Hi everyone!

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a detective game in which you play as Cleo, an apprentice to Maya, a world-renowned detective. The game will have independent cases ranging from robberies to murders. Each case will have multiple mini-puzzles as well as a final fill-in-the-blank type puzzle to prove you understood exactly what happened. I’ll discuss some of the puzzle mechanics in a later post. Today, I’d just like to share my motivation for making this game and why I chose an apprentice as the main character.

I’ve always loved detective stories, especially ones that allowed me to figure out the answer myself. I would pause right before the final reveal and try to piece together all the clues myself. I didn’t always get it right but when I did, it was best feeling in the world!

So, I got this idea of making a game that would replicate the experience of reading/watching detective stories. A game where you were just an apprentice to a brilliant detective. The detective would look at a few clues and within minutes declare that the mystery had been solved. Right before the reveal though, you as an apprentice would get the chance to solve the case yourself.

As I began making the game, I realized that there was an added benefit to the player being an apprentice instead of the lead detective—a natural hint system that could accommodate different play-styles. Let’s say Detective Maya looked at the whole crime scene, realized that out of all the dozens of clues, only clues A, B and C were important, and told everyone she’d solved the case. As she begins to explain how she solved it, you would have the option to stop her and figure out the whole thing yourself. Players who don’t mind a hint when they’re stuck would be able to ask Maya to continue her explanation. After she tells you that clue A is relevant, you would again have the option to stop her and solve the rest yourself. If you were still stuck, you could go back to Maya and get clue B and so on. (Of course, after the players get all three clues, they would still have to figure out how they connect with each other to solve the case.)

And finally, I just liked the idea of being an apprentice from a storytelling perspective. There would be more scope for character growth and watching Cleo get better and better with each case as the player gets better at solving cases would be a much more rewarding experience.

That’s it for today! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading!