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Of Locks and Keys

7/26/2013

2 Comments

 
During my beta testing session, my amazing beta testers found more glitches and typos than I had hoped. But, more importantly, they had found some plot inconsistencies and had difficulty putting some pieces together. I saw this as a major problem with the mystery aspect, and began to wonder to myself what exactly I was doing wrong.

The main problem was that I hadn't done a "proper" mystery before. In Umineko, the mystery is left unsolved at the end of each gameboard, but conventional detective novels always have the detective solve it instead. I still had yet to write that obligatory scene (known as "the denouement") because I was unsure of how the logic throughout the rest of my novel held up.

Suffice to say, it didn't QUITE, but it was on its way. After getting my wisdom teeth extracted, I was confined to my bed for a few days, which gave me some extra time to contemplate my story. And I came up with what I think is a great metaphor for the mystery-crafting process.

Previously, I was content with having "hinted" at the solution at various points in the story, not exactly knowing what "hinting" really means. Making a slight reference or allusion? No, that isn't enough. Normal mystery novels don't have red text battles at the end (which I'm not entirely sure was entertaining for people to read in my fangames, but I digress). Normal mystery novels have the detective announcing his conclusion, followed by a solid chain of logic.

What is the chain of logic? The way I've thought it up, it consists of locks and keys. You spread out these locks and keys throughout the story, always placing the locks before the keys. Most locks will fall before the murder is found, although that doesn't mean you can't have more locks later on. The point is that you'll place a piece of evidence -- subtle or not -- which will function as a "lock", hiding away some logical conclusion that will be proven by that piece of evidence. Then, later on in the story, another piece of evidence will be found which will function as a "key" -- thereby making sense of its corresponding lock.

However, the (average) reader will not know when they have found Key A to Lock A or Key B to Lock B. The Watson will only observe the evidence, not being smart enough to put it all together -- it is therefore up to the reader to remember all evidence and think of any connections between them. Perhaps I scatter locks ABCD and then keys DCBA in that order. The point is that, at the very end, the detective will have all the locks and all the keys, mentally "unlocks" the logical conclusions, and by putting together the conclusions, flawlessly solves the crime. Thus, the story truly becomes a game between detective and player -- or, on a more meta level, between author and reader.

Can you find all the locks and keys scattered throughout? Can you connect them all together to form the proper conclusions? And can you arrange these conclusions in such a way that you're able to tell me whodunnit, howdunnit, and whydunnit, before the detective spoils your fun?

I have learned a great deal in writing this first episode. I promise that the next episode will be much more of a puzzle for you all to solve, although the first one was specifically designed with beginners in mind. However, that doesn't mean it will be without its own twists and turns! Hopefully this "lock and key" system will be greater played up in future installments, ahaha!

-Kinjo
2 Comments
 

How (Not) To Make a VN

7/15/2013

2 Comments

 
One year ago today, I released the first demo of Detective Butler to the world.
And one month from now you'll be playing the final version.
(ironic how I said the same thing a year ago...)

Anyway, it's times like these that make me feel a bit nostalgic. I've compiled a small variety of screenshots to demonstrate just how far the game has come.

Those are just the visual aspects, of course. The story's taken quite a lot of changing and so has the internal code and various interactive portions. We've had two musicians come and go, and only one of four artists' work will be used in the final version. Word count is somewhere around 40-50k; I'm not entirely sure, but it still takes a few hours to read in full  (comparable to my Umineko fangames, but don't quote me on that). The game will remain free, and will most certainly feature an opening video -- it's actually almost finished.

So, what remains to be done? Lots of beta testing and debugging. I've gotten several people to download it and test what I have. There's also just a small bit of writing left to do. I'm primarily interested in getting people's thoughts and opinions on the mystery portion, so I've excluded the solution from their beta demo. The one unfortunate thing is that the Butler Hints idea is totally out the window. Either they ended up fitting into the story or really had no place in it, so it really just resolved itself.

Anyone who played the previous demos will notice that the final game is VERY different. I hope I made the right choices in what to change and what to keep. Either way, what's done is done, and I've learned a lot from this experience.

Should be a busy few weeks -- after all, Comiket is my self-imposed deadline!

-Kinjo
2 Comments
 

Major Decisions

7/9/2013

2 Comments

 
Writing's almost done. However, I've stumbled into one final roadblock of sorts.

The story has taken a direction I didn't really anticipate. I've heard that most writers experience this situation, where the characters lead the story places they didn't think were possible. I have been changing things quite drastically in order to accommodate for the characters, but I wonder how far I should go.

Part of me feels like the omission of certain things seen in the demo would be far too much to change, yet as it stands the story would probably do better without them. I mean, I've already changed a lot, but this last thing is really hard for me to decide.

That said, I had Ozaki beta test the latest of what I have, and it seems to be pretty good. Main problems are the aforementioned roadblock, lack of descriptions, and Butler taking up too much screentime compared to the others. The game seems to be mostly glitch free, although we've encountered several floating heads during the testing. Most notably I'm satisfied about how the final chapter is turning out, and I'm enthusiastic about hearing other beta readers' thoughts on the mystery. It's really taken a turn I didn't expect, so a fresh point of view is what I need most right now.

-Kinjo
2 Comments
 

Summer Plans

7/2/2013

5 Comments

 
Poll Results:
What is your talent? Writing  27.27%      Drawing  27.27%      None ;_;  18.18%      Other:  18.18%      Programming  9.09%      Composing  0% 

Not much to report this week. I want to finish writing Detective Butler as soon as possible, but I hit a few roadblocks. It feels as though the story is too short, and I might attribute that to poor planning... but at the same time, I can't think of a 'way' to make it longer. Should it be longer? I don't know.

All I do know is that I will get it done before summer ends. I'll then probably take a break from writing for a while. That doesn't mean I'll stop making things, but I'll probably go off and come up with other ideas for things.

Even if I keep delaying the game forever, that doesn't mean it will get better with each delay. And my goal is just to get something out there that isn't totally bad. The plot has been reworked quite a bit to make it a suitable mystery. The characters have been given unique personalities and backgrounds. And I've really done my best to merge the  plot and characters together into a story that makes sense. This is about as good as it's going to get.

I'll finish writing quickly, send off a beta version to some people I asked for assistance, and see what they think. Either way, this story is coming to a close.

-Kinjo


5 Comments
 

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