[smudboy]

Hey Adventure Gamers!

I'm developing a video game based around detective fiction. As such, I'd like your help in finding out what kinds of adventure games, and detective stories, you like. (Adventure games are essentially mysteries, anyway.)

Please fill out this survey, entitled "Adventure Game Detective Fiction Survey". I would love your input. It will essentially tell me what kind of game to make.

http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.as...1-4dd39e097b6d

Thanks!

-Stefan

[Panthera]

Question 7. really need more than just the ability to choose one or all of the above. I want to answer at least 2(The sharp, clean, punchy dialogue) and 3(The interesting characters, over the top brilliant detectives, and plots), and could have answered all above without the last option - Leggy ladies, sex, violence etc.

Edit: Funny, I've never thought about that option, but I actually want a world like Blade Runner; dark, futuristic, dirty - with a "golden age" detective - smart, deductive, interviewer. Haven't really thought of that combination before. If nothing else, your survey has made my small creative gears start spinning..

[smudboy]

Originally Posted by Panthera

Question 7. really need more than just the ability to choose one or all of the above. I want to answer at least 2(The sharp, clean, punchy dialogue) and 3(The interesting characters, over the top brilliant detectives, and plots), and could have answered all above without the last option - Leggy ladies, sex, violence etc.

Edit: Funny, I've never thought about that option, but I actually want a world like Blade Runner; dark, futuristic, dirty - with a "golden age" detective - smart, deductive, interviewer. Haven't really thought of that combination before. If nothing else, your survey has made my small creative gears start spinning..

Thanks for the feedback, it's really appreciated.

Golden Age is my personal favorite type of detective. We've got some pretty interesting/brilliant minds in those areas (Auguste Dupin, Poirot, and of course Sherlock.) Over the top and completely unbelievable, but that's what we love.

The "leggy dames and sex/violence" deals more with the American detective fiction of hard boiled/noir subgenres. Stories that started in pulp fiction made their way into more matured media (without having to focus on violence and sex.) Noir is an interesting storytelling device, and can make things look pretty romantic despite all the gore, sex and the like (depending on the writer's intent, of course.)

The problem with a Blade Runner-type universe is the necessity to explain the forensic science of things to the audience, especially if one is conducting an investigation about empirical evidence. If the audience doesn't understand how some new form of detection (DNA analysis, brain scans, some sci-fi world-liquid etc.) can operate, they'll have problems being able to determine how a certain someone may have conducted a certain behavior. It's the same argument for fantasy, where the writer has to explain to the reader the metaphysics of the fantasy world.

[Panthera]

I guess, but it's also solvable like in Tex Murphy, where he's a private eye that can't afford any new sci-fi stuff. A futuristic world doesn't have to have technical advances either, but you have to provide the back-story of how the world ended up as it is..

[smudboy]

Originally Posted by Panthera

I guess, but it's also solvable like in Tex Murphy, where he's a private eye that can't afford any new sci-fi stuff. A futuristic world doesn't have to have technical advances either, but you have to provide the back-story of how the world ended up as it is..

That is true. So long as a crime is believable, allows the reader/viewer access to clues, and the background of the setting is defined in some capacity, it is possible to have a classic crime committed in any setting. Of course, this makes sure that the writer doesn't cause the crime to be some kind of fantastical/sci-fi event, which would destroy any credibility as a good writer of detective fiction (like teleporting in and out of a locked-room scenario.)

[buddi]

Your survey is a little too narrow for me, I hate multiple choice! If you don't mind I'll just make a comment...

One thing I find about detective games is that the ones I've played tend to give you too much at the denouement. After you do all the hard work there's usually a cut scene where the criminal is apprehended and it's all explained. I prefer games where even after you have assembled the evidence, you have to figure out how to put it together. For example, in the Silver Earring, after assembling certain clues, you would have to answer a quiz to help you determine which ones were relevant to the case. I really liked the system in Darkness withing where clues were stored as thoughts and you could think about them by combining them like inventory items to come up with new clues. I think a great mystery game would be one where there was no fixed solution, i.e. depending on the leads you follow and the case you assemble it is possible to make a case against different culprits.

[Nelza]

I recall this children's mystery game 'Eagle Eye Mysteries' I played when I was young where you examined the clues at the crime scene and many other different locations.

The protaganists didn't comment too much as you had to piece together the clues and figure out the criminal at the end of each case. There were about 40 different cases all up. I think an adult's version of that game would be great! Do they have a game like that already?