Murder on the Horizon by Ayxs

made by Ayxs for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

Story:

On a foggy and quiet autumn evening, the board members of a ~~very successful~~ stock trading company reserved restaurant "The Horizon" entirely for their quarterly meeting. Only two restaurant staff where on the premises when the body of CEO Nigel Butcher was discovered in a cave nearby. Murdered in cold blood during the board meeting. All board members are suspects to this very mysterious murder case. It's your job as detective to figure out who murdered Nigel Butcher.

But be quick, the murderer who is still roaming around the premises will try to hinder your investigations.

Objective:

Solve the murder of Nigel Butcher.

Screenshots:

How To Play:

This is a point-and-click game. All interactions will require a pointing on things with your mouse. Below you can find all the important info regarding gameplay:

Tab: Opens and closes the map to travel around the premises.
Mouse: Point and click on objects or characters to interact.
Board Members: Every 10 seconds the board members walk around the map.
The Murderer: The murderer also walks around the map every 10 seconds. However, after a while they will cleanup some evidence to try and hinder your investigation.
Verdict: So, you know who did it? Go to Constable Jeff and submit your Verdict!

Note: Most interact-able items unlock new dialogue with the suspects. It's important to check back with them once in a while.

WebGL?:

Unfortunately a WebGL version of this game is not possible. We use Aura 2 for the volumetric fog effects which is unsupported in WebGL. Sorry to anyone preferring WebGL versions.

Credits:

This game is made by @ayxs (Jasper Strijp) who did the programming, story and audio & @Bredera (Jasper Slobbe) who did the level design, story, sprite art and dialogue. This was a really ambitious game for us to make within three days and we are quite proud of the end result. We hope you detectives have fun trying to solve the mystery!

Change log:

V1.0.0 (submission version, only for Windows and Linux)

V1.0.1 (post-submission and OSX version):

Fixed UI bugs causing UI to feel unresponsive
Fixed UI bugs causing the UI to slowly move away from the screen
Fixed weird UI placing on higher res monitors
Slight balancing adjustment, evidence should disappear a little less quickly

We really hope that you enjoy this experience. Ayxs & Bredera

Micorsoft Windows	https://ayxs.itch.io/ldjam-51-murder-on-the-horizon
Linux	https://ayxs.itch.io/ldjam-51-murder-on-the-horizon
Apple MacOS	https://ayxs.itch.io/ldjam-51-murder-on-the-horizon
Unity 2021.3.10	https://ayxs.itch.io/ldjam-51-murder-on-the-horizon
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/murder-on-the-horizon

Ratings

Given

49🗳️

83🗨️

Feedback

BenTheTwoOfUs

04. Oct 2022 · 08:18 UTC

I accused Ben Wright and that was correct.
However, I don't know how to proceed further.

Lemare

04. Oct 2022 · 08:19 UTC

This game feels very similar to the board game Orient Express. Even though I'm not really into detective video games, it's still very well made and I'm impressed you got this far in only 3 days. The only this that was missing imo was some audio. Good job!

Bredera

04. Oct 2022 · 08:19 UTC

@benthetwoofus After the result screen of the verdict the game is over and you can just alt + F4 the game. Thanks for playing :smile:

DecadeDecaf

04. Oct 2022 · 08:26 UTC

This is an extremely unique take on the theme; I never would've thought of a mechanic like this in a point & click. It was fun piecing together the bigger picture while frantically looking for people and evidence. Nice work!!

Oakhardt

04. Oct 2022 · 08:27 UTC

I knew it right from the beginning! Actually I was totally clueless. I liked the visuals and the pixelart billboard characters. Was a bit inconsistent that the victim was fully 3D. Liked the panning of the camera as you change Location. I find the removing of the evidence a bit harsh. I actually restarted to get them all in time. There was also a problem, where the namelabels went higher and higher on the screen until I couldn't see them anymore. Loved the vibe overall! Nice little Story and details. The financial report with the graph and all was quite amusing! :D

Hope you had fun!

julialalart

04. Oct 2022 · 08:46 UTC

Very interesting game! I think it's *amazing* that there is an integrated tutorial, a lot of gamejam games lack that! I think the "clues" could disappear less quickly, or maybe not disappear based on time because there is a load of text to read from each character (even when you have no clues yet) so it's quite stressful haha. On my first walktrhough I only had time to talk to 2 characters and 2 clues had already disappeared. Other than that, really cool, the story works well, almost everyone seems guilty. On my 2nd walkthrough I rushed for all the clues to be less stressed and I found the culprit! Overall it was fun, good job!

Golin

04. Oct 2022 · 08:53 UTC

After a few tries I finally figured out the story. I really like the idea that murderer can destroy evidence during the investigation. It feels real and exiting.

Pete Thorne

04. Oct 2022 · 10:53 UTC

Hey is this a Unity project? Would you be able to export a Mac version as well? Would love to be able to play and rate

Bredera

04. Oct 2022 · 13:36 UTC

@decadedecaf Thanks for playing the game! Glad you enjoyed the overall mechanics hope the murderer was not too quick with hiding their tracks :smile:

@oakhardt Yeah we get where you are coming from with the 3d victim, one of the features we wanted to add but did not have enough time for was an zoomin on certain parts of the victim to see the injuries etc. yeah those nameplates should stay put thanks for reporting that little bug! Thanks for playing :smiley:

@julialalart Luckily we had some family members playtest the game and we noticed that they were pretty clueless on what to do. glad that it actually helps :smile:

Ciolac Svetlana

04. Oct 2022 · 15:49 UTC

cool

huskitch

04. Oct 2022 · 16:19 UTC

UI art could use some work

Bredera

04. Oct 2022 · 16:52 UTC

@pete-thorne A mac version will be available in the coming days :smile:

Numb

04. Oct 2022 · 17:47 UTC

Nice idea, bugs made it difficuilt thoug. Really liked the finished product feel

Bredera

04. Oct 2022 · 18:10 UTC

@numb Thanks for playing the game! What kind of bugs did you encounter?

velvetlobster

04. Oct 2022 · 18:44 UTC

Neat graphics, I really like the fog and the pixelated characters.
the text is also quite interesting. BILLY BUUUUTCHEEEER

LDJam user 268934

04. Oct 2022 · 18:58 UTC

Fun game I did not get it wright :(

Numb

04. Oct 2022 · 19:04 UTC

@bredera the screen where you make a guess recieves ui input after the choice has been made

Eugenik

04. Oct 2022 · 19:27 UTC

Very cool.

LikuRio

05. Oct 2022 · 09:24 UTC

Very nice game, screenshots are catchy, good job

🎤 Ayxs

05. Oct 2022 · 09:54 UTC

@pete-thorne The OSX version of this game is now available :D

Igor Morgun

05. Oct 2022 · 11:59 UTC

Nice game,cool desing

Pygargue_pirate

05. Oct 2022 · 14:48 UTC

Nice game, cool design, you can really be proud of your result ! Keep going like that !

sp3d2

05. Oct 2022 · 15:50 UTC

cool idea

milq

05. Oct 2022 · 16:40 UTC

What an ingenious concept! The truth is that I like the game although I have failed in the accusation. Then I can't play again, I have to quit and then come in. I've read but I haven't understood it well. It would be great if you could polish the game because it's a fantastic game with a great idea!

Iamsodarncool

06. Oct 2022 · 01:45 UTC

Am I reading your credits correctly that the sprite art is original, but the environment art was not made by you during this jam? If so, you are supposed to opt-out of ratings in the graphics category.

