This was fun! It was cool being able to explore in 3D, and the environment looks pretty good.
For your first game jam, great job!
A couple smaller issues:
The lighting, while it does fit the setting, made it hard to read sometimes
For me personally, the camera speed felt a bit slow when rotating it and it would sometimes go a bit crazy
I like how we can also talk to the victim, who makes a groaning sound - that made me laugh. :D
Thoughts about the story: (spoilers below)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
First off, I like the initial setup about the other characters and who might've done it, based on the dialogue clues.
While I'm not against the twist of YOU, the player character, being the murderer - I felt a bit cheated based on what I discovered in-game during my playthrough.
I found the debtor's note, the note under the victim's bed ("trust no one, not even yourself"), the poison in the Viking's room, and the poison and matches in the MC's room. I assumed the MC was being framed, either by the other character who shared their first initial (i.e. random fluke), or the victim's brother, who would have known about the debtor's notice - and could have used that opportunity to kill his brother, frame the player, and become the sole inheritor of the castle & kingdom.
I just *happened* to pick a character name that shared the first initial with another character, so when I saw the "Debtor's Notice," I figured that was referring to the other character, assuming a fair play mystery (which has an implicit assumption that the detective is the not the murderer).
I don't like how a player can have an easier or harder time depending on which name they choose for themselves. e.g. If we enter a name starting with 'A', there are what, 3 or 4 other character that share that first initial? Versus picking a name starting with a letter that doesn't overlap at all with the other suspects, like 'Z'.
When I found the note saying "Trust no one, not even yourself", I did have some suspicions regarding the player character, so I went and checked the player's room and found suspicious evidence there... which made me think that the player was being framed for the murder. Just as the player planted evidence in Bjorn's room, another character could have done the same thing to frame the player character.
Also, not sure if I ran out of time and missed something or just overlooked what was there, but were there any clues during the game itself about the significance of the matches? I only learned about that after making my guess, and then the game's like "Oh btw, those matches found in your room? Yeaaaaah, they were really important to the murder", which was a complete surprise to me. Did I overlook something?
IMO making the player character just a "guest and friend," rather than a/the detective, would've made the twist feel more fair to me.
Anyway, despite all of this, I still enjoyed the game. Thanks for making it!
I'm really glad that you enjoyed my game, and as I mentioned, this was both my first game jam and the first full game I’ve managed to finish—so it was definitely a learning experience! Making a story-based game turned out to be trickier than I expected, especially when trying to balance surprise twists with a fair mystery.
About the technical part:
You're right about the lighting and camera sensitivity. I’ll definitely look into adding a settings menu in the future so players can adjust things like volume and mouse sensitivity to what feels best for them. Thanks for pointing that out!
Spoilers
.
.
.
About the story and mystery:
I really appreciate your detailed feedback—it’s super helpful.
I actually noticed the issue with the first-letter name matching and did think about ways to fix it. I thought about adding a full name or signature to the debtor’s notice so it wouldn’t rely just on the first letter, but at the time I was worried that might feel too forced or take away from the mystery. I decided to leave it as it was, because I liked the idea of making the player feel unsure. But looking back, I can see how that might confuse players or feel unfair depending on the name they chose.
As for the matches: you're right again—I could’ve explained their importance better. There were matches in the player’s room and also in the storage room near one of the barrels, and my goal was to make players wonder if the matches in their room had been planted there. But I didn’t give enough clues or context for that idea to really come through, so that’s something I’ll try to do better in future games.
And I totally understand your point about the detective role. Having the MC as a guest or outsider might’ve made the twist feel more fair and created a clearer line between what the player expects and how the story plays out. My thinking at the time was pretty simple—why would a regular guest suddenly take on the role of solving a murder? But your idea makes a lot of sense, and I’ll definitely keep it in mind for future projects.
Thank you again for playing and leaving such thoughtful