Great game! Love the mechanic, the story is compelling. Simple to play, difficult to progress and intriguing enough to make you want to finish.
My biggest gripe is the way evidence is grouped. The "anchor" piece (the piece of the main thread) that the next group needs to connect to seemed arbitrary for a few groups, which pieces constituted a group seemed arbitrary, and the current group not completing if it was connected to any pieces from upcoming groups (or the wrong anchor) was frustrating. Sometimes, two pieces of evidence would be more related to each other than they were to the rest of the evidence in their respective groups. Overall, this gave it an unnatural feel, like the protagonist suffered rapid-onset amnesia if she saw something of interest but didn't already have a crystal clear picture of how pieces connected back to the beginning post-it.
I understand this system is to enable a linear plot progression, and to allow the player to connect pieces within a group any which way without letting them just connect every piece on the board and have every plot-point trigger at once. I don't think a linear progression is necessary nor fits with the "cognitive map" style gameplay that evidence boards inherently are, not sure what could be done about the latter problem. Perhaps every single piece of evidence should have others it is required to connect directly to, and not worry so much about being able to bundle it into arbitrarily connected groups.
God i'd love to make a short film of this, story is really interesting, it took a while to figure out and i got stuck a few times but overall really good game. Does anyone know if the next part is in production?
Thank you for the compliment :) we're really happy you enjoyed it. The game was made over two years ago in a few days for a game jam, so if I'm being realistic, a sequel is unlikely. This was a cool idea and we really enjoyed making it, but it was really difficult to just get this small game to a released playable state. But maybe in the future, who knows :)
I also really enjoyed the game! i think the most difficult part for me were the "red herrings" or the unused clues, I kept trying to attach some of the red herrings to things I knew they'd go with and it really tripped me up when they didn't connect. I hope there is a part 2 like the ending implies, and in it that game it would be great if we could pair some of the red herring items to the non red herring clues and have them connect in some way so we know the clues are related to eachother, and also eliminates the red herring so it doesn't trip you up anymore, something like this: (Spoiler ahead) https://i.imgur.com/D07GBsp.png could even have dialogue with it that then gives another hint as well!
Thanks! We're really happy you enjoyed it :) Yea, a bit after release we realized that the game was quite a bit more difficult than intended. That's actually a cool idea with the optional connections to the other clues.
been working on this for a bit, I can get to the first expansion of the board and then i'm stuck , here are the steps I used, obviously spoilers ahead: Step 1: https://i.imgur.com/EtgXL4y.png
I'm giving up for today, i'll probably come back another day. things I've learned without to many spoilers:
I started with a group of 4 items that all go together, the order of the items doesn't seem to matter as i've restarted the game a few times and it always works as long as you connect them in any order.
From there I found another group of 4 items that seemed to go together, they didn't turn to green links when I connected them together, but once I connected that group of 4 to one of the other clues on the other set of 4 all links for the new group went green.
For the second group of clues again order didn't seem to matter when I reset the game and tried it again a few times, however when connecting the 2nd group to the 1st group there were only 2 clues to connect to that would make all the links turn green.
If I continued to play I would keep trying groups of 3, 4, or 5 clues to multiple solved clues on the board, hope that's helpful!
"they didn't turn to green links when I connected them together": https://imgur.com/iiO0JxT, "but once I connected that group of 4 to one of the other clues on the other set of 4 all links for the new group went green": https://imgur.com/0JsTh2b
Not sure what meant by "there were only 2 clues to connect to that would make all the links turn green." because I find out that as long as the "End Piece" of the previous one is connect to any piece in the finished group, they will all light up: https://imgur.com/DXWIZRI
Frrzf Crgr naq Ylaqfnl tbg n onol, ohgjrer gbyq ol gur grzc ahefr gung jnf n fgvyyobea, ohg gurl qvfpbirerq gur zlfgnxr orsber gur puvyq jnf perzngrq.
Vgf frrzf gung nabgure pbhcyr jrer yvrq ol gur fnzr grzc, ohg guvf gvzr gur arjobea jnf perzngrq. Abj crgr jnag gb fbyir gur zlfgrel.
Crgr jnf tbvat gb n zrrgvat va Nbfvn, ohg tbg n qrgbhe gb Geragba, gb vagreivrj gur pbhcyr, gura urnqrq gb gur FG Treneq gb punfr gur grzc, naq tbg n yvfg bs Grzc svezf gung gur ubfcvgny hfrq.
Hey rodzeymer, are you still up? I got a document writting down there info and where it might lead next. Would you like to give some ideas on what might be wrong and what I overlooked? I think that 1 person can be really stuck into a narrative and having more than 1 perspective would be great help.
