itch.io

For now, the record keepers edge turns into a button that you can press. I'll make that more intuitive soon.

Duly noted! I'll be making the UI more intuitive and will be adding some tooltips as well

Thank you for the reply! I just wanted to let you know that I'm converting this discussion forum into a "comments section", and because of that, your post will not be visible anymore :( Sorry, I'm new to itch.io so I wasn't sure which format was better in the beginning. But feel free to post again in the new comments section!

Thank you for the enthusiasm, it really does motivate me to get the procedural generation done!

The Daily Murder is a quick, daily whodunnit murder mystery where you talk to suspects, witnesses, and your own CSI team to gather evidence, spot discrepancies, and finally accuse the murderer, and specify the weapon and motive.

Its free, browser-based, and its mobile optimized for a quick 10-30 minute casual gameplay on your phone. But its also supports desktop and tablet layouts too. No download required, 

I'd love to get your feedback on it!

Itch page: https://phaddius.itch.io/the-daily-murder

Demo video:

I thought it'd be useful for anyone giving feedback to know what's in store in the upcoming months, so here's a rough roadmap of things I still need to get working, in rough order of priority. I would love feedback on it!

What's already working:

• You can ask any character about any topic, including other characters, and even about themselves.
• Characters will reveal new topics, that you can click on to add to your "dialogue inventory".
• You have access to a team of crime scene experts:
  • Forensics Expert, whom you can ask about physical evidence
  • Medical Examiner, whom you can ask about the victim and the cause of death, and possible murder weapons
  • Records Keeper, whom you can ask about criminal histories, relevant current events, and documents
• When you are ready, you can accuse the murderer, but you'll also need to specify the murder weapon and the motive.
• If you are unsatisfied with your results, you can undo the accusation and resume playing.

What I'm working on right now:

• Help system. You can ask each of your CSI teammates for help, and they will give you some clues on how to proceed. They might give you a general tip, or hint at characters you need to talk to more, or topics you need to ask more about.
• A better UI for landscape & desktop mode, with the split happening horizontally

Whats on the roadmap

• Procedural generation of different murder mysteries: any character can possibly be the murderer, with their own unique motive. Different locations, different cast of characters, motives, causes of death, evidence items, etc.
  
• Red Herrings. Characters with motives who might be the murderer, but who you discover are not, and with an interesting reason why they were being so suspicious.
• Catching lies, probable cause, and warrants. If you can catch someone with a lie, you can then have probable cause to get a warrant to search them or their property, revealing more damning (or possibly exonerating) evidence.
• Difficulty levels. I like the NYTimes Crossword approach: easier mysteries earlier in the week, harder ones later.
• Better art. I have just placeholder art right now for each character. I'd like to commission some artists to draw better character profiles.
• More complicated relationships and dynamics between persons of interest, ranging between hatred, apathy, jealousy, obsession, etc
• Better UI? Its pretty basic right now, but maybe its good enough? Would love your feedback on it.
• The ability to create a new murder mystery daily.

Welcome detectives! I am working on an engine that can procedurally generate  an endless supply of murder mysteries. While I develop the procedural generator, I'd like to prototype the game's actual UI and mechanics, and get feedback on it. After all, the game mechanics will dictate the complicated interconnections I have to manage when generating new mysteries.

I'd eventually like to have mysteries truly dynamically generated eventually, but that's pretty ambitious. So for my prototype, I've settled on it being generated daily, hence the name of the title. And for now, its not even daily. There's just one :) 

I would love to get your feedback on this particular mystery, let me know how you like it, where you got confused, and what you think can be improved. Feel free to reply below, or start a new thread.