Monster Detective Agency by OddballDave

made by OddballDave for LD32 (JAM)

** IMPOTANT: If the game is running slow press 'q' to cycle through the quality settings

There are four murderers on the loose in Monster City. To track them down you must use the best weapon at your disposal, your powers of deduction. But that's not all! Organising these murders is the mysterious Mr Big, and it's your job to take him down too.

INSTRUCTIONS
WASD - Move
MOUSE - Look around
Left Mouse Button - Arrest suspect
To question monsters approach them.
Q - Cycles through the quality settings. Use this if the game runs slow for you.

WHAT'S MISSING
I ran out of time so didn't get to add sound effects. I also wanted more unique monsters for various set pieces. I also wanted to add a lot more detail, especially in the market and homes.

CREDITS
Everything - David Williamson

TOOLS
Unity
ProBuilder
ProGrids
FireAlpaca

SOURCES
Pixar128 Library - Pixar CC-BY-NC
GHOST I - Nine Inch Nails CC-NC-SA

INSPIRATIONS
Bernband - For anyone who has played Bernband this inspiration is probably clear. For those that haven't played it go play it, it's awesome.
Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master - Or real any of those early dungeon crawlers.

CHANGE LOG
Fixed a bug that meant murders sometimes didn't appear. Oops!
Added a quality setting so hopefully people on slower machines can play too.
Optimised it as much as I can. Hopefully it'll run comfortably on the lowest quality setting for most people now.

Enjoy!

Web(Unity Player)	http://gooeyblob.com/ludumdare/ld32/MDA.html
Win(74MB)	http://gooeyblob.com/ludumdare/ld32/mda_win.zip
Mac(46MB)	http://gooeyblob.com/ludumdare/ld32/mda_mac.zip
Lin(46MB)	http://gooeyblob.com/ludumdare/ld32/mda_lin.zip
Post Jam(Unity Player)	http://gooeyblob.com/ludumdare/ld32/postjam/MDA.html
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=11892

Ratings

Coolness	72%	3
Overall(Jam)	3.59	215

Audio(Jam)	3.46	199
Fun(Jam)	3.07	509
Graphics(Jam)	3.66	337
Humor(Jam)	3.16	371
Innovation(Jam)	3.41	300
Mood(Jam)	4.05	40
Theme(Jam)	2.85	834

Feedback

wearehomebound

21. Apr 2015 · 00:30 UTC

Was a fun concept. I eventually felt like it was more like finding a needle in a haystack though. That being said though I did still have fun with it and thought it was a good game. Bigger complaints were I didn't really understand the controls right away and jailed everyone I saw, and then I didn't see the point in a jump.

🎤 OddballDave

21. Apr 2015 · 07:48 UTC

Thanks. I totally agree with all those points. The game mechanics are meant to be just an excuse to explore an interesting space. Given more time I'd have put in a lot more interesting interactions and events. The jump is need to find some of the secrets.

Bananaft

21. Apr 2015 · 08:37 UTC

Well, that's a gem! You sure hit me right in the mood.

Minor complains: It sometimes launches at 4x3, and evidence list is not entirely visible in that aspect ratio. And I wish fps to be higher. Will try on better machine later.

Keep up, great work!

Todd Luke

21. Apr 2015 · 21:42 UTC

i dig the atmosphere and vertical level design. my fps was taking a hit and the mouse wasn't locking to the screen, so it was kind of difficult to navigate. very similar in concept to a jam game i made a while ago that i'm now expanding on, called 24 Killers

TomBoogaart

21. Apr 2015 · 22:48 UTC

runs very slow on my laptop :- (

🎤 OddballDave

22. Apr 2015 · 07:33 UTC

The FPS issue is due to me running out of time before I could optimise things. I'll get round to fixing that in the next few days. I think I can do that within the rules.

@Tom & Todd - Bernband was a big inspiration for this game, and I had 24 Killers in mind whilst making this too. So thanks for playing guys. :)

DarkwindMedia

22. Apr 2015 · 15:47 UTC

A fun concept, but I have difficulty to understand the controls

kyyrma

22. Apr 2015 · 15:50 UTC

Finding the perp ended up being too difficult for me, but I really enjoyed the mood and ambience. It did feel a bit like an imitation of Bernband, but that isn't at all a bad thing.

Also the performance seems to be pretty bad like you mentioned. The second mode (Hitting Q twice) seems to work best, and I'm saying this on a pretty beefy PC.

