On a rainy night back in 19XX, the Great Culinary Exhibition kicked off with a bang, celebrating the city and its grub.
But wouldn't you know it, just a few hours later, the big shot sponsor of the whole shindig was found cold as a cucumber in his room...
This here's only my second go at a game jam, cooked up with the help of the super-talented artist Hai Lam Dang, the musical maestro Jonas, and the code-slinger Anton, all for the 4th Hannover Game Jam. The theme was "Trade Fair" or "Exhibition," and we had just under 46 hours to whip something up. Seven other teams were in the mix, but wouldn't you know it, the judges crowned our game the champ of the whole shebang.
Brainstormin'
Like most game jams, we had an hour to chew over some ideas. My first thought was a top-down management game where you set up booths at a fairground to guide folks through the best route. But Jonas said that sounded duller than dishwater, and I had to admit, he had a point.
Our next notion revolved around them never-ending lines you always see at fairs. We figured it'd be a hoot to make a game about dodgin' the line - either sneakily slippin' past or hackin' and slashin' your way through. But we realized a stealth game about waiting in line would likely be even duller than the management sim. And the hack-and-slash idea? Well, that'd be a far cry from the whole line-waiting vibe...
We were strugglin' to cook up fun ideas, so that hour slipped away without a clear goal. Thankfully, after the brainstormin' session, all the other groups with ideas pitched 'em to snag folks who were still brainstormin'. Hai and Anton pitched their idea for a murder mystery game in the style of Ace Attorney, set at a trade fair. That sounded downright intriguing, so we hopped on board quick!
Flair
What really makes our game stand out is its slick black and white noir style. We toyed around with addin' some neon lights for a splash of color, but in the end, we figured we didn't have time for fancy background art. Actually, we didn't have any time for background art at all, so we dropped 9 bucks on some stock assets. Anton grayed 'em out and added a breeze effect to the trees, and I reckon it turned out pretty darn good!
I also wanted a way for players to keep track of their progress in the story, in case they weren't payin' perfect attention during the gabbin' or forgot somethin' from 20 minutes back. Takin' a cue from AI: The Somnium Files, where the main character keeps track of folks and events in a ring binder, I decided to add a notebook for Detective Pierce to jot down notes about characters and discoveries during the point-and-click part. 'Cause in playtestin', it turned out some players weren't catchin' on that you could scroll through the notebook with A and D, so I tossed in a cover page remindin' 'em to give it a try. And while I was at it, I tucked in a back page with the game's credits as a little Easter egg.
The Opening Cutscene
Ain't there a sayin' 'bout how a good idea solves one problem, but a great idea takes care of a whole mess of 'em? Well, I'm mighty proud of the openin' cutscene in our game, so let me spill the beans on that.
On the second day, we figured we needed some kind of title screen, but I thought a plain ol' title screen in a separate scene was too ho-hum. Instead, I pitched an openin' cutscene showin' the Detective strollin' onto the crime scene. Turns out, it was a stroke of genius 'cause it killed not one, not two, not three, but four birds with one stone!- It serves as a title screen
- It's a title screen all right
- The Detective's jaunt across the left side of the crime scene introduces the player to the whole game world
- The game's style and vibe are its main sellin' points, and this intro cutscene serves up 20 seconds where the player can't move but can soak in the sights and sounds
- Soon as the player saunters up to Inspector Alonzo, the "E" tooltip pops up, so it's a tutorial on how to start chattin'.