Need "Detective" game ideas!!

[detective-db 16]

you should make the game third person. it'd be awesome if you can go around talking to people who have different cases you need to solve.

agree... ^^

Also , i would like it if you put minor clues if you finish a case (the clues should be related with the last or major case ") sorry if someone already said that...

[JayElle 1]

I suggest not to make the crime scenes look realllllyyyy real like rizzoli and isles cause it gives me nightmares. It's just a suggestion though, but I really like the idea of making it like an adventure game, sounds interesting... just hearing the plans makes me wanna play already ---> Please inform us when its out Good Luck.

[siawsharingan 1]

I've been thinking for a while now about developing a "detective" type game (however small or big it might be) and I've just not figured out the best gameplay factor/strategy yet. I was thinking, as a start, of a web-based game that we could even publish on Facebook and/or MySpace. But just like any creation, finding the right and best concept is the most difficult part. I'm actually not worried about the development part at all! It's all about the ideas and the level of fun we can integrate into the game.

So, that's where you guys could help out!

Do you have any idea that could make a "detective" game work? And be fun/enjoyable?

Just pieces of ideas would help too. Then, just like a puzzle we could assemble a full game putting them together!

It would be soo awesome if we could release a DCW game entirely conceived and created from scratch by its very own community!

Anyway, use this thread as a placeholder for ideas that could potentially be useful or fun in a detective-type game.

Thank you!

im thinking maybe something challenging

story:a person was murdred and related to a case happened 3 years ago

and not to tell them where it was wrong there will be a toolbar bellow which can let you tell others which is the correct answer

there will also be some basic tools and the other tools can be found along the way

if the suspect entered is wrong the player would have to try again ,the player have 2 chances or they will have to replay the game

clues will be kept

suspects would be wrote down on a notebook

they can also use evidence once they figured out the trick used

how bout that its challenging and take at least a week to finish it (unless youre the game creator or a famous detective/inspector of course)

OR

you could let players create an avatar (includes hairstyles/shirts ect.) and then let them play online together

the computer will randomly choose the culprit gang(boss ect.) and the detective/ inspector ect.

the culprit will have to figure out a way to complete the mision gave by the boss

and the detective will have to solve it

the culpirt's boss will have to think of a trick to let the detectives fall

the detectives can talk trough the mic or just type inside the game

this way every bodycan challenge their minds and also have a hard time figuring out the answer

[siawsharingan 1]

I have an idea, and it's about APTX. There will be two game mode: one is trivia and second one is adventure. It's more of interactive game require less animation, because they all are questions based on your answer to move the game forward. The questions are basically based on characters, their traits or favorite we have known from DC.This game need at least 15-20 questions form for each mode. If you reach to level 5, you get APTX's cure and your form become 'Shinichi'. later there's a bonus game, it consist of many letters and see how many words you can find in wordsearch puzzles. It will continue in next game and this last two rounds' time and Shinichi turn back Conan. The points are based on answers, and how fast you are typing questions, finding words in wordsearch.

Adventure form is emphasize on speed. You can think of many games relate to speed, for example: keyboard typing. You have type a summary of deduction to catch the culprit, then word animation appear: case closed, cracked. There are many type of games can relate to speed, running after murderer with two buttons of arrow direction. and money collection after each round finished! Coins are used to buy Agasa's gadgets to fulfill each round to unlock new level. Before each stage is finished, you get APTX's cure, solve word search and one small scene from Detective Conan pop up for next challenge, and next is to piece the jigsaw puzzle to solve the challenge before move on to next stage. You turn back into Conan!

ADDED:

I also thought of second game, it's based on money deal.

It's a bit like Deal or no deal, what you do is to click the case and answer the questions based on movies. Hint maybe provided but few dollars will be deducted. If got the answer right, the money in case is yours. If it's wrong, you get zero and the game continued. When four lives are used up, you get previous amount earlier adding to your account. If got all questions right, you get bonus prize. If you decided to give up recent hard question, you get the recent prize from the case and get your answer check. Detective mystery can be included in, it will provide the question who done it along with answer.

i think its to fast to turn back to sinichi at just level 5

how about ,first they have an intro that icludes sinichi being fed APTX

then being conan he have to find a way to get peoples atention

when he reaches a certain mystery he must solve haibara found a cure

but gin saw sinichi and haibara cant be foundso sinichi has to use his own knowledge to find a lost piece of the cure for the APTX and he also have to find haibara :wink:

[siawsharingan 1]

i also have a suggestion,make sure that the pattern of the game cant be notice so that the game is not as easy as anybody thinks

[siawsharingan 1]

That's right! I like RPG game design about that because some detective games that I've played is interactive only. I mean you'll just click and click.

i agree to some detectieve games you just click until one point you can find out the truth without thinking

[Eisuke 3]

I think there should be only one chance for the detective to choose a suspect and it is not revealed to be right or wrong until the very end when everyone has chosen.

[Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197]

I wonder if the creator is still reading this topic?

Well, I suddenly became interested and came in to take a look.

(And suddenly decided that this was interesting and decided to give an idea XD)

How about something like... (Idea 1 + Idea 2)

For the start, the game has a storyline and stages.

Idea 1:

Each stage, instead of identifying the culprit straight away like Eisuke said, the detectives are to reduce the number of suspects (like by 1). Of course, in every stage, more suspects might be added or stuff.

Each suspect has something to be suspected about and detectives are to look for evidence that they are not the suspect. They are to decide who is not the culprit and then proceed to provide evidence. (Be it items or speech)

Idea 2:

Each stage, instead of reducing the number of suspects, the detective is to increase the number of suspects or prove that their alibi is false.

Each suspect provides something to prove that they are not the culprit. The detective has to eliminate these proofs one by one and at the same time, look for evidence that they are the culprit.

Idea 3:

... Basically Idea 1 + Idea 2.

Ok. Done.

[Rukia Kurosaki 357]

To add a level of excitement, you could add in the element of psychology~

In order to get past a certain stumbling block in the case, you could have the 'detective' ascertain the most likely suspects based on the logistics of the case, or decide a line of investigation to pursue, whether it be looking into a certain character, the weapon/situation/scene, or even the alibis of the suspects.

Also, to add another degree of suspense, there could be another target or the case could be interrelated with several others in a series of serial cases that have never been solved.

If you need any help with writing a case, I can come up with something if given a general outline or theme~

[Saezar 4]

Heck,i've been wrapping my head around a detective game concept since two years ago and i found this topic only now!

I've got TONS of ideas for such game,the catch is explaining them via text,heh!

One possible feature could be a "Deductive Reasoning Phase" where,when the player thinks he has enough hints and proofs,to "connect" thoughts using said proofs/hints as a link.

much more like this

Of course taking a path wouldn't exclude the other ones,but it will take time to find out.And you may lose track of the suspects like this!

The passage from a "Thought" to the next one might be "blocked" by a question such as:

................................................................/Who?--hint

A)OMICIDE---[Proof]---If it is Omicide then--| How?--evidence

................................................................\Why?--questioning

or: B)SUICIDE---etc. etc.( don't want to write the map again! :|)

I'd suggest to not use any official characters;It's a real pain in the back.

I'd LOVE to help out for the graphics and the characters/plot,if you guys want!

Oh yeah there are more concepts to add to this,which is just a tiny part of a whole gameplay!

I just have to recollect my Game Designs Sheets Notebook.

[LordAichi 2]

Since you're going for online, I think it would work best to have a Detective side of gameplay, a Murder side, and a Bystander/Witness side of gameplay. 

 

Game starts, players are randomly assigned a role. 1 Detective, 1 Murderer, 4 Normal Blokes. (Maybe once it was developed, other setups could be created?)

 

Murder selects a place for the crime scene, (for example) A Home, a Work Environment, or a School. 

Murder selects strike method (Lights go out, Everyone Goes to sleep or other interesting ideas)

 

The for the first x-minutes the murderer and the normal blokes are in the home. They can talk to eachother, walk around, and do other various tasks. Each player is given a location within the home they are to go to, they have 'random' tasks they must do. This is just to keep everyone busy. The murder doesn't really have tasks given to him, instead he is setting up the murder. He is able to

 

- Place False Evidence

- Setup aspects of the crime such as a rope for hanging, an ice block, ect

 

There would likely be pre determined murder methods, each with certain 'setups' (maybe each method would have 1-3 possible setups?) and with certain evidence that the game will create. The murder is given various pieces for placing false evidence. 

 

Likely the tasks people are given to do should also be placing items in certain locations, certain things could be empty (meaningless) and certain could coincidentally be potential evidence. The murder could place meaningless items when other people were around, and evidence when people weren't. Or he could try to be brave, place evidence and simply say it was the task the game gave him. He could be caught, because lets say, each player is given one thing to place every minute. There are 5 minutes. This means unless he can do something when absolutely nobody is looking, he can only place 5 items. If he places all 5 evidence, people will be suspicious. But if he does all 5 normal items, he won't have much evidence to throw the detective off when he arrives.

