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[sandfella]

Hi. Long time lurker here. Haven't posted anything here so thought to change that.

Murderville is a murder mystery / 2D pixel art / deduction game prototype



It's early 1900s. You play as a new coroner (medical examiner) that's arrived in the town of Murderwille. You will helping local police officer solve mysterious cases that take place in the town. Gameplay consist of pure deduction. You need to fill the gaps and figure out what whappened & who is the perpetrator. Each case takes place in a limited area and you'll be presented with all the necessary information -- this isn't a pixel hunting game.

Each case shouldn't take too long time to solve (10.... 20 minutes?), but hopefully pleases sherlock fans and alike. The prototype & first case takes place in a forest, near the town of Murderville.



It could be a hunting accident, right?

[illugion]

Nice! I really like the theme! Can't wait to see where you're gonna take this 

[sandfella]

Thanks. Currently working on dialogue code & art:

[Canned Turkey]

Looking really good, but you might want to add a few more frames to the animations. Also, it doesn't look too bad, but no one likes pixel art with multiple resolutions. It looks okay for the portrait, but you should go over the text box, the ground, and the trees to keep the pixel size constant. I'm bringing this up now because they're moderately easy fixes when you this early in development. I'll be waiting for release, i'm a sucker for Sherlock stuff.

[sandfella]

@canned turkey: thanks for the tips. As this is still in early prototyping phase, I won't be adding extra frames to animations. And yeh, will change those trees and ground to proper pixel sizes. That was good to know. I changed the dialogue frame already.

Here's a gif that should give a pretty good idea what to expect about the gameplay.

[Canned Turkey]

Alright then. Looking REALLY good, sort of like the actually fun part of ace attorney.

ONE last thing, even though this is just a prototype, you might want to make the dialog less "gamey" and sound more like real people talking.
"let me try again" = "let me look again" 
"Lets try that inspection again" = "I should look harder"

If you haven't, you should read the old Sherlock Holmes books.
The way Doyle does subtle humor would fit perfectly with how your game is set up.
Stuff like, "How'd you see that"? "Because I was looking for it".

[jctwood]

Looks really intriguing! Looking forward to more.

[tieTYT]

Looks pretty unique, I like the theme.  That "hunting accident" line made me chuckle. 

[mike_w]

I don't know what people who moved to a town called "Murderville" were expecting anyway. It's not named that because of all the crows, okay?

Also, this looks really cool! I like the concept a lot.

[sandfella]

Alright then. Looking REALLY good, sort of like the actually fun part of ace attorney.

Yes, very true. I'm in between whether there will be the possibility to select with whom you are going to talk next. It would give additional way to proceed with the investigation, and  could affect score (if you talk to the correct guy, you get  better score than if you'd talk with somebody who is irrelevant). I want to make sure player will always be solving the next thing on his plate, and not like start to think "now what?" (which happens in puzzle adventure games when you get stuck)

ONE last thing, even though this is just a prototype, you might want to make the dialog less "gamey" and sound more like real people talking.
"let me try again" = "let me look again"
"Lets try that inspection again" = "I should look harder"

Thanks for the tip. Will do. I'm not native English speaking citizen and in Finland we don't speak to anybody (we just grunt and look grumpy) so this will require extra effort from me :D

The first case will also be the "tutorial" that  explains the mechanics, so while there must be "more like real people talking", I try to be really thorough about "what's going to happen next and what player needs to do".

If you haven't, you should read the old Sherlock Holmes books.
The way Doyle does subtle humor would fit perfectly with how your game is set up.
Stuff like, "How'd you see that"? "Because I was looking for it".

I have to do some hunting and learning then: english fiction is not my cup of tea (due grammar -- I can understand perfectly well non-fiction, movies and everything... but for some reason english fiction (books) are tough beasts :D). Ive only watched Sherlock series (old and new).

@jctwood & @tieTYT: thanks!

@mike_w: :D I bet they said "ooh, this sounds spooky! I wonder how the town got its name! so exciting!!". But... this is just a working title. I noticed there's series of "Murderville" books, so very very likely the title will change. I'm not after any lawsuits & trademark wars :D

[sandfella]

Devlog update

This week I've been writing the story and bringing new suspects and possibilities for deduction. This is the "Ace Attorney" style material where you get to deduce bit by bit... and get further with the plot. Additionally, I've started working on the final "reveal the culprit scene", but the writing is not done yet.

Here's one new character, the rich baron:


And his loyal servant, the butler:

[tieTYT]

Yes, very true. I'm in between whether there will be the possibility to select with whom you are going to talk next. It would give additional way to proceed with the investigation, and  could affect score (if you talk to the correct guy, you get  better score than if you'd talk with somebody who is irrelevant).

That would just make me save at the beginning, figure out who's the right person to talk to through trial and error, load from the beginning, and talk directly to the correct guy. 

[sandfella]

Yes, very true. I'm in between whether there will be the possibility to select with whom you are going to talk next. It would give additional way to proceed with the investigation, and  could affect score (if you talk to the correct guy, you get  better score than if you'd talk with somebody who is irrelevant).

That would just make me save at the beginning, figure out who's the right person to talk to through trial and error, load from the beginning, and talk directly to the correct guy. 

That's possible to happen. Now I'm going for a more straightforward (you don't choose who to talk next), although this doesn't really affect the thing you mention.

In Murderville, I'm leaning into doing scoring such way that correct answer gives you points, and faulty answer reduces a point. Of course you can then play second time & go through the whole game and score the highest possible amount... but not sure why'd people bother to do that (it would be purely a memory challenge :D) -- since at that point they've gone through the game, know the murderer (if any), and read the story.

In Murderville, it's the deduction & story that are more important, and "first play score" is actually the only thing that matters and is worth comparing with your buddies.

Hmm, this was actually very useful point from you @tieTYT -- I think the game could save your score only *once*, and an additional play-throughs wouldn't increase your score...

[sandfella]

I've been finalizing the "Digger" scene, where the player gets to deduce whether digger did it or now. That scene is pretty close to done, so this project is coming along pretty nicely.

I've also added music by Kevin Kevin MacLeod

SPOILER'ISH WARNING - NEW CHARACTER & ANIMATION:  
Below you'll find a link to a brief animation including one of the new characters. There's really no spoiler in terms of the mystery/plot... only the new character. I realize I should spoilerize those earlier character posts as well, oh well.

Clik click Digger scene, new suspects GIF