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[jotapeh]

First things first, PLAY HERE:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/jotapeh/dr-precarious-case-of-the-deadly-party

Second: This is a Murder Mystery type of game. You play as Dr. Precarious and attempt to determine which of the people attending your lovely party is a murderer. Inspect the patrons, assess them to your liking, and then make an accusation of one of them. Every guess you make incorrectly will result in the horrific death of a partygoer.

Feedback is appreciated (that's why this is here!) In particular:

- Do you feel like we missed anything obvious/simple (in design, presentation, gameplay?)
- Do you enjoy the core mechanic? Is the game fun?
- Do you feel it is too difficult even on the easiest setting? Do you feel the Precarious difficulty is difficult enough or too easy?

Cheers everyone, looking forward to replies

[JarMustard]

K, I'll give some feedback (since that's what this forum is for)

The core mechanic of requiring a guess to get a clue, means the game essentially is just a game of guessing.  (Playing on easy)
Sorry if i'm mistaken, but it seemed like a person becomes innocent (halo) if they are falsely accused or if a clue clearly proves they're innocent.  This makes it even more clear that the player doesn't have to think or do anything other than accuse a person who doesn't have a halo.

This doesn't necessarily have to be a BAD thing.  I can picture it being somewhat satisfying if you made incorrectly guessing more rewarding.  For example, if the environment was more interesting (like in a mansion) with each person looking like they were in a party (some chatting, some eating, some sitting).  If each death was unique (chandelier dropped on one person, someone else poisoned), a simple guessing game could be fun if you are curious about each death.


Another issue for me was that the controls were unnatural.  There was no mention that arrows moved you, WASD couldn't be used, and clicking (which is often how you navigate in flash games) had no function. 


Cute game, but it could use some refinement

Keep on creating!

[jotapeh]

Hey JarMustard, thanks for the feedback.

Yep, the Halos appear on everyone who is proven innocent by the clues only in Easy mode.
In Normal mode, they only appear on people you have directly accused.
Hard & Precarious mode do not keep track of anyone for you, so it's a real challenge.

I'll try to work in some ways to communicate this to the player, although I despise lengthy help screens and I feel ours is too verbose already

We are definitely going to work in more deaths, as well as a narrative to begin the game.

Thanks again for taking the time to play and giving such lengthy feedback, it really helps.

[Fyren]

This seemed kind of like a single player version of Guess Who, I guess.  I played on precarious and 20-something people survived.  Seems impossible to actually fail and if the number given is a score, it seems mostly luck.  You can try guessing a certain way to hope to get certain hints that would eliminate the most people, I suppose.

I think I would have preferred an all mouse interface and speeding accusations up a lot (or just being able to skip the little scene it plays).  I don't really know what I'd change to make me want to play this more than once or twice since it's pretty shallow, but I guess a casual Flash game was your goal.

[jotapeh]

Thanks Fyren. Yes, it's a somewhat shallow Flash game, though we've considered more interesting sequels building on the same mechanic, where each guest would be unique and there would be 'observers' such as a band, a bartender, etc.. which you could garner clues from without the penalty of someone dying every time.

The clue is always something about the accused that differs them from the murderer, so you can calculate your guesses.

We addressed several issues that were mentioned. Precarious mode is much, much harder (the room is chock full of people.) Easy mode is now labeled 'Practice' mode and almost no stats are tracked when you play it. Skipping cutscenes can be done by holding the 'Z' key to speed through them. There are a few little touches that make it more novel to play, such as slightly more amusing expressions from the patrons.

We'd like to add more - but I think we'll let it sit for now and move on to another game.

[Cosr]

I played on Precarious mode and was disappointed that it was really nothing more than 'Guess Who'. Admittedly, though, what you have is fine; a more in depth murder mystery would be far more ambitious and difficult to make. This just wasn't something that particularly grabbed me, though. I suppose what I'm saying is it's just not my sort of game, so don't take this criticism too harsh.

Even on Precarious difficulty it didn't feel like there was any real challenge. Particularly with the notebook automatically tracking clues for the player, and the simple nature of said clues, I found that beating the game was simply a matter of not being colour blind.

It also sort of rubbed me that the first murder didn't happen until after I had falsely accused someone of murder. Almost as if I triggered the murders myself by randomly decrying someone a murderer. I suppose here I'm just reading too much into a simple game though.

[jotapeh]

Hey Cosr. Thanks for playing.

Yes, the game is pretty shallow. We just wanted to come up with a solid mechanic and pump it out in 48 hours. This game was made almost entirely at TOJam, so please excuse the brevity of the experience.

Recently I was pointed to the lovely treasure trove of Three Hundred Game Mechanics, and really this mechanic in particular is the game we should have made. I'm going to be dead honest and say that I don't believe I could have come up with a such a neat way of doing it as Squidi outlines, but certainly after having made this game and having read that article I think we could make something much more interesting in the future. Maybe a sequel or something..

Again thanks for playing and here's hoping our next game tickles your fancy a little more

[Cosr]

Certainly, it's understandable that a 48 hour game doesn't have a bit more depth.

That systemic generation for murders is definitely intriguing. Playing around with that sort of system would be a good way to create dynamic, yet more, I suppose, natural and believable, murder mysteries. I would wager that something like that might have been rather overambitious for a 48 hour period, though.