Zoe's Design Journal: Retrospective Design Patterns

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Our group in this Design Week decided to make a Point and Click Visual Novel.  Since our theme was mystery, we decided to add in clues that would help the player in their investigation.  A Post-Grad and I were responsible for designing and programming the Journal.  The Journal included a picture of the clue, the name, and a brief description.  Clues are collected by clicking on them.  The images are made to stand out from the background with bolder colours and differences in the scene.

The clues that were included were things that the characters would talk about before appearing.  That way, it’s fresh in the player’s mind when they find the clue.  In Figure 1 I have just left the Valaraks’ house and found these footprints.  I was just having a conversation about footprints she saw and some details about them.  These details are rephrased and placed in the Journal so if the player needs to revisit the evidence, it is accessible to them (rather than them need to remember everything they’ve read).

The Journal system was inspired by the Pokédex.  In the Pokémon series, players catch and evolve Pokémon, which then get added to their Pokédex.  The Pokédex includes a picture of the Pokémon, their statistics, and a brief description about them.  The right side of the Journal takes inspiration from Figure 3 and the left Figure 2.

If I were to revisit this project, I would make sure the clues were more consistent.  There’s a case where a household mentions a stand of hair they found and give the player some details on it (Figure 4).  After the dialogue ends however, there is no strand to be seen (Figure 5).  Every other interaction has something and this one doesn’t, but it’s set up to have a clue.  Another thing that could enhance this system is if there were more clues that the player could investigate.  These additional clues would be ones that aren’t already discussed with the characters.  Only having the clues be ones the characters talk about leaves less room for interpretation on the player’s part.  Allowing for more exploration and thinking could add an extra layer to the game.