Played more today and updated your document, left some comments in the discussion part on the inconsistencies of the tickets and the dates that are being implied. but haven't gotten past "stage 3"
Good find! i worked today to find another step, but couldn't come up with anything, i feel like this second wave of clues could have been redone nothing makes alot of sense. I feel like i've been paying attention to what days things should have fallen on but none of that seems very consistent
This is the solution for the first section. I'm having a lot of trouble to find the solution for the next 4 links. Anyone has a clue? https://ibb.co/BNY2nWY
Everyone else has made the points I wanted to make. A potentially great game, but figuring out exactly how things are supposed to link up is kind of frustrating.
So I tried this, checked the comments for help, saw that everyone was stuck in exactly the way I was, shrugged and left. But then I saw it again in the trending feed, and I thought, "You know, it's a shame to give up on this". That's because it's got the potential to be a great idea.
I hope you take to heart the feedback people have given, though, because right now there really is too much guesswork without any feedback. I read through the various images, and it's clear what's basically going on (in ROT13 for spoilers: Ur jnf fhccbfrq gb tb gb n zrrgvat, ohg ur gbbx gur ohf sebz gurer gb Geragba, jurer gurer jnf fbzr rzcyblrr bs n ubfcvgny ng 22 Senaxyva Fgerrg jub gbyq gur snzvyl gurve onol unq qvrq, juvpu vg unqa'g) -- but it's not at all clear what things to connect to what other things to tell the game that you have that information.
There's a good game at the heart of this. I really hope you can make it work.
I think the game is bugged, the dialogues are supposed to change as we make connections, but that does not seem to happen. So, will you fix it after the Jam ends, or are you allowed to fix stuff during the Jam too?
Edit: just realised that even though it was posted a day ago, but was made for a 2021 Jam? What is going on here?
Lol :) yea, it's the game from GGJ 2021 We've just finished uploading the game from this year's GGJ, and remembered that the previous game was never actually uploaded, which was a shame, so we did that now :D Sorry for the confusion... Also, yes, there are some bugs in the game still (which is probably part of the reason it wasn't uploaded back then)
We've uploaded the game to the GGJ website back then... Just not here on itch, so it wasn't playable anywhere until now. And about the bugs, originally, we didn't intend to work on this anymore, just upload the game as-is, but now seeing that people are interested in it, we might fix it up a bit so it will be more playable :)
Is the game supposed to move to the next stage/ part of the board on it's own? I'm stuck on the first section of the board and I'm not sure where I went wrong ;A;
I don't even really know what the game is asking of me. Can I make multiple connections? Does it want just one timeline? How close am I to the solution? I'm not going to spend forever switching stuff around until I happen to stumble upon the correct answer. A neat idea, but without any sort of feedback... no thanks.
I'm mostly just echoing what the people below already said. There are a lot of ways to connect pictures to form the same story. I'm guessing you're hinting that we have to connect the evidence chronologically with all of the "trace his footsteps". If that's not it then can you maybe help out with how we're supposed to connect them?
A fix maybe something like different color strings for different interpretations. For example red line for chronologically time when Pete put the evidence up/got his hand on them. Blue line for connections between the evidences like Piece A, B, and C aren't discovered near each other but they all hint about a single thing.
Another fix can just be a tutorial of sort at the start, showing how the strings are suppose to be use.
Overall interesting idea for a game, just hope it is easier to understand what I am suppose to do.
The game seems instresting, but theres a large disconnect between understanding what the series of event/puzzle is in the first section and figuring out EXACTLY how the game wants you to express it. Some way to verify certain connections would be nice, given how a single timeline of events could be represented by many different webs, differing only in a few connections. I still havent beaten the first part.
I'm very intrigued, but also slightly infuriated, and a lot stumped. There are 12 items on the first corner of the board, and no real way to know how close you really are to getting it right. Can you add some sort of clue that the connection you made is correct?
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Great game! Love the mechanic, the story is compelling. Simple to play, difficult to progress and intriguing enough to make you want to finish.
My biggest gripe is the way evidence is grouped. The "anchor" piece (the piece of the main thread) that the next group needs to connect to seemed arbitrary for a few groups, which pieces constituted a group seemed arbitrary, and the current group not completing if it was connected to any pieces from upcoming groups (or the wrong anchor) was frustrating. Sometimes, two pieces of evidence would be more related to each other than they were to the rest of the evidence in their respective groups. Overall, this gave it an unnatural feel, like the protagonist suffered rapid-onset amnesia if she saw something of interest but didn't already have a crystal clear picture of how pieces connected back to the beginning post-it.