 

Then the lights go off, and the murder plan is put into action, and the true evidence is placed in the world. 

 

The detective arrives, see's which of the methods was used and determines what evidence must appear. If he can figure out which evidence is real, he would know which of the methods was used and be able to deduce if certain people had certain signs. For example, he determines the broken window is real, the bullet outside is real, and that hand gun in the bathroom was used for it. He checks the prints on the hand gun (as opposed to say, the sword or the rope) and determines 3 of the people came into contact with it. (2 were moving it around, and 1 was the murderer.. hmm..) He asks people 'who was given the hand gun to move in the pre-detective phase? 2 people would answer, because it's true. But the murderer knows he needs to pretend it was him. So he says he did also.. making 3 claims. All 3 match the hand prints. A person points out 'I saw player A moving it from the bedroom to the bathroom during phase 3' Another says I saw player B Moving it from the bathroom to the living room in phase 4.' Somebody says 'so it was Player C then?' but, in reality player B moved it during phase 4, as one of his 'actions' But then 3 others say I saw player C moving it as well, and can confirm it was the only thing he moved during the phase.' Then somebody says 'Hey! I saw player B place a rag during phase 4! He used TWO actions!' and that would be the murderers error. 

 

If the detective hadn't figured it out during this, he could have examined each player to see who had gun powder on them. But certain people could be given backstories that made this apply to them as well.

 

Basic phases'

 

A. Players are given tasks to move, place, or pick up items around the location. They can talk and see eachother.

B. Detective arrives , he can perform an autopsy, check finger prints, and ask players what they were told to place. He has to determine for himself who he trusts, and who might be lying. Assuming he trusted someone, he could ignore the evidence they placed during their 5 phases. 

C. Detective is told to deduce the culprit, if he is right, Town/Detective Win if he is wrong, Murder Wins. 

 

Tactics

The detective has to get everyones statements for all of these aspects, he then see's if anyone contradicts eachother, and can determine that it's likely one of the people who contradict eachother is the killer, and the other is town. The Detective tries to determine for himself what evidence he thinks was placed by town, and then looks at the remaining pool of evidence. He checks which way the victim was killed, and considers the 3 possible setups. (setups being combinations of evidence that could become that murder method.. if that makes sense) and deduces which evidence was likely actually used, and which was placed to misslead him. (A killer tactic here would be to place 3 false pieces of evidence that exactly lined up to another setup of the same murder method, or 2 of them if there was 1 piece that worked for both)

He also must consider what players saw other players do. (witnesses )

 

The killer needs to keep his story straight, know who he can disagree with, and act like he only placed 5 items.

 

4 people will tell the truth about what they placed, so most of the items will be accounted for. The liar will act like his are real, so those will likely end up being considered fake, rendering them fairly useless.  leaving only a few pieces of evidence. The detective can determine that among what's left, is the real evidence, and anything the criminal placed. Assuming this occured, if there was 3 things left, the detective would know they are the evidence he should use the investigative results from (finger prints, and things of the sort) But if there are more than 5, he'll have to think about it a little bit. 

 

But, the murderer knows what evidence will be placed and where because of his crime plan (He should be able to choose the location, the in-location place for the murder, the murder method, ect) so if he remembers/knows who saw him place what during what of the 5 phases, he can say he placed something during a certain phase, that actually showed up during the crime. But he needs to be wary of players, because if he says he placed it during phase 1, and another player had to do something in that same section, during phase 1.. they'll know he's lying.) Mafia has to know which lies to tell, and which truths to cause mayhem, and make someone else seem like the bad guy. 

 

this would be very difficult to plan, but if set up properly it could be the perfect online detective game. Balancing psychology, induction, deduction and elegant detective mechanics. This is obviously a very incomplete thought, but it gets the idea of how the game would play across. There would need to be lots of planning..

[Uzumaki Kudo 0]

I too love games especially mystery ihope soon there will be a game of Detective conan And magic kaito

[Shryder 0]

lolbump, good idea there but RIP

[cyrus8088 2]

How about a game where there are 5 innocent, 1 murderer and 1 detective

 

 The computer can decide which role is yours, and depending on the random choose of it, you'll take that role

 

This can be a room based game where you need to travel from A room to B room to make sure the murderer doesn't see you when they commit their crime and the detective needs to find out who it is before he's the one killed next (Game over for the detective is when all innocents are killed) 

 

and the roles reversed for the rest of the roles, how does that sound?