Devlog 5
I mentioned in the last devlog that you can interview the drawing girl. The concept is that, after she drew all the pictures, she was sent to the hospital. As a detective it is part of your duty to talk to her and confirm the information you got from your investigation. However, dealing with a woman who suffered from a mental breakdown is not easy. Here’s how the game allows you to interact with her.
The goal of the interview is to confirm the information you have gathered during your investigation. It’s best to know what you are talking about before starting the interview so you don’t ask questions containing wrong or missing information. When the interrogation starts, the girl is in a bad mood and closed to all discussion.
From there, you can select the tone you want to use followed by a topic. Depending on the tone and topic you choose, the girl will react differently and, as her opinion of you changes, her facial expression will change accordingly. The girl’s face is divided in 4 main parts: the eyebrows, the eyes, the nose and the mouth. Each brow and eye are divided in two parts. Whenever there’s a change in her emotions, it changes the way one of these elements are positioned. For instance, if she’s mad, she will be frowning, staring at you, and clenching and showing her teeth. If you tell her something that pleases her, she might loosen up her mouth but still frown. If you say something else that she likes, she might stop looking at you and look sad rather than angry. Dividing the face in different parts, I can make many facial expressions.
By using the right questions, you can make her feel better about herself...
...or much worst...
... or just plain hate you. The girl has two main traits that dictates how her face changes. The first one is her comfort and the second is her trust in you. When asking questions, the tones and topics you use will affect either one or both of these traits and push her to respond accordingly. The four tones available to use are: Friendly, Reassuring, Neutral and Aggressive.
- Friendly : This tone is used to make the character feel better about her. The questions direct her opinion toward how she feels, complimenting her skills and talking about stuff she enjoys, such as her hobbies and favourite food.
- Reassuring: This tone is used to tell the girl how much you will help her and how everything is going to be fine if she helps. Contrary to the friendly tone, the reassuring tone is about your relationship with the girl much more than how she feels.
- Neutral: You guessed it! This tone is all about neutrality. It’s the best tone to get the cold hard facts out of her mouth. All the questions are straight the point.
- Aggressive: Sometimes, just asking questions and trying to be the good guy ain’t gonna be enough to make her talk. The girl is in shock and lost contact with reality. The aggressive tone covers questions and comments that will shake up, such as saying that her lack of cooperation makes her an accomplice or implying that she is the culprit. The questions and comments are not necessarily always personal attacks though. For example, an aggressive comment might be that you’ll find the suspect and give him what he deserves or that she needs to snap out of it or the victim will not rest in peace.
You have to be careful not to fall in excess of one particular tone. Being very aggressive may lead her to close and get angry. Being too friendly and reassuring might make her feel like you are trying to manipulate her. Only a neutral tone makes you feel like you don’t feel any emotions.
The topics you choose also affect how she will react. Certain topics makes her feel good about herself, others make her remember what happened. There are four topics, each containing a set of questions covering sub-topics: The drawing girl, the suspect, the victim and the event.
- Drawing Girl (her) : Talking about the girl involves asking questions about herself and what she did before the events. It also takes in consideration her hobbies, job and favourite food. When talking about her, the drawing girl will feel better since she is thinking of the good times she had.
- Victim: Talking about the victim is a double-edged sword. Certain questions makes the girl feel better, others make her feel worst. The selected tone in this topic is quite important. For example, taking a friendly tone when talking about the activities she shared with the victim will make her feel much better. When talking about how the victim died, it’s best to take an aggressive approach to talk about how the crime has to be punished.
- Suspect: The suspect is a touchy topic since the girl hates the character. Aggressive and neutral tones are best if you want to get facts out of the girl and not too much hate. For instance, being aggressive concerning the suspect makes the girl talk but she is more likely to tell you that she hates the suspect guts than information you need.
- Event: The event covers all that has to do with what the girl was doing before the event, how she came to witness it, how it unfolded and what she did afterward. To get as much information from the girl as possible when talking about the event, it’s best to use all tones since it is the most sensible topic.
Whenever you ask a question, the question is removed from the list. You can leave at anytime and come back as many time as you want if you need to double-check something in the drawings. Once you have all the information you need, you’re done with the interview.
Of course, this mode is possible if we assume that the girl is alive.
Thanks for reading!
Developer
