A Couple of Questions, Volume II: Small Business, Small World by stoogebag
This is a point and click, conversation-based Adventure game based in a small company whose co-owner has mysteriously died. You are the Detective assigned to the case. Is it a case of an ageing party girl who finally popped her clogs, or is something more suspicious going on?
You can find the game at https://stoogebag.itch.io/a-couple-of-questions-ii for now. Source (in the form of unity assets/project settings folders) is there on the page too.
HOW TO PLAY: Runs in the browser (Unity Webgl). It takes a little while to load, so please be patient.
Control the game completely with the mouse. Click an NPC to talk. While talking, select your speech options, or select a clue from your notebook to ask them about it.
I didn't have time to test as much as I'd have liked, though I don't think there are any very serious bugs.
PLEASE REPORT ANY ISSUES TO - stoogebag at gmail dot com; or - twitter @stoogebag
Troubleshooting/known issues: - Sometimes the notebook bugs out populating locations. If this happens, change screens and try again, it usually works.
TOOLS USED: - Unity Engine - VIDE Dialogue Editor (with modifications made during the event) - SavWav script (by darktable) - Audacity - Paint.NET
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/a-couple-of-questions-volume-ii-small-business-small-world |
Ratings
| Overall | 171th | 3.565⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 155th | 3.478⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 400th | 2.739⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 428th | 2.87⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 333th | 3⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 91th | 3.565⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 23th | 4⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 135th | 3.522⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 15🗳️ | 23🗨️ |
The voice acting was a nice touch, I hope you fix the issues you've noted, I'd love to play through the enter thing.
@toestee yes i agree :P
Well done!
Little bug (Web, Chrome on Win10): Sometimes the audio stopped too early or didn't even start (which led to the text disappearing way too fast).
Regarding the graphics, I've been scolded in the past for using public domain material like that in the Compo (fine in the Jam), so though I don't personally have a problem with it, I believe it's against the rules (or at least it _was_, back in LD17).
My only real complaints were A) the way you got kicked out of conversation and had to restart it after each time you asked about something from the notebook, B) the way you never could ask anyone about clues, only about other people, and C) the fact that sometimes there was no "goodby" option (in this case, the fastest way to end the conversation was to exploit A).
Other than that, though, great game. I played it all the way through.
@smbe19 you are able to click through the dialogue, so if you spam the mouse it might skip before you realise (or it might be a bug, but I can't see it. if you have more detail I'd love to fix it)
@philomory i'm not sure to be honest about the art. with the filters and photoshopping i've done, i consider it a derivative work and so i feel morally ok, but i don't really know.
for A), this is a combination of a technical issue and a lack of time, but i more or less agree. B) isn't quite true: some clues you can ask about (for example, you can ask Adriana about her affair). Generally speaking i would have liked to have more responses for clues and people, so that's a valid complaint. There are lots of cases where it would make sense that they should respond, but I ran out of time. C) agree, I will probably add a permanent 'leave conversation' option similar to the notebook option.
This game is very Fun. I've liked your voices and conversations. The notebook is a little bit bugged, sometimes it didn't appear! But this is ok.
Good job!
Very interesting take on the theme aswell. Although one thing that could be made more clear is that the options available to talk about in the notebook should be highlighted but that's just a minor detail. Excellent job!
Not much else to say, it's great as it is. At some point, there was a bug that caused the Small World Agency to appear twice in the notebook, but no biggie. UI-wise I would probably gray out the topics you cannot ask a witness about after clicking the "ask sth from the notebook" option.
Excellent job, I felt Police Quest made a comeback there! <3
CLICKING on the clue or person's name during a conversation will ask them about it IF there is a response. Asking about people is more likely to get results than clues. I will add something that says 'there is no answer' or something so that this issue doesn't come up.
Thanks for the feedback :)
Good job on getting all the art done yourself :P the dialogues sometimes were so bad they were good, and I think that was the idea?
Also good job for doing actual point and click game. I'm not sure if I like your interpretation of the theme or not though.