Concept: Procedurally generated murder mystery!

Instead of procedurally generating a map, the game procedurally generates the plot: a murder mystery complete with suspects, weapons, motives, opportunities, etc.  It then generates enough clues to solve the mystery (a'la Clue or Cluedo style logic puzzles), and sprinkles them around the map of a large, Victorian mansion.  Gameplay involves exploring the mansion, talking to suspects, collecting clues, and using logic to deduce who the murderer is.  When you think you have solved the mystery, accuse the murderer, and if you're right, you win!

The first couple of days have been spent creating the mansion environment.  I've worked up a custom tileset of 13x26 pixel tiles (weird, I know), and as of today, I have the mansion fleshed out enough that you can wander around it.  Parts of the tileset are set up to allow the engine to tint them to give different looks to different tiles; for instance, in the image below, the walls are tinted purple, and the floor tiles are tinted green and brown for the upper and lower levels.

In addition to using arrow keys to move around the map like a normal roguelike, you also can move around your "Mind Castle" to keep track of the clues and deductions you have made, using a special navigation mode and environment showing a grid of deductions.

Each playthrough of the game will have a different mystery, and there will be a way to choose different difficulty levels for the mystery, ranging from fairly easy and straightforward to mysteries that will take quite a lot of clues to fully deduce.

If I have time, I might add some light combat in there, with some enemies that harry you as you move around the map, just to make it feel more like a traditional roguelike, but I'm considering that low priority, and I'm not sure if I even want it or how to make it thematic.  (Ghosts, maybe?  Rats and spiders?  Goons hired by the murderer to stop your investigation? Spectres of the victims you failed to avenge?)

The game is being developed in straight-up HTML5/CSS/JavaScript, and should be freely playable in standards-compliant browsers.

Been working on the mystery side of things today.  I've made tiles for all the murder weapons and I've got the aspects of the murder discoverable now – for instance, you have to discover the suspects before you can add them to your mind castle to perform deductions on them. If I have time to add it, this will also allow for hidden clues, like murder weapons that have been disposed of to prevent them from being found.

I have a detective's notebook implemented now.  As you gain clues, they will be added to your notebook, and you can flip through them to read them.

You can also carry them with you into the Mind Castle to help you remember exactly what you discovered while you make your deductions in the logic grid.

This is really shaping up to feel pretty great!  I enjoy stalking around the mansion looking for suspects, possible murder weapons, and clues.  Once I get this fleshed out with some actual clues that tie the various pieces together, it's going to be a fu logic puzzle wrapped up in a roguelike shell.  I just hope I can get it all ready in time for the deadline!

Hmm.  Maybe making a logic puzzle roguelike in a game jam wasn't such a great idea.  Testing procedural generation of logic puzzles requires you to solve the logic puzzles over and over again.  Even if you find no problems, it still takes a long time to check that there are no problems!

Spent today trying to get the logic puzzles working the way I want.  It's slow going because testing involves solving the logic puzzles!  But it's coming along nicely, with some fun little embellishments to the way these logic puzzles usually go.

Here's an example of what the "Mind Castle" looks like.  It's a generic logic puzzle grid, where you have to ascertain "cohorts" of suspect/room/weapon/motive.  For instance, if you know that Dr. Salome Fester wanted to steal an heirloom, and the person who wanted to steal the heirloom used a bowie knife, then you know Dr. Salome Fester had a bowie knife.  You fill out the grid using logic and clues, and when the grid is all filled out, you'll know who did what and can solve the murder!

First full playable reached!

Okay, I've got a full game now.  I will officially complete the game.  Now, it's just a function of fleshing out more interesting things in the mansion as I have more time, getting the itch page ready, and submitting the game.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out!  After adding an interface to choose easy/medium/hard difficulty, I just generated a "hard" difficulty mystery and played through an entire game to solve the mystery, and I solved it!  It works well, and the mysteries are challenging but do-able as a fun little logic puzzle.  It turned out great!

Putting some more finishing touches on the game.  It's now got an opening screen where you can select the mystery difficulty, and it's got an end game placard once you've solved the mystery.  I've added some more clue types to add variety to the mysteries.

And it's available for play.  I still have some time tomorrow on my week, so I might add some more features or knock back any bugs that shake out during testing, but the game is fully playable.  https://lonespelunker.itch.io/murder-most-foul

Just under the wire, I pushed out a small update that removes some debugging scaffolding, adds a map of the mansion, and adds the ability to clear your mind castle if you want to start over.  Done!