Murder Diary | Myserty, Ace-Attorney style game

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

So I've always wanted to create a mystery game and nows the chance! I would like you all to here the pitch!

 

 

In this game, you play as young Takaya (Name most likely will change or depend on player), a high school student who loves video games, anime, food, and sleeping, though he does like a good mystery novel every once in a while. He had been offered a spot in a hard to get into course: Investigation 101. On his way, he finds a strange journal on the ground. It had a title written in what looked like chalk which read "Murder Diary". During his class, before he got to write inside, the book wrote itself. The sentence told Takaya that a murder was going to take place that night. That exact night, a sudden news story appeared on TV, saying a body had been mutilated. Takaya brings the journal to his Investigation 101 teacher in private. After a while of thought, the teacher puts Takaya in the student Investigation team (the name will be made later). Though at first they don't believe him about the book, they accept him. The second sentence appears: "Takaya and Company! A murder will take place on Friday night, at the High Society Dinner."

 

/\/\/\/\

 

The gameplay will work like this. You are brought to a location to investigate what you can and in hopes, prevent the murder (though most cases, you don't make it). You can go to locations nearby as well, for farther investigation. Evidence will be put into the Diary, either as written evidence or suspects names. You can also collect physical evidence. While everyone around you and the team aren't aware of the murder, your team will be on the look-out and can even gives hints.

 

After a certain amount of evidence has been gathered and the available suspects have been written down, the murder will happen. Using the new evidence, you need to narrow down to the 3 most likely suspects. Afterwards, you take each into negotiation. This where the battle system takes place. Takaya is given options: Question, Present Evidence, or Claim. Question allows you to question the suspect about any piece of the written things you have. Present Evidence allows you to show evidence to the suspect and see how they react. After you think you have found a connection, you can use Claim. You select the evidence that matches and go into "Break-Through Mode". In this, Takaya constantly sends theories and facts to the suspect. The player can choose ones to use as attacks. Each option has different affects: Some may harm the suspect, some may harm yourself, some also may be neutral. You may wonder what I mean by 'harm'? Well, Takaya and the Suspect are both given a 'Sanity' bar. You goal is to make Suspect crack under the pressure by questioning and using evidence. If your Sanity hits 0, Takaya breaks under the pressure, losing the battle. With enough of these, The player gets to hit the big button: "I know who did it!". With that claim, the Diary will finally react, showing a 'recording' of the murder taking place. After a cutscene, with the murderer being arrested, the team head back to the school room.

 

The player can also find extra evidence, that if all are collected, a 'True Final' chapter will take place. This will be the hardest case, to put the story of the Murder Diary to full rest, learning of its origins and why it was created. This will also be the last thing I work on in the project. ^^"

 

/\/\/\/\

 

I hope to get enough people to help me with this project! I really hope I can make this a reality! If you would like to support this project or even become part of SacredCrow Productions for it, please pm me or post something below!

 

 

EDIT: Ok, footnote here... THIS IS NOT A DEBATE TOPIC! GO TALK ABOUT OTHER BS SOMEWHERE ELSE

Edited November 12, 2013 by CrowTheAlmighty

[magic2345 252]

Wow you thought really hard about the gameplay! Since I love mysteries like these (reminds me of Ace Attorney, or even Umineko no Naku Koroni), I fully support this idea! But, in the story department, I don't really have any ideas to give because I suck at making mysteries.

 

I do have a few questions though,

1. For the "battle" between the suspect and the player, will you be using the RPG battlesystem?

2. Do you get to narrow down the suspects yourself? Or is it just part of the story?

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

Wow you thought really hard about the gameplay! Since I love mysteries like these (reminds me of Ace Attorney, or even Umineko no Naku Koroni), I fully support this idea! But, in the story department, I don't really have any ideas to give because I suck at making mysteries.

 

I do have a few questions though,

1. For the "battle" between the suspect and the player, will you be using the RPG battlesystem?

2. Do you get to narrow down the suspects yourself? Or is it just part of the story?

Thank you so much

 

1. I will most likely use different one

2. There are always the same 3 for each case for any gameplay.

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Ahhh, this one! (I had to check the author of this post because this sounded familiar...)

