Alright, just finished my first playthrough, and this mystery was very interesting. I think ultimately, it made sense. I was totally off on the solution, but in hindsight there are clues I totally missed and didn’t think about, like how Francois is just a nickname, which would make the phone call to the Golden Dragon suspect, or the fact that Arthur had a falling out with Rosa, which in retrospect I don’t understand why I missed it; that whole fiasco seems like it would’ve been a huge thing to look into! I think I may have just been on the wrong track and fell for the red herrings, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem–every good mystery has red herrings littered about.
Oh, and something I noticed about the story that confuses me a bit is that Chief Winters tells the player that the victim died in the early hours of the morning, but later on they’re told by Carlos that the drug use and his anaphylaxis occurred in the evening, so it seems like he would have died then. It’s possible that the whole fiasco could’ve started in the very very late hours of the night and he officially died like, midnight or something, but it would probably be a good idea to be a little more specific when Carlos talks about the time of the whole incident.
One problem I do have is how the solution is found. It felt very unsatisfying, to me at least. The solution is already there and all the player has to do is uncover it and find out whether they are wrong or right. It doesn’t really feel like I came to a conclusion and solved it (although granted, I didn’t solve it, haha); but more so that I have just been observing the interviews and the game is now telling me what happened.
I think one way to help it feel more satisfying is to have something along the lines of a multiple choice quiz, or perhaps one where the player types in their answer, though the latter might be more difficult to code. This way, the player can tell the game who they think did it, how they did it, and why. They’re telling the game what their personal thoughts on the case are, and the game will test it and respond with the real answers. The player has a little more active participation in getting to the truth.
Now ultimately, it’s your decision what to do about this, since it’s your game, and I understand there’s a certain style you’re trying to capture. After all, I’m just one playtester, and naturally I’ll have my own perspective on it. Having more family and friends playtest it if they haven’t already would be a good idea too, to get more perspectives and catch things that I might have missed.
Anyway, I think those are my general thoughts at the current moment. I’ll be doing more playthroughs so I can check out all of the leads, and so I might provide more feedback. In the end, I think it’s a nice game, but it could use some more player participation and agency. Best of luck!
