Murder at the Homey Side Motel Game

Role: UI Designer and Developer Timeline: ~ 1 week, Dec 2020

Team: Developers (2), Designers (2), Writers (2) Tools: HTML, CSS, and Javascript,

Procreate

Project Url: Github Link, Youtube Video for Sample Gameplay

PROJECT CONCEPT: 

Murder at the Homey Side Motel is a point-and-click murder mystery game where the user plays as the Detective, Justin Case, to solve the murder of the victim named Tanya Felling. The Detective is new to the police department, and the game begins as he arrives on the scene of the murder to assist Investigator Hawke, who is a seasoned professional. Along the way, the Detective will meet two suspects named Scott Shovely and Ray D. O’Hare. Throughout the game, the Detective will collect pieces of evidence that eventually lead him to uncover and confront the culprit of the crime.

Murder at the Homey Side Motel functions as a visual novel in the same vein as the AceAttorney franchise or the Detective Grimoire games. With graphics inspired by comics such as the early Detective Comics and Dick Tracy comics, this game is a nod to American detective comics from the 1930s.

EXPERIENCE:

The player will meet other characters and watch as the story unfolds, and the player will be given the opportunity to select pieces of evidence from the background landscapes. This will operate much like a classic point-and-click adventure game. The player will then “interrogate” the witnesses/suspects by presenting the collected evidence in order to gather more statements and facts about the case. The final portion of the game will consist of a multiple choice quiz that has the player answer questions to determine the timeline of the crime, which will allow the player to actively take the role of the detective and uncover the killer.

TECHNICAL EXECUTION:

Murder at the Homey Side Motel is programmed in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It capitalizes on the use of event handlers as well as multiple buttons, links, and alerts. To get started, we designed a layout for the game focusing on its UI and mechanics. Then the writers finalized the storyline and dialogue between characters while the designers finalized all of the graphics and illustrations. By using the aforementioned programming languages, we were able to implement the prototype of Murder at the Homey Side Motel.

Demo For Sample GamePlay:

The video starts at 0:14

GAMEPLAY INSTRUCTIONS

1. Click the “Play” button as pictured to the side:

2. Click on the arrow button in the right-hand corner to see the story unfold and read the character dialogue.

3. When prompted, click on evidence within the scene, such as the knife pictured here, in order to continue developing the case.

4. When you have uncovered a piece of evidence, you can click on it from the ‘Evidence’ bar to reveal a pop-up informing you of its significance. At certain points in the game, you will be asked a question that requires presenting a piece of evidence. Present the correct piece to continue the story.

5. Once you have collected all of the evidence, your screen will eventually look like this. Click the arrow to continue to the quiz that will help you determine the culprit.

7. Once the story has been completed, you will be presented with this end screen.

Further Development

If we had more time with this project, for further development of this game, our team would create more characters and multiple cases that develop a broader mystery over several chapters of unique, individual investigations. We would also like to develop the game so the player could choose between different “Detective” avatars. For example, there could also be a female detective character to choose when playing the game or multiple female/male/other characters provided as options to use for an avatar. 

In furthering the development of the game, we would diversify the characters and their settings along with their storylines. This would hopefully provide the player with the ability to play the game multiple times with a fresh perspective and make new discoveries. 

Gameplay elements could also be developed to allow the player more opportunities to actively interact with the game. For example, interrogation sequences could involve more dynamic visuals, creating an active sense of excitement to contrast the flow of mystery. Difficulty could also become more dynamic, requiring multiple pieces of evidence to be connected and presented as the story progresses.