Traumendes_Madchen

22. Apr 2015 · 16:47 UTC

Aww, I like the idea, the monster thing sounds original...but it's really difficult to navigate and understand the controls X). Too bad because it's an interesting game!

nuprahtor

22. Apr 2015 · 21:03 UTC

"I'm sorry, T.J. I accidentally jailed you a couple of times and haven't even realise it"
I can see this as a big project. For such short amount of time this is a really fascinating prototype. The graphics and the audio are just great.

Chris Olsen

23. Apr 2015 · 08:58 UTC

The fps made things a bit difficult to get around and the cursor kept drifting out of the window space but I did dig the ominous mood and the music.

xplicitone

23. Apr 2015 · 21:09 UTC

Well done! Love the graphics and audio. Concept was great and so was the mood!

trappytrap92

23. Apr 2015 · 21:19 UTC

Nice concept, I like the detective style you've got here. I don't see a problem in the fps but maybe if you remove like 1000k mobs the game should be less frustrating and you should have more fps instead. I really like the graphics, nice work

TheMeorch

23. Apr 2015 · 21:21 UTC

Beautiful music, and a really cool art style! The main mechanic is really neat and unique.

Having SO many characters in the game ends up hurting it in 2 ways, I think. (1) They very quickly all start "having no clue", since there are so many more characters than clues to get. (2) Finding the murderer eventually becomes a bit of a tedious search.

That said, with some tweaks to the clue-finding and character placement, this could be even more enjoyable than it already is. I hope you'll continue to work on it, thanks for sharing it!

kunzbe

23. Apr 2015 · 21:49 UTC

Really an atmospheric entry. The beautiful music and the alternative graphical style set a good mood.
The gameplay itself wasn't really interesting after a while.

ChronusZ

25. Apr 2015 · 16:53 UTC

Great attention to detail with the level design, but I would have liked more "logical" placement of the criminals. I was thinking to myself that they had to be hiding in the most crowded spot, the bar. But then they weren't (I think...) :-(

mike.cullingham

25. Apr 2015 · 18:37 UTC

Interesting little game. I enjoyed hunting down the first suspect, but the basic nature of crossing off identifying features doesn't lead itself to much replay value. Still, I did enjoy myself.

funisfun8

25. Apr 2015 · 19:08 UTC

Not bad! Couldn't find Mr. Big so I just arrested T.J. :P I feel like the game world might have been a bit too big for the mechanics. It also would've been nice if gathering information involved a bit more than walk up and walk away. Overall though, good experience, good mood, and a solid game.

Mase

26. Apr 2015 · 22:38 UTC

The environment is wonderful. I love the all the superfluous detail.
The detective work does get boring after the first arrest; I found everything except the secret passage before then.
I arrested Mr. Big... I suppose that's the end?

Great work.

Nanolotl

27. Apr 2015 · 12:04 UTC

What a great game. Cool idea and executed well with a really strong atmosphere. I really enjoyed wondering around this world you made. Well done.

phi6

27. Apr 2015 · 17:21 UTC

This is ridiculous, one second I thought I had questioned everyone, step into a room and boom about 200 more mobs to search through! Haha :P

Love the graphics and atmosphere, pretty creepy stuff. The level was much bigger than I first imagined. I think I got the first perp - is there anything that tells you you were successful?

Either way really enjoyed this mate! Top marks from me :)

waveformmodulations

27. Apr 2015 · 22:59 UTC

Liked all the little details like the rats and little stuff in the corners, was determined to solve the case... And i did

igoramendola

02. May 2015 · 16:51 UTC

Yeah! Our entries have a similar concept and was a pleasant surprise for me too. I enjoyed playing yours :)) I've finished the both versions, Jam and Post-Jam. Your entry has some things that I wanted to do, but I hadn't enough time hehehe (like different rooms). I liked your entry, it has good details. Very nice job! :D

Crowbeak

07. May 2015 · 10:18 UTC

It's a good idea... but there were waaaaaaaaaaay too many monsters and when I saw how many more places there were to search on the second murder I just closed the game.

dyfer

09. May 2015 · 00:15 UTC

like the atmosphere

Xanjos

11. May 2015 · 18:42 UTC

Interesting concept (I think you should try and port this as a VR game) but there's probably too many monsters to profile and I wish there was a way of knowing if you got the right suspect (like an audio cue of some sort).