RMMV Investigation game concept

[motta]

Hey guys, after some absence I am willing to start a new game during my vacations, I've written the initial concept of it and would love to hear suggestions, what do you guys think about it or what would you like for an investigation game to have:

Story:
The story will be about a pair of detectives, a 30-year-old former police officer and a 16-year-old girl who came under his tutelage after being rescued orphaned from an operation. Although she still does not fully understand her abilities, the girl has a medium dowry and is able to access the memories just before death, under certain circumstances, of newly dead humans; the pair went on to use this gift to solve well-covered crimes that are difficult to solve, reproducing murders and generating evidence against the real culprits. The story will be divided into chapters and the construction of the characters, as well as the relationship between the two, will be built with the passing of the chapters. The climate, seemingly heavy initially, is constantly broken by the girl's interventions and ironic dialogues between the two, always being the development of the characters my priority. Upon reaching the climax of the story, the player discovers that the girl, in fact, is investigating on her own the death of her pair, who was not aware during the game that had died.
Mechanics:
The game will take place on two main axes (investigation and flashback), the investigation, from the perspective of the detective, is the time of collecting items and building information on the case; during flashbacks (unleashed by the girl), the player controls the girl living the last moments of life of the victim, moments of the game of conflict and escape.

Will look forward building the concept via feedback!

 

[ShadowDragon]

im not a fan of that kind game, but from the look of the story, it's seems to be very interesting one which I
like to play the demo/bug test for you if its on that stage.

I'm looking forward to it.

 

[motta]

im not a fan of that kind game, but from the look of the story, it's seems to be very interesting one which I
like to play the demo/bug test for you if its on that stage.

I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you for your support, but the game is still on the "ideas" phase but I will post on the rmmv session looking for bugtesters in the future.

 

[CaitUltedJFK]

I found it nice that you will mix humor with an investigation/horror game, it is kind of rare for the genre. Have you planned deeper the mechanics of the game already? Will look forward for the development of your project, and I also offer to be a game tester if you ever need one!

 

[alice_gristle]

Sounds intriguing, though I'm not completely sold on the girl's supernatural ability - it just sounds something done to death. I'd maybe think up a different ability? Then again, if your main focus is on the interplay between the leads, then I guess whether the ability is trite or not doesn't matter as much... I also totally like the idea about the mood, that the darkness is lightened up with humour. I never could stand "all-black" stories, where nothing helps the dreary mood.

Not sure about the "I'm dead but I don't know it" part, though, and for me that's a bigger issue than the girl's ability. I feel that's an angle that's really been worn in use already. What about if the dead person DID know they're dead, and was teaming up with the girl to solve their own murder, but didn't tell the girl that they're dead? Actually, what if the girl's ability was talking to ghosts, only she couldn't tell ghosts apart from living persons? Don't know if you can use that, though.

Overall, though, I do think it sounds like a concept worth doing. Would play.

 

[standardplayer]

Sounds like you have a general atmosphere and idea picked out, it's good that you're reaching out like this. I think @alice_gristle kind of hit it on the head, a lot of this has been done to death. So how about this.
I think the dynamic of older male and younger female still has a lot of unexplored territory. Obviously games like The Last of Us have had that dynamic, but that itself is by no means overdone, in my opinion.

The male protagonist being dead the whole time screams Sixth Sense, I really think you'll stir up the wrong response if you go that route, no matter how original it comes out.

The younger girl's ability is kind of actively being done to death, too.
However....
The younger girl could simply offer a unique perspective. If she's orphaned and has had a rough life, she could have a view of the world that's entirely out of reach for the male protagonist. I don't think you need anything supernatural at all.
You could, however do a semi-supernatural effect. Let me explain.

When one character or the other is putting the pieces together in their mind, you could have transparent/ghostly phantom images of the dead characters acting in response to what the protagonists are thinking. It would be understood that it wasn't really happening, but it sort of plays on that line of expressing someone's ability in an visual manner.

I hope some of this helps, or gives you some ideas. Keep us posted

 

[motta]

Sounds intriguing, though I'm not completely sold on the girl's supernatural ability - it just sounds something done to death. I'd maybe think up a different ability? Then again, if your main focus is on the interplay between the leads, then I guess whether the ability is trite or not doesn't matter as much... I also totally like the idea about the mood, that the darkness is lightened up with humour. I never could stand "all-black" stories, where nothing helps the dreary mood.

Not sure about the "I'm dead but I don't know it" part, though, and for me that's a bigger issue than the girl's ability. I feel that's an angle that's really been worn in use already. What about if the dead person DID know they're dead, and was teaming up with the girl to solve their own murder, but didn't tell the girl that they're dead? Actually, what if the girl's ability was talking to ghosts, only she couldn't tell ghosts apart from living persons? Don't know if you can use that, though.

Overall, though, I do think it sounds like a concept worth doing. Would play.