I understand this system is to enable a linear plot progression, and to allow the player to connect pieces within a group any which way without letting them just connect every piece on the board and have every plot-point trigger at once. I don't think a linear progression is necessary nor fits with the "cognitive map" style gameplay that evidence boards inherently are, not sure what could be done about the latter problem. Perhaps every single piece of evidence should have others it is required to connect directly to, and not worry so much about being able to bundle it into arbitrarily connected groups.
God i'd love to make a short film of this, story is really interesting, it took a while to figure out and i got stuck a few times but overall really good game. Does anyone know if the next part is in production?
This is the solution of the whole game https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XzBqHFfQTNPEd01__9QJV6HWwESUVqHFGyRxFJRFqbU/... with credit to who I saw it first from. Spoilers in it ofc.
Wow. That's really awesome :D
I see you've finished the game there :)))
Thank you for playing!
That was a really great game. Will there be any sequals or prolouge?
Thank you for the compliment :) we're really happy you enjoyed it.
The game was made over two years ago in a few days for a game jam, so if I'm being realistic, a sequel is unlikely. This was a cool idea and we really enjoyed making it, but it was really difficult to just get this small game to a released playable state.
But maybe in the future, who knows :)
I also really enjoyed the game! i think the most difficult part for me were the "red herrings" or the unused clues, I kept trying to attach some of the red herrings to things I knew they'd go with and it really tripped me up when they didn't connect. I hope there is a part 2 like the ending implies, and in it that game it would be great if we could pair some of the red herring items to the non red herring clues and have them connect in some way so we know the clues are related to eachother, and also eliminates the red herring so it doesn't trip you up anymore, something like this: (Spoiler ahead) https://i.imgur.com/D07GBsp.png could even have dialogue with it that then gives another hint as well!
Thanks! We're really happy you enjoyed it :)
Yea, a bit after release we realized that the game was quite a bit more difficult than intended.
That's actually a cool idea with the optional connections to the other clues.
Thank you for your work in documenting the steps for this game! wouldn't have made it to the final expansion of the board without you!
Happy it help!
been working on this for a bit, I can get to the first expansion of the board and then i'm stuck , here are the steps I used, obviously spoilers ahead:
Step 1: https://i.imgur.com/EtgXL4y.png
Step2:https://imgur.com/ze3jhLh.png
Let me know if you get any further, I'm pretty stuck
I'm giving up for today, i'll probably come back another day. things I've learned without to many spoilers:
I started with a group of 4 items that all go together, the order of the items doesn't seem to matter as i've restarted the game a few times and it always works as long as you connect them in any order.
From there I found another group of 4 items that seemed to go together, they didn't turn to green links when I connected them together, but once I connected that group of 4 to one of the other clues on the other set of 4 all links for the new group went green.
For the second group of clues again order didn't seem to matter when I reset the game and tried it again a few times, however when connecting the 2nd group to the 1st group there were only 2 clues to connect to that would make all the links turn green.
If I continued to play I would keep trying groups of 3, 4, or 5 clues to multiple solved clues on the board, hope that's helpful!
Spoilers in both images and some in the comment itself.
Visual aids on what Snowba11 mean:
"the order of the items doesn't seem to matter": https://imgur.com/rBSGnQz.
"they didn't turn to green links when I connected them together": https://imgur.com/iiO0JxT, "but once I connected that group of 4 to one of the other clues on the other set of 4 all links for the new group went green": https://imgur.com/0JsTh2b
Not sure what meant by "there were only 2 clues to connect to that would make all the links turn green." because I find out that as long as the "End Piece" of the previous one is connect to any piece in the finished group, they will all light up: https://imgur.com/DXWIZRI
Hey, please edit your comment and don't put spoilers in plain sight. (use a link and host the image somewhere instead)
Oh right I'm sorry about that.
I can access Imgur now so I changed them all in there
Thank you for the edit ^^
Since everyone is helping to solve the puzzle, this is the further I got, after that Im stuck, if some one have a hint, please reply here
Spoiler in ROT13 to explain the logic used:
Frrzf Crgr naq Ylaqfnl tbg n onol, ohgjrer gbyq ol gur grzc ahefr gung jnf n fgvyyobea, ohg gurl qvfpbirerq gur zlfgnxr orsber gur puvyq jnf perzngrq.
Vgf frrzf gung nabgure pbhcyr jrer yvrq ol gur fnzr grzc, ohg guvf gvzr gur arjobea jnf perzngrq. Abj crgr jnag gb fbyir gur zlfgrel.
Crgr jnf tbvat gb n zrrgvat va Nbfvn, ohg tbg n qrgbhe gb Geragba, gb vagreivrj gur pbhcyr, gura urnqrq gb gur FG Treneq gb punfr gur grzc, naq tbg n yvfg bs Grzc svezf gung gur ubfcvgny hfrq.
V pnag yvax vg gb nal shegure pyhr!
SPOILER IN IMG!
https://imgur.com/a/Y9U9pmO
wait so there's group of 3, of 4, and now of 5? Also is your story little backward between P with L and the couple?
Yes, but I couldnt move foward than I did, maybe some hint missing?
Hey rodzeymer, are you still up? I got a document writting down there info and where it might lead next. Would you like to give some ideas on what might be wrong and what I overlooked? I think that 1 person can be really stuck into a narrative and having more than 1 perspective would be great help.
Document link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XzBqHFfQTNPEd01__9QJV6HWwESUVqHFGyRxFJRFqbU/...
I do have some changing around to do with your new progress because this is made for part 3 that you already solved.
Sure
Played more today and updated your document, left some comments in the discussion part on the inconsistencies of the tickets and the dates that are being implied. but haven't gotten past "stage 3"
Good find! i worked today to find another step, but couldn't come up with anything, i feel like this second wave of clues could have been redone nothing makes alot of sense. I feel like i've been paying attention to what days things should have fallen on but none of that seems very consistent
Is the thinking log part of the new update?
This is the solution for the first section. I'm having a lot of trouble to find the solution for the next 4 links. Anyone has a clue?
https://ibb.co/BNY2nWY
Everyone else has made the points I wanted to make. A potentially great game, but figuring out exactly how things are supposed to link up is kind of frustrating.
So I tried this, checked the comments for help, saw that everyone was stuck in exactly the way I was, shrugged and left. But then I saw it again in the trending feed, and I thought, "You know, it's a shame to give up on this". That's because it's got the potential to be a great idea.
I hope you take to heart the feedback people have given, though, because right now there really is too much guesswork without any feedback. I read through the various images, and it's clear what's basically going on (in ROT13 for spoilers: Ur jnf fhccbfrq gb tb gb n zrrgvat, ohg ur gbbx gur ohf sebz gurer gb Geragba, jurer gurer jnf fbzr rzcyblrr bs n ubfcvgny ng 22 Senaxyva Fgerrg jub gbyq gur snzvyl gurve onol unq qvrq, juvpu vg unqa'g) -- but it's not at all clear what things to connect to what other things to tell the game that you have that information.
There's a good game at the heart of this. I really hope you can make it work.
I think the game is bugged, the dialogues are supposed to change as we make connections, but that does not seem to happen.
So, will you fix it after the Jam ends, or are you allowed to fix stuff during the Jam too?Edit: just realised that even though it was posted a day ago, but was made for a 2021 Jam? What is going on here?
Lol :) yea, it's the game from GGJ 2021
We've just finished uploading the game from this year's GGJ, and remembered that the previous game was never actually uploaded, which was a shame, so we did that now :D
Sorry for the confusion...
Also, yes, there are some bugs in the game still (which is probably part of the reason it wasn't uploaded back then)
So how did you submit your game to the Jam without uploading it?
Also, will these bugs be fixed?
We've uploaded the game to the GGJ website back then... Just not here on itch, so it wasn't playable anywhere until now.
And about the bugs, originally, we didn't intend to work on this anymore, just upload the game as-is, but now seeing that people are interested in it, we might fix it up a bit so it will be more playable :)
Is the game supposed to move to the next stage/ part of the board on it's own? I'm stuck on the first section of the board and I'm not sure where I went wrong ;A;
I don't even really know what the game is asking of me. Can I make multiple connections? Does it want just one timeline? How close am I to the solution? I'm not going to spend forever switching stuff around until I happen to stumble upon the correct answer.
A neat idea, but without any sort of feedback... no thanks.
I'm mostly just echoing what the people below already said. There are a lot of ways to connect pictures to form the same story.
I'm guessing you're hinting that we have to connect the evidence chronologically with all of the "trace his footsteps". If that's not it then can you maybe help out with how we're supposed to connect them?
A fix maybe something like different color strings for different interpretations. For example red line for chronologically time when Pete put the evidence up/got his hand on them. Blue line for connections between the evidences like Piece A, B, and C aren't discovered near each other but they all hint about a single thing.
Another fix can just be a tutorial of sort at the start, showing how the strings are suppose to be use.
Overall interesting idea for a game, just hope it is easier to understand what I am suppose to do.
The game seems instresting, but theres a large disconnect between understanding what the series of event/puzzle is in the first section and figuring out EXACTLY how the game wants you to express it. Some way to verify certain connections would be nice, given how a single timeline of events could be represented by many different webs, differing only in a few connections. I still havent beaten the first part.
this game is so cool! but I still can't solve it even the first part, ill keep trying tho!
I'm very intrigued, but also slightly infuriated, and a lot stumped. There are 12 items on the first corner of the board, and no real way to know how close you really are to getting it right. Can you add some sort of clue that the connection you made is correct?