Designing a Cosy Game about a Police Dog for an Indie Game Jam
Having spent a week researching and playing detective games, the following things stand out to be as sources of inspiration:
There are three types of detective games. There are deduction games that test witness' statements against each other to weigh the truth (very similar to cross examination in court, eg games like Ace Attorney.) There are games that give you too much data and ask you to sort out the relevant from the irrelevant. And finally there are deduction games where you're given all the relevant information and asked to draw conclusions. I really loved playing Detective Grimoire, which had a unique way of inputting the 'aha!' moment. Using a kind of 'slot machine visual', it allowed the player to input quite complex conclusions.
[Screenshot of the conclusion input mechanism from Detective Grimoire, a point and click adventure game]
I'd really like to include a similar mechanic into the game that I design.
2. Old Hong Kong police movies. Something about the old khaki green colonial era uniforms, with the absolutely ridiculous woolen knee socks for a 40 degree celsius East Asian summer monsoon. I wanted to design a Hong Kong nostagia game that was cozy and safe feeling, and for me that is my childhood media.
[Acto Andy Lau in a police uniform holiding soy sauce. Can't get more Hong Kong than that.]
3. Cozy games with animals as protagonists. Games like Stray, Untitled Goose Game and Little Kitty, Big City are immensely popular, aren't they! People love playing animals. Combing animals, nostalgia and deduction puzzles = Detective Doggo!
[Not gonna lie -- this image comes from Week 12 of the project but honestly I am so darn proud of the modeling that LY our team's artist has done for the protagonist Sammo the Police dog, named after the brilliant Hong Kong martial artist and actor Sammo Hung]
And so it came to be that I pitched a dog detective game to my team of game developers, the majority of whom voted for this game concept above all others. I won't go into the details of the design here, as this is a blog about the development as a whole, and there's always the Game Design Document to reference for all that. But suffice to say that I loved writing the Game Design Document and it seemed to do a sufficient job at communicating the idea to the team. My major disappointment is that we are not likely to build and implement all of the features that I had envisioned for it. JP our producer was keen to limit the scope to a manageable level. Not and unwise move, but it was a disappointment nonetheless.
Obviously I am thrilled anway and looking forward to seeing my ideas come to fruition!
Learnings:
Preparation is key when preparing a game pitch -- have specifics ready at hand to answer questions. Do not pitch an idea in generalities!
Comments