on a key part of the experience.

Iunno how functional this would be in RPGmaker, but something like a screen-shake or another visual cue that intensifies at the right spot seems like it'd do the job.

https://itch.io/jam/search-for-the-truth/topic/269345/the-game-jam-highlights Just wanted to forward this to you! It's a highlight of all the entries. From Itch.io and other spaces.

Hey folks, as you all know, the Jam is officially over, and we are no longer taking submissions. We had a total of five submissions, which isn’t much, but I’m glad to have been able to participate myself, and I think we’ve got some good potential going ahead! While I’m unsure of if I’d do this again next year, I’ll take the bits of knowledge I got from this all, and apply it moving forward!

If you have a late entry, I’ll extend the unofficial deadline to the end of TOMORROW, EST. However, you cannot submit anything on the Jam page, unfortunately. Make a page at court-records.net, and post your game there, and put “Jam Entry” in the title somewhere.

But, let’s highlight the games we got!
Spooky Investigator by Arodude & co.! https://arodude.itch.io/spooky-investigator

I loved this a lot. It has hiccups, but it’s a charming game with a lot of love put into it.

The basic premise is this, two students, Pichu and Froyo, are taking a remedial exam for their “Magic and Investigation” class at this magical college, The exam consists of three investigations, all fairly short and not painful to solve. Pichu, our protagonist, clashes with Froyo in trying to solve these mysteries. While it’s never clear what the “true” solution is, you get a feel for the investigation style of the two, and how they compliment each other.
The art is beautiful, and the characters are very dynamic and fun. It does drag at times, but it’s worth playing specifically for the characters.

Turnabout Manor by discord user Mannequin! http://www.mediafire.com/file/dfom19hxc ... c.zip/file

There isn’t much here, and it’s very much a WIP, it has some graphical issues, and the writing is a bit messy. However, it’s very indicative of someone getting their bearings, and that shows later on as it gets a bit more comfortable in its own skin.
The Premise is that Phoenix and Maya are invited to a manor for some closed-circle mansion shenanigans by a prominent lawyer. Upon arrival, they realize that their group of contacts, including Gumshoe, Edgeworth, and even Larry were invited as well. That’s roughly where it cuts off, however.

Circle of the Turnabout by DannyPlaysSomeGames! viewtopic.php?p=1425264#p1425264

A good ol’ trilogy style case that immediately aims to hit you hard. Like the former, there isn’t much to see here. It’s very technically competent however, and shows off an understanding of AA’s style, and a willingness to go the extra mile to give visual appeal, with even a custom introduction segment! It’s worth keeping an eye on!

Turnabout Underworld by Bigwins! http://www.aaonline.fr/player.php?trial_id=103891

If you’re looking for a wild ride, this one is definitely what you’re looking for. It teeters on the edge of absolutely absurd, and strangely melancholy. If you’re looking for a typical AA case, this probably isn’t for you, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy it AS a typical AA case. It borrows some from ZE, DR, etc. It all blends in together nicely. It’s finished, although bigwins wants to polish it up more. It's a few hours long, so be ready to take breaks, or do it in one long session.

Basic Premise: Set after the events of DD, Apollo takes on a locked room mystery, where Plum Kitaki is suspected of murdering the head of the Cadaverini family. However, there’s a lot more to this case that meets the eye, and it goes places that no one could possibly expect it.

Project Big Hat, by Me, Toatali, Integras, Joshkinz, and Seleniqz! https://lazyplague.itch.io/project-big-hat

I'm not gonna talk up my own project here, lol. I am very proud of it, and I do think we at least show some potential. It's a five minute demo, showing off some of the resources we have available to us.

Basic Premise: A reporter named Sydney Raine drives out to an apartment building to search for leads on a missing persons case. She meets the landlord, W.W. Washburne, and has a small chat with him.

Global Warming Real, by The Gamer Cat! https://thegamercat.itch.io/global-warming-real

It’s literally just a picture of a polar bear in roblox lmao.

Now, for my favorite entry...

 
Global Warming Real! This one is a real winner, really! The artistic integrity, the bold political statement in a world where everything is considered negotiable... It's powerful.

Nah, I really liked Turnabout Underworld. It's thoroughly entertaining and I don't regret the hours I spent on it.

In closing...

Honestly, I do feel as if I dropped the ball a bit in management and helping users who were unsure of what they wanted to make. I'm still somewhat unsure of if I want to do this again next year, or try to host more smaller events on the discord to encourage case-making. But for now, I heavily encourage all participating users, and people who WANTED to participate but couldn't, to check out AAO's Casemaking Competitions, and take a shot at those!

Seeya!

Just leaving my thoughts here now that I've gotten to this:

Positives:
- Great art! It's all very dynamic and visually interesting, it really adds to the exaggerated atmosphere. It helps the humorous but with the possibility of seriousness get through. 

- Soundtracks p good too. Nice choices.

- I like the setting. After PLvAA, I've always been hankering for more of a murder mystery/fantasy mash-up, and this doesn't disappoint.

- The characters are all very lively, and I felt attached to them by the end. With the exception of maybe David, but I get the impression he's supposed to feel distant. Froyo's a fave.

- Along with that, all the character designs are appealing and interesting.

- The backgrounds, for the most part, are very nice!

Negatives:

- After the first investigation starts, it does start to feel very obviously rushed. I think this is a by-product of your structure. Rapid-fire mystery solving sounds neat on paper, but it also misses what makes cases so satisfying, that they're sort of long journeys towards a solution with many twists and turns. I think, if you ever update this, I'd say choose one of your mysteries, and expand upon it and just make one longer investigation, and integrate the character interactions more into that.

- The third investigation was a bit painful. I understand the need to just get something out, but I was seriously straining my eyes looking for something I may have missed. Plus some graphical glitches (the image shifted each time I clicked on something) heavily took me out of it, which is especially problematic considering the image used is a still from Harry Potter, which is already fairly jarring, considering the backgrounds before it. 

- The character development with Froyo and Pichu does feel a little phoned in and jarring. I like them being on more friendly terms, but Froyo lets her guard down a little too easy for my taste, especially after they spent most of the game berating each other.

- This one is a bit more personal preference, but I'd suggest having a penalty system should you decide to expand on this more. Being able to brute-force solutions does take out a lot of the satisfaction of solving a mystery. 

Not really negatives, but not really positives either:

- I think Froyo and Pichu could do with being a tad bit taller, because you can't really see their character art underneath the textboxes. Which is sad, because it is really good art!

- I giggled, but the Alexa jokes should probably be a bit less specific. Referencing Alexa specifically sort of dates your work, and so does "Dank Memes," which I suppose the latter is the point, but I did have an impulse to roll my eyes when I saw the word "dank." It reminded me of the weird dumb dudebros in my highschool.

OVERALL:

Very very good, I had a blast playing through it, and I'm really interested in what else you have to offer! I'll post a reply to this later on to link you to the posts boosting all the submissions, along with less specific thoughts, later. It makes me very happy to see such high quality work be submitted.