Save Me This Jazz - A Film Noir detective game

Repi · Wed 02/04/2025 20:47:28

The Story:

Once again Broderick's bad habits make a good excuse to drive people away. His girl Lauren is gone, but this time for good. And she doesn't want to be found. One day Broderick gets a call from Marty, a bartender, who keeps a local bar called Blue Note. Lauren has emerged, but she has locked herself in the bar's bathroom with silence.

Broderick has to ditch the booze for good, turn on his detective and verbal skills one last time, and go out with a bang. If nothing else.

Some Expected Things:

- Mystery and Suspense.
- Hardboiled Dialogue.
- Classic adventure game puzzles.
- Resolution 320x200.
- Dark jazz music score.

Development Hell:

The main inspiration came from the original The Twilight Zone and Film Noir. I think both have something so unique that is hard to replicate in any medium, so why not try it. TZ has the perfect storm of mystery, suspense, wonder, and unexpected ending. I have also admired the witty and tough language of film noir, which is not so common anymore. These days hardboiled words would beat people into a comma.

Play Here

The game is in the database

soulstuff · Thu 03/04/2025 00:19:39

Congrats on the release!

For the screenshot part you need to use the i.imgur.com/[IMAGECODE].png or whatever extension to make it work. In your case it's
- https://i.imgur.com/PEzg2Lq.png
- https://i.imgur.com/fQVG4QV.png

If you want to show it on the post

heltenjon · Thu 03/04/2025 00:38:18

Title screen:

Spoiler

[close]

Gameplay:

Spoiler

[close]

Repi · Thu 03/04/2025 04:10:53

Quote from: soulstuff on Thu 03/04/2025 00:19:39Congrats on the release!

For the screenshot part you need to use the i.imgur.com/[IMAGECODE].png or whatever extension to make it work. In your case it's
- https://i.imgur.com/PEzg2Lq.png
- https://i.imgur.com/fQVG4QV.png

If you want to show it on the post

Excellent, thank you so much! It's fixed now.

Repi · Thu 03/04/2025 18:01:28

And it's in the database!

Creamy · Mon 14/04/2025 22:39:35

Congrats on your first game!

Here are my first impressions after 20 minutes of play:
- I like the jaded/noir/Max Payne kind of banter. It gives personality to your characters.
- I haven't solved the mystery yet but it's intriguing.

Now, some suggestions :

- consider adding appropriate reactions and thoughts when the player tries inventory items on people or hotspots. It's half the fun in point and click games. Right now it's very bare.

- please add a GUI to display the name of hotspots when the mouse hovers over them.
It's easy to do and saves gamers from clicking everywhere.
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/beginners-technical-questions/hotspots-description-in-the-gui/

- the GUI with the faces feels janky. I wish it would pop up as soon as I hover the mouse on the lower part of the screen, and I wish I could use the inventory items directly on the faces (without opening the clue window). The clues that have been found don't remain visible.

Keep up the good work.

Repi · Wed 16/04/2025 12:16:30

QuoteCongrats on your first game!

Here are my first impressions after 20 minutes of play:
- I like the jaded/noir/Max Payne kind of banter. It gives personality to your characters.
- I haven't solved the mystery yet but it's intriguing.

Thanks, appreciate it!

I really tried to nail that mysterious noir atmosphere and dialogue without being satire, so this feedback really warms my heart.

QuoteNow, some suggestions :

- consider adding appropriate reactions and thoughts when the player tries inventory items on people or hotspots. It's half the fun in point and click games. Right now it's very bare.

Initially I had a huge amount banter, reactions and thoughts, but they started to feel like it was too much. I probably cut about 60% of everything. To me, it felt more clean to keep it more punchier, but I do understand that it feels bare. Something to think about, for sure.

Quote- please add a GUI to display the name of hotspots when the mouse hovers over them.
It's easy to do and saves gamers from clicking everywhere.
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/beginners-technical-questions/hotspots-description-in-the-gui/

I thought about it, and I got this feedback in the testing phase too, but I decided against it. When it comes to mystery, I like a little bit exploration and discovery, and not too much handhelding. Probably not the most rational thought in this context, as pixel hunt has a bad rap for a reason

My setting is just so compact, so I thought it wouldn't be an issue. Oh well.

Quote- the GUI with the faces feels janky. I wish it would pop up as soon as I hover the mouse on the lower part of the screen, and I wish I could use the inventory items directly on the faces (without opening the clue window). The clues that have been found don't remain visible.

Putting the clues on the faces didn't feel intuitive to me at that time, but hovering the mouse sounds so simple and obvious in retrospect that I don't know why I didn't do it! I have to look into it.

I'm really glad about this feedback, and I'm looking forward to hear more from you or anyone else!

Repi · Sun 20/04/2025 15:47:19

Quote- the GUI with the faces feels janky. I wish it would pop up as soon as I hover the mouse on the lower part of the screen, and I wish I could use the inventory items directly on the faces (without opening the clue window). The clues that have been found don't remain visible.

I looked into this. In the engine, there's a premade option, where you hover the mouse on the top of the screen for the inventory to appear, but not for the bottom. I'm sure this could be coded in some way, but I don't know how to do it at the moment.

I'm not sure what you mean, when you say the clues won't remain visible? Only the relevant clues can be added to the right suspect and should remain on list. Otherwise Broderick just says no (or something).