Arihan10

06. Oct 2022 · 03:09 UTC

Wow, what a ride! This is without a doubt one of the most ambitious Ludum Dare games I have ever seen- the scripting is impeccable, graphics and amazing, and if you dig deep enough, you can just start to see a little through the cracks! My one and only criticism (and this is a big one) is that I feel personally that the theme was very underutilized in this case. I also feel like maybe the verdict system could have been a little more punishing in some way, since there was nothing prevent you from just clicking on the verdicts one by one. Overall though, this is a phenomenal game, and you should be very proud of yourselves! :D

🎤 Ayxs

06. Oct 2022 · 08:00 UTC

@milq Thanks for playing and your feedback! The verdict is made like this to kinda make it final. Since it is the end of the game. Some polish there would have been nice ofcource but there was not much time left.

@iamsodarncool you are right indeed. The sprites where all custom made but most of the environment was not. As such, I have now opted this game out of Graphics category.

@arihan10 Thanks for playing and your feedback! It was definitly ambitious as we spend 3 full days working on this game! I agree with the theme thing. We had a lot of trouble comming up with a game idea that uses the 'every 10 seconds' theme a little differently. We tried to do this here but since we increment a random chance every 10 seconds the game can be very difficult or extremely easy at the same time. The verdict system could maybe be more punishing, but right now you have to restart the game to take a second guess, I don't think it can be more punishing in a Ludum Dare game. Thanks again for your feedback!

Mikushi

06. Oct 2022 · 10:44 UTC

Tight little murder mystery, got it on the second try! Actually had me with my notepad making notes about things.

Well polished and solid writing, good job in such a short amount of time :clap:

nilolo

07. Oct 2022 · 11:54 UTC

Awesomely ambitious! That's really cool. What really stands out to me is the beginning, where you are dropped right in but the mechanics get explained well.
From a narrative point of view there are so many dialog choices (must have been a lot of work :o) but I felt some didn't bring new info, so I skipped them since there is this whole time-pressure element.

One bug/nuisance, if there's a character standing behind the buttons, you accidently click on the other character.

All in all nice entry :)

Volodymyr Karchevskyy

07. Oct 2022 · 12:11 UTC

Very cool game with beautiful graphic!

Frozentape

07. Oct 2022 · 20:11 UTC

Nice one, really enjoyed playing :blush: Loved the atmospheric visuals, and the idea that the murderer was cleaning up evidence as you walk around the area was a really nice touch and immediately gave the experience a sense of urgency. I felt like the murderer could have started cleaning up evidence a little later, but then I guess that would make fitting in with the theme a bit difficult. Great job :smile:

Rdawg7

07. Oct 2022 · 20:39 UTC

I liked it guys – nice chill game for the evening! :)

nyxkn

08. Oct 2022 · 07:46 UTC

Very well made game. Good art and mechanics. I thought the items disappearing was a bit annoying on the first playthrough, but then I realized you can easily get around that on a second playthrough. So that makes the mechanic both annoying and kinda useless :D I guessed correctly at the end, and after that I was expecting a more thorough explanation of what had happened, so I felt a little unfulfilled when that didn't happen. Some very simple atmospheric music could have really boosted the mood. Overall I enjoyed playing this quite a bit, and it just needs a bit of polish. Good work!

aDeCon

08. Oct 2022 · 17:22 UTC

Due to the fact that I do not know English well, I could not complete the game :(
In any case, I really liked the graphics and gameplay of the game. I bad play in detectives ...

LDJam user 298734

10. Oct 2022 · 14:21 UTC

a point click game, reminds me the THE MILLER ESTATE I played long time ago! great game!

SimplePotential

10. Oct 2022 · 15:04 UTC

Nice entry!

DurkaGames

10. Oct 2022 · 22:16 UTC

Cool idea and nice decision, but after we talk to all characters there was still locked dialogs. Very sad, that characters can vanish right before your eyes. Love the music! Well done!

🎤 Ayxs

11. Oct 2022 · 09:26 UTC

@durkagames Thanks for playing the game! The locked dialog options only become available after finding some evidence the killer left behind. The characters disappearing is actually a glitch which we have not had enough time for to solve.