Major Project 2: Research
In the early stages of our project, while we were still figuring out our ideas we did some research into different media that would assist us in developing our ideas. Below I have separated the inspirations into some that are more generally for the project and my personal inspirations for the project.
Project Inspiration:
The Return of the Obra Dinn (Game): This game is quite influential in the direction of our game as it truly allows the player to actually figure out mysteries on their own. The specific use of the journal and its assistance in figuring out each of the deaths on the Obra Dinn is something that we will adapt for our game as we will implement a journal that contains notes on information the player finds throughout the game. We will also take inspiration on is how you can only guess when you have enough information and how the game never explicitly tells you whether a deduction is correct as we want to implement something similar within our game but not necessarily to the same extent.
Sin City (Film): The visual style used in the movie Sin City is quite similar to the idea we had for our visual style as it also is mainly black and white while highlighting specific colours such as red. This is why we are using this as inspiration for how we can implement the visual style. The usage of highlighting specific colours could be used to draw the player’s attention to important objects and areas in the environment like how in the movie they use the mostly black and white colour scheme to provide emphasis to specific things.
Mafia 2 (Game): Mafia 2 is set in a similar time period to our game idea so the aesthetics of both characters and the environments are good inspiration for how our game could look. It can also serve as inspiration for how some of the character’s could act to match the time period.
Batman Arkham Asylum (Game): Batman Arkham Asylum as a game has multiple things we can draw inspiration from. Although the actual detective parts of the game are quite limited due to that not being a primary focus of the game, the way in which the player examines the environment in certain parts of the game can serve as inspiration for when we look for clues in our project. However, our implementation would be a lot less technological and would make it a lot less obvious. The way in which certain collectables are placed is another bit of inspiration for our gameplay as we aim to hide clues in hidden places. The UI within the game also served as inspiration for how some of our UI could potentially be implemented as it has a very stylised look.
Personal Inspiration:
How to make a good detective game – Game Maker’s Toolkit (YouTube Video): This video is very insightful on how to implement detective mechanics into our project without making it explicitly obvious what the right thing to do is. Using this as inspiration for how we structure our game will allow us to make the player feel like they are actually a detective rather than just being able to guess the correct sequence of events. This video is especially important as a lot of the game inspirations we have handhold the player in some ways with their deductions so keeping this in mind will help us to not help the player along too much.
A Hand with Many Fingers (Game): This game is about the player putting together a conspiracy with the files they can find within an archive. It serves as good inspiration as it utilises an evidence board as a primary mechanic which is something we wish to include in our game. However, the way the player searches through files to uncover clues that may connect to the clues they already have so they are able to make deductions is another thing we can take inspiration from while developing our game.
L.A. Noire (Game): As this game is also a detective game it can serve as good inspiration for how to implement some of our mechanics. The acquisition of clues within the various environments is a good thing to take inspiration from as the player can pick up and examine a variety of objects with some being completely irrelevant. This is good for our game as only being able to interact with the important objects would make it so the player can find the clues pretty easily. The way the player examines the objects is by rotating them or interacting with them in some way to get a clue from them which if implemented into our game would add more player input in the gathering of clues. The dialogue system in L.A. Noire allows the player to question suspects using the relevant clues they have gathered and then choose whether: they think the suspect was telling the truth, they doubt the suspect or if the suspect was telling a lie. The usage of relevant clues is good inspiration for our game but the second part of the dialogue system makes it that most of the time you know you have to question the suspect’s testimony. In our project, we would like to make it less obvious whether the suspects are misleading the player.
References:
Colestia (2020) A Hand With Many Fingers Screenshot [Photograph]. Available online: https://colestia.itch.io/a-hand-with-many-fingers/devlog/121570/new-conspiracy-investigation-game [Accessed 7/12/2022].
Game Maker’s Toolkit (2017) What Makes a Good Detective Game? [Video]. Available online: https://youtu.be/gwV_mA2cv_0 [Accessed 5/12/2022].
inspiraze (2017) Sin City Image [Photograph]. Available online: https://inspiraze.com/post/160377134919/sin-city-screencaps [Accessed 7/12/2022].
Saint Aaron (2015) Batman Arkham Asylum Screenshot [Photograph]. Available online: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=385706635 [Accessed 7/12/2022].
Stuart (2018) L.A. Noire Screenshot [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.thumbculture.co.uk/la-noire-remastered-review [Accessed 7/12/2022].
Wald, H (2020) Mafia 2 Screenshot [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.gamesradar.com/mafia-2-definitive-edition-remaster-is-on-the-way-according-to-a-korean-ratings-board/ [Accessed 7/12/2022].
Webster, A (2018) The Return of the Obra Dinn Screenshot [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/18/17993710/return-of-the-obra-dinn-review-lucas-pope-pc-mac [Accessed 7/12/2022].