My initial idea regarding the girl's mechanics would be investigating the scenario and gathering enough information to "summon" the dead and see the murder through their perspective, I actually don't know any other games that use this ability lol, could you give me examples that you remember?
And thank you very much for the suggestion about the plot twist, will definitely look forward to work on it.

 

[motta]

Sounds like you have a general atmosphere and idea picked out, it's good that you're reaching out like this. I think @alice_gristle kind of hit it on the head, a lot of this has been done to death. So how about this.
I think the dynamic of older male and younger female still has a lot of unexplored territory. Obviously games like The Last of Us have had that dynamic, but that itself is by no means overdone, in my opinion.

The male protagonist being dead the whole time screams Sixth Sense, I really think you'll stir up the wrong response if you go that route, no matter how original it comes out.

The younger girl's ability is kind of actively being done to death, too.
However....
The younger girl could simply offer a unique perspective. If she's orphaned and has had a rough life, she could have a view of the world that's entirely out of reach for the male protagonist. I don't think you need anything supernatural at all.
You could, however do a semi-supernatural effect. Let me explain.

When one character or the other is putting the pieces together in their mind, you could have transparent/ghostly phantom images of the dead characters acting in response to what the protagonists are thinking. It would be understood that it wasn't really happening, but it sort of plays on that line of expressing someone's ability in an visual manner.

I hope some of this helps, or gives you some ideas. Keep us posted

As I replied to @alice_gristle, I was not aware of other games that used the girl's mechanics, sorry about that.
But if the girl has no abilities at all, I don't see the point of making her as a playable character too, which kinds of mismatch my initial project.
About the suggestion of the semi-supernatural effect, I found it a very interesting concept, one of my favorite movies " The Invisible Guest" actually uses this idea, so I might work to use it.
Thanks for the reply and the ideas!

 

[alice_gristle]

My initial idea regarding the girl's mechanics would be investigating the scenario and gathering enough information to "summon" the dead and see the murder through their perspective, I actually don't know any other games that use this ability lol, could you give me examples that you remember?

I admit I haven't played any games like this, so you got me there. I've just got the feeling that a person being able to experience the last moments of a deceased has been seen a lot in popular culture as a whole.

However, since you said character interaction is your main focus, you could kinda ignore that? If the girl's ability is just something you have to get your story going, do use it. It won't be a big deal, unless you rub it in the player's face like, "Ooh, ain't this ability just coooool?" All in all, I'm not actually of the opinion that every facet and detail of every game needs to be totally fresh and original...

 

[motta]

I admit I haven't played any games like this, so you got me there. I've just got the feeling that a person being able to experience the last moments of a deceased has been seen a lot in popular culture as a whole.

However, since you said character interaction is your main focus, you could kinda ignore that? If the girl's ability is just something you have to get your story going, do use it. It won't be a big deal, unless you rub it in the player's face like, "Ooh, ain't this ability just coooool?" All in all, I'm not actually of the opinion that every facet and detail of every game needs to be totally fresh and original...

Indeed I have already seen some tv shows or movies which had medium characters but I have the feeling that they never truly explored the potential of the theme to build a smart and absorbing storyline, which I will try my best to do. The value of the girl's ability is not only for building the plot, but to also insert the genre "Horror/escape" to the game since you play as the victim when you summon it, which I think that will make the game more enthusiastic and fun to play (also will merge well with the art of the game which I will try to inspire from Junji Ito, but that's for later).
Overall, thank you very much for your suggestions, they really changed my mind in some aspects, I'm open for more of them and will try to update my project here soon!

 

[gstv87]

quickest, cheapest advice? watch "The Inbetween"
it kind of follows the same trope: psychic girl who helps a detective solve murders by interpreting images sent by the victims.
since some of the ghosts are hostile towards her, she often uses her abilities to fight them off, or bring some other ghost to do the dirty work.
you could easily remove the supernatural theme, and have the ghosts be real people, and the character would work all the same: it's a kind girl, who's not afraid to fight back.

 

[alice_gristle]

The value of the girl's ability is not only for building the plot, but to also insert the genre "Horror/escape" to the game since you play as the victim when you summon it, which I think that will make the game more enthusiastic and fun to play (also will merge well with the art of the game which I will try to inspire from Junji Ito, but that's for later).

I actually like that angle a lot, now that I think about it! It'd be interesting getting to be the victim but not knowing how you're gonna die this time. Thumbs up from me!

 

[motta]

quickest, cheapest advice? watch "The Inbetween"
it kind of follows the same trope: psychic girl who helps a detective solve murders by interpreting images sent by the victims.
since some of the ghosts are hostile towards her, she often uses her abilities to fight them off, or bring some other ghost to do the dirty work.
you could easily remove the supernatural theme, and have the ghosts be real people, and the character would work all the same: it's a kind girl, who's not afraid to fight back.

I will definitely watch it as soon as I have time, I need to read and watch some works from the genre to search for inspiration, thanks for the recommendation!