The Gallery Mystery

Detective Game

-- There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

Summary

This is a game about a mystery in a gallery. The player will become a detective, search evidence to explore the possibilities of the criminal's actions in different space. The player can switch between the reality mode and the meditation mode, and reconstruct the whole crime.

Role

Game designer, Programmer (Team size: 4)

• Designed and constructed the game's framework, overseeing programming for player inventory, UI, graphics, and audio.
• Collaborated with designers and artists for extensive game testing, utilizing tools like Trello API and Excel for bug reports and rapid iteration.

Design Goal

This is a game that players being a detective and solve the case by themselves. Not only he is going to answer "Who-done-it" but also the question "When-and-How" he did it and "Why". The game is designed to provide the player with information and guidance consistent with gameplay, to create the experience of being a detective.

Creative Challenges

Core Loop

The first prototype was a top-down view detective experience with the quest and dialogue system. In the later versions, we came up with a 3D node system that correspond with the real space, to visualize the information in a intuitive way.

We tried this concept, however, we found the following problems from players' feedback:

• First, it failed to deliver the expected experience, causing frustration when there were too many clues.
• Also, from the technical aspect, it brought up new constraints and difficulties to the development.

Solution

After several iterations, we finally decided the direction:

• Abandon the node system but keep the concept in a simpler way
• Use visuals and shaders to enhance the experience

We used visuals and shaders to enhance the experience which we found were helpful during playtests. The followings are the earlier and the later version.

Environment Design