I like the idea soo much. Having it play out in this way is a very well-thought idea, and I like the fact that you can't always stop the murder. After all, no one's invincible. However, most of the time you don't make it? D': That's sad...

So if they don't find all parts of the secret evidence, they don't get to figure out how the murder diary came about? (Just wanted to clarify.)

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

Yeah, I hoped you find this!

 

If you dont it all, it just stops at the last chapter. You can play through again and try to find them

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Ah, I see.

Another question. Are all the people behind these murders the same person, or part of the same organization or something? Just because horrible murders don't pop up in the same area every few days.

This reminds me so much of the Mystery Room I'm starting to have visions of Prof >.<

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

That's all revealed in the True Last chapter

[Bunni89 85]

I. LOVE. THIS. Please please please make it, it'd be so much fun! And if you need any help, feel free to ask me :3

The argumentative battle system sounds amazing! Kinda reminds me of Dangan Ronpa, which did murder investigation debates as a shooter game.

Just a few thoughts tho...

 

First off, the opening of "finds a mysterious book on the ground during school" is pretty much exactly how the manga Death Note starts. And while the magic book there is similarly named it pretty much does the exact opposite! So it might be good to change the opening a little so that nobody accidentely mistakes this for a Death Note fangame or an unoriginal copy or something.

Easy fix- just make him find the book somewhere else or in a different way. Like instead of on the floor in the school, it magically appears in his desk/locker. Or he finds it on the pavement outside his house.

It's just a very strange and unfortunate coincidence and it'd suck if it tainted people's perception of the game.

 

Secondly... why is the game about solving the murders after they happen, if the book shows you them before they happen? Couldn't it instead be about stopping the murders in the first place? If the book can't allow him to mess with fate or whatever, then wouldn't it be easier to say it tells him that a murder has just taken place, or is taking place right now? Something where it's impossible to stop it, but you're still the first one on the scene and can do all your investigation without the police interrupting. I dunno, I'd just be very frustrated as a player if I got to the scene early every time and every time I couldn't stop the murder... I'd probably restart over and over again and never realize that there's no way to prevent it from happening.

[+ Novem 344]

I really like this game idea! But with murder being a central element, it seems kind of... implausible... that a team of high school students is allowed to traipse around murder scenes and such. And it is even more implausible that the teacher wouldn't bring this book to the police, who have the resources to prevent the murders far more then said group of high school students.

 

I also don't think it makes much sense to slot main character directly onto the investigation team just because he brings the book to the teacher. Shouldn't he prove that he has some ability at the work before being inducted onto the team?

 

Maybe you should make the characters adults? In my opinion there are too many games on this site (mine included) where the protagonist is a teenager/young adult, haha

 

Whatever you decide, just wanted to point these things out. There are some other options! I can list what I can think of if you want...

 

I really do like this idea however. The Phoenix Wright games are a whole lot of fun.

 

Also I think a nameless, gender-less, protagonist would be best. The option to choose your gender for this game, as well as your name, would make the experience a lot more immersive IMO. Maybe you can even make this sort of a fusion of the LA Noire and Ace Attorney gameplay styles, where your decisions can affect the outcome of the case. After all the Ace Attorney games are rather linear, and nothing you do can really change the outcome of the case.

 

By the way... I think your avatar is dramatically appropriate for this kind of project. All I can think of looking at that is... "OBJECTION!"

 

One thing I do object to is the last chapter being locked until you've gotten all of this "collectable evidence". Some people won't want to do this, and in my opinion the ending is paramount to any experience. And having to scour cases you've already completed for evidence you may or may not even care about just to unlock that ending sounds extremely frustrating, and I probably would never see this final chapter because forced collecting is so very annoying to me. Especially when collectables are basically supposed to be optional content to explore, instead of being forced into it just to complete the game's story.

 

Also only interviewing the three "most likely" suspects seems a bit unrealistic. In a real investigation, you have to look at all of your angles and all of your evidence, so wouldn't you want to interview all of the suspects in an attempt to construct a more full picture? Pit the suspect's lies against one another to get one to crack? Catch suspects in falsities?

 

The sanity meter though, that's a fantastic idea.

 

And anything that reminds me of Death Note is already awesome in my book!

