FRIDAY
Game Production Lab
You're a detective who's just wrapped a murder investigation, when your dedicated assistant, Friday, is found dead in a stranger's apartment. Collect physical evidence and interview suspects, and then use what you've found and lies you've figured out to try to find her killer.
Friday is a 3D walking simulator with narrative puzzle elements designed to simulate the experience of being a detective. Friday will begin production in January of 2020.
Creative Director
I wrote the documentation detailing the themes, mechanics, level direction, and narrative plot and characters for Friday. I worked with a small team of 5 to help nail down the specifics of the concept, and help flesh out the prototype. Following our selection to continue production, I worked with our new team of 25 to bring my concept to life.
Why "Friday"?
I love the detective fiction and detective TV, but it's rare that I see that genre translate well into games. Part of the appeal of the genre are the absolutely stringent connections the detective character makes that lead to an arrest, and you can't expect that kind of deductive reasoning out of an average player. Even if you could, the experience wouldn't be fun.
With that challenge in mind, a lot of games I have played seem to overcorrect and remove all element of challenge or deduction. Instead of giving the player the room to make real connections and deductions, many detective games are more about searching for the most likely answer in a list of multiple choice options.
The goal of "Friday" was to create a detective experience, and really allow the player to do detective work. Examine scenes, question witnesses, and collect evidence.
Base Mechanics
The game is top-down, with a view of the player character and the surrounding room.
The player can move around, select items in the room to examine them, move to different rooms, and interact with NPC's.
Key Mechanics
The Journal is how the player keeps track of Evidence and Testimony.
All items which can be examined can be photographed, and then added to the Journal. Some items may have additional clues hidden on them, and will add an extra piece of Evidence to the Journal.
All pieces of dialogue can also be recorded to the Journal, as Testimony.
All pieces of Evidence and Testimony can be used in conversation with an NPC. with up to two at one time, in any combination. IE, you can show an NPC one piece of dialogue, or one piece of dialogue + one piece of evidence, two pieces of evidence, so on and so forth. This represents showing the photograph of the evidence to an NPC, or recalling a specific thing an NPC said, and asking the NPC about it. This mechanic is the primary method of advancing the story, finding connections, and uncovering falsehoods.
For example, Bernard has several unusual items in his apartment, such as many empty bottles of beer, packages of yeast, and an exceptionally unusual "water heater" tucked behind a screen. When you talk to Bernard, he will come up with excuses as to why he has those things. However, if you show him a combination of those items, you may convince him to tell you about the brewery he's running out of his apartment - which also happens to be the primary reason he's being evicted. By examining the scene and making connections between these objects, you can uncover Bernard's lies and discover a new avenue of questioning.
Check out our build on our Itch.io page at the link below:
