Detective Custom Story for Amnesia - brainstorm

**Darkfire** · 10-11-2016, 06:24 PM

So I'm considering making another mod. But a short one this time, my previous development (especially mapping) time killed me a few times.

I thought about something out of ordinary- making a detetective story in amnesia. I want it to not only present a story to the player, but give him the quest of solving a case.
The clues and evidence they would or wouldn't find might change the possible outcome and final solution.
Also, I want to implement something like a deduction system, where the player would have to arrange certain clues to solve a problem. Of course there would be possibility of player getting a correct, half-right and completely wrong solution, depending on their reasoning. Player would present their deduction on a display board, perhaps arrange it in a certain order or perhaps even link clues (although this one seems extremally tough to make).

Mementos would be changed into Clues, and would be added upon interacting with certain items etc.

These ideas require a lot of thorough thinking, plenty of scripting, and some new assets.
All this is a clusterfuck of a concept, so I need some creative help and critique.
My questions for you are:
How would you differently present the deduction system ?
How would you present clues different than puzzle items, such as notes (I remind you they are only readable in the notebook after picking up), arrangment of objects on a crime scene, or events in which the hero takes part ?
Besides phone conversations like in ATMFP, how dialogues could be implemented ?
And finally, is this all even possible ? Are these ideas decent enough to put in all the effort and thinking ?

PS. No, I haven't read nor watched Sherlock Holmes. I just think that the Amnesia setting is perfect for a paranormal investigation :3

PPS. Atmosphere ? Think of smooth noir jazz, cigarettes, rainy nights and crime.

**Romulator** · 10-11-2016, 10:19 PM

I had a similar idea at one point.

The player was a detective/Private Eye staying at a motel, and if his services were needed, he'd receive a letter under the door. The player would then investigate various locked-room murder scenes. They'd have a list of suspects to consider as directed in the first contact letter, and would have to deduct it based on evidence they can collect by interacting with the environment (albeit, not moving anything to disturb evidence and for fingerprinting).

What made mine a little more difficult was that you could also be hired for other purposes, such as messing up a crime scene, thievery, bribery, bombmaking, etc. In the case of judging how well of a job the player did, they also received a newspaper at the start of the day (back at the motel room) alongside their letter. Behind the newspaper and more script based, messing up a crime scene used binary values which, if totalled over certain amounts, would dictate an altered outcome.

Doing a better job meant more money, which puts food on the table. More money means the player can use a phone to order furniture, meaning going out for amenities decreases and lessens the possibility of being caught depending on how notorious you were. For example, buying a fridge means refrigerated goods and less shopping.

The way I was to present the deduction however, was somewhat restrictive. The player, at his motel home, would lay out all the evidence collected (which was stored in the inventory) on a table. This of course, just meant SetEntityActive("evidence", true); on preplaced assets, then questions such as "What was the murder weapon?", "Were there any fingerprints?", "What was the motive?" popped up as messages, and you choose from what's on the table.

It is definitely feasible. Just remember you're more likely to end up with a visual novel than a "game", so make an effort on your story, perhaps the murders/crimes eventually lead towards the larger one where you can make use of older case results/evidence?

If you have not already, and you're able, play some Ace Attorney and take note of how investigating works. Or watch a few playthroughs of Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice for the out of courtroom investigation.

My main constraint was the lang file and the newspaper. I know of potential, untested ways to overcome it, but it means a full conversion mod and a fair amount of testing. :3

If you have questions, feel free to ask! Smile

**Darkfire** · 10-14-2016, 12:05 PM

Bump. Sorry for using dirty tricks, I just want a little more feedback. There's not much happening on the forums right now, so I think it's no harm

**Mudbill** · 10-14-2016, 02:03 PM

I really like this idea. As long as it's structually manageable and has a good overview of the whole case so you don't miss important details in the documentation, I think this would be a great challenge to do. I might even want to join in myself.

Just make sure you know what you want to do with each case before you start making it, or else there will be undesirable loopholes/bugs. A lot needs to be accounted for in such a task.

**Radiance** · 10-14-2016, 02:23 PM

(10-11-2016, 06:24 PM)Darkfire Wrote: These ideas require a lot of thorough thinking, plenty of scripting, and some new assets.
All this is a clusterfuck of a concept, so I need some creative help and critique.
My questions for you are:
How would you differently present the deduction system ?
How would you present clues different than puzzle items, such as notes (I remind you they are only readable in the notebook after picking up), arrangment of objects on a crime scene, or events in which the hero takes part ?
Besides phone conversations like in ATMFP, how dialogues could be implemented ?
And finally, is this all even possible ? Are these ideas decent enough to put in all the effort and thinking ?

Detective fantasy fiction is great idea.
The most complex one I've seen is from Sherlock Holmes: Devil's daughter

Spoiler below!

For your idea, I thought about as tree data structure or a mindmap which is basically a tree. As I understand, you would allow player to have different reasoning with the same outcome.
Base item, the root, could branch out to various others which seems logical (to the player). One tree path could be one deduction output.

I could make some assets when combining the clues.
How did you plan to code this?

**Darkfire** · 10-14-2016, 02:51 PM

Nothing solid on mind yet. But it would use a hell lot of variables, putting items on a board and iteracting with writings floating in mid-air (using script areas).
The script would branch into different options (using "if" functions) depending on player's choices (choosing variables).

Btw. I think this should be in episodic format- creating a good case will take time. Moreover, I'd like to do a pilot episode with a very simple case, to see how the concept turns out.

EDIT: I think phone calls would be an awesome feature, but I'm having problems with the machine for pigs entity. Perhaps you have some ideas ? (here's the thread: https://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-25591.html)

**Mudbill** · 10-14-2016, 06:11 PM

I'll look into the phone for ya.

**Darkfire** · 10-14-2016, 07:46 PM

Huge thanks Big Grin

**Mudbill** · 10-14-2016, 09:48 PM

Alright, I have it pretty much working the way I want, I'm just gonna add a few more ease-of-use details and stuff. But first I'm gonna go get piss drunk so I'll probably not finish it today. Peace!

**Mudbill** · 10-15-2016, 12:43 PM

Ok, so I think it's complete. All I need now is for someone to test that it works properly in case it's just specific to my computer and setup. I'll create a thread for it though, cause it has some scripted events that need to be included.

Read and download here:
https://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-52892.html