 

Sorry this post seems so unfocussed, I edited it like 20 times as I came up with new ideas and remembered I forgot to say something, haha

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Does the game tell you you have to find these extra clues to unlock the final true chapter? Because if I didn't know I had to collect them all and I didn't figure out all the secrets and endings and stuff I would be like: "...Is that it?"

(By the way, in your title you spelled "mystery" wrong...)

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

Thanks guys, except obrusine >.>

 

And I know I spelt it wrong

 

And yeah, it'd tell you to collect every piece of evidence you can

[+ Novem 344]

Thanks guys, except obrusine >.>

 

You posted here to get feedback, you got it, that's what this section is for. Just because it's not feedback you like doesn't mean you can be so rude as to be unappreciative of the effort and time put into giving it. It shows a lack of... tactfulness, and as you can probably expect, I feel slightly disrespected.

[Tsarmina 2,612]

@Crow: Please don't be mean to Obrusnine, he did give you tons and tons of feedback (wowz, that post is long!) He showed pros and cons, and I think it was helpful, so please don't be mean

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

I get that its not plausable but is any rpg? All of them have something unrealistic!

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Yeah, sure ^-^ (Unless there's someone out there making a purely realistic RPG....)

My point was just that just that comment doesn't have to make his post unthankful. Unthankful? Un-good? Bad? (Bleargh, words.)

[magic2345 252]

I think what Obrusnine meant was that you need a really good reason for the characters to act that way. Because the thing is, your story is set in the real world (unlike fantasy rpgs) and that means that you need to be very very careful in creating and developing the characters.

[+ Novem 344]

According to him it isn't actually set in the real world, but regardless, this world is obviously more realistically oriented and modern in design. Also, giving no forthwith information to say it wasn't the real world, the only logical assumption to make was that it was. With the world being modern and realistic, with an actual police force (which is indicated by the use of the word arrested), there needs to be a logical explanation for the characters and setting to respond in the way they do. After all, what adult puts children into situations like a murder investigation? That could psychologically scar their impressionable minds, because of that... they simply don't. It is base human instinct to protect what they feel is weak, and to most people, children are the epitome of that.

 

Therefore, there needs to be backstory and history to support the allowance of such situations. What story is there that you can immerse yourself in without at least a shred of believability? If you can't believe the way the characters act, the way the world works, the story crumbles at it's foundations and it becomes increasingly difficult to become immersed in it.

 

A thing to point out, believability is not necessarily influenced by realism, but it is influenced by the plausibility of the situation occurring inside of the given context.

 

Another thing to realize is that, as has happened, people create false truths if lack of context is given. We all made an assumption that this took place in the real world exactly because we weren't given any information to the contrary. Context is extremely important to prevent such assumptions from being made, so it is usually best to avoid these assumptions entirely by providing adequate context and information.

 

After all, the setting is a pretty big thing to leave up in the air without precise clarification as to whether or not it is the real world. Setting is definitely something that can be assumed through tone, and the tone given, mystery and murder, implies grittiness, and through that realism, and through realism, the real world.

[Bunni89 85]

I get what you're saying, but many stories have "kids solve murder mysteries" type plots and they're still successful regardless of realism. I mean, logically you could say it's unrealistic for Phoenix Wright to investigate murders because real lawyers leave that to the police, but the series is still super popular. And that's a story set in a realistic setting. Knowing that something wouldn't work in real life doesn't necessarily make the story less enjoyable for everyone, personally I'd find stories less enjoyable if they were always 100% realistic.

I figure we need to occupy the space in between total ridiculousness and total nonfiction. I mean, its a story with a magic book. It'd be offputting if it was completely super realistic aside from the magic book, like how Ace Attourney wouldn't be so successful if everyone in the story was serious and normal instead of wacky!

Though I do think you raise a good point to think about, and Crow was quite rude about it. Even if he felt that your advice wasn't useful for his idea, there's no need to act impolitely. He could've just said "Thanks but my story isn't meant to be overly realistic" rather than taking it as an attack o.O

 

Perhaps a possibility for removing the unrealisticness while keeping the plot... maybe just make it that it's a group of students solving mysteries without teachers getting involved? Or maybe characterize the teacher who got involved, so that it seems fitting that they wouldn't just go to the police? Maybe that guy distrusts the police for some reason? Or he's a bit of a slacker at his job and doesn't care all that much about child safety? Or perhaps the hero saves his life and proves that he's able to handle cases like this?

[+ Novem 344]

Actually, Lawyers do collect evidence and scout leads, just in a reduced capacity to act.

 

I think the best example I can make it comparing the American Legal System to the English one. In England, when you hire an attorney you're actually hiring too people. A Solicitor, who collects evidence to present in court, and a Barrister, who actually defends the person in the courtroom. The American Lawyer meanwhile takes on both responsibilities.

 

I won't say Phoenix Wright is an accurate representation of the legal system (it isn't, there's no jury after all), but it does get enough across that it feels realistic and believable. And the police do act the way they are supposed to. For instance, Detective Gumshoe lets too much on, but this is mostly (and I'm pretty sure the game gets this across pretty well) because he's incompetent at his job. This lets Phoenix get away with a lot more then he should be able to. That and sometimes he even commits small crimes (I'm going to "borrow" this) to get to the truth he needs to use in court.

 

What I mean to say is that the game builds up an appropriate context to make the story believable without sacrificing it's charm and appeal, and it never really does much that is so clearly improbable or implausible that it pulls you out of the experience. Especially with it's entertaining and eccentric cast, well structured cases, and tense legal conflicts.

 

A good example of how it handles this context so well is how it tells you in a blurb early in the game about how cases need to reach a verdict within three days and that most cases really only take one. Unrealistic, sure, but not so much that it breaks the experience, and it gives an explanation for why Phoenix is always in such a hurry to collect evidence and such.

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

Please go debate on other stuff somewhere else please

[IMEmperor 12]

I won't say Phoenix Wright is an accurate representation of the legal system (it isn't, there's no jury after all), but it does get enough across that it feels realistic and believable. And the police do act the way they are supposed to.

 

 

Actually in the very first case of the very first game, they've already established the premise that it isn't accurate at all. It's set in the near future where there's so much crime that the system is overburdened, leading to speedy trials that rarely exceeds 3 days. In real life, trials can take at minimum 6 months from discovery to sentencing. It's like calling CSI:Miami an accurate representation of crime scene investigation. It's not even close.

 

Frankly, we are making games, not simulations of real life. A game is supposed to suspend belief so that the players can enjoy the immersion of a great story. There hasn't been a single game released in the history of the gaming industry that is 100% portrayal of real life--simply because it's too boring. The real life CaoCao didn't singlehandedly killed 1,000 troops while sieging, unlike Dynasty Warrior. No real life thugs can get away with half the stuff you do in GTA. And you don't turn charming just by drinking coffee as the main character does in Persona 3.

[CrowTheAlmighty 27]

 

 

I won't say Phoenix Wright is an accurate representation of the legal system (it isn't, there's no jury after all), but it does get enough across that it feels realistic and believable. And the police do act the way they are supposed to.

 

Actually in the very first case of the very first game, they've already established the premise that it isn't accurate at all. It's set in the near future where there's so much crime that the system is overburdened, leading to speedy trials that rarely exceeds 3 days. In real life, trials can take at minimum 6 months from discovery to sentencing. It's like calling CSI:Miami an accurate representation of crime scene investigation. It's not even close.

 

Frankly, we are making games, not simulations of real life. A game is supposed to suspend belief so that the players can enjoy the immersion of a great story. There hasn't been a single game released in the history of the gaming industry that is 100% portrayal of real life--simply because it's too boring. The real life CaoCao didn't singlehandedly killed 1,000 troops while sieging, unlike Dynasty Warrior. No real life thugs can get away with half the stuff you do in GTA. And you don't turn charming just by drinking coffee as the main character does in Persona 3.

SOMEONE GETS IT!

[+ Novem 344]

Completely missed the point.

 

Believability is the issue, not realism.

[Cait 385]

...

Edited November 12, 2013 by Cait

[IMEmperor 12]

I fail to see the part that's unbelievable. Is it the murder book? Or perhaps the mascot? Or juveniles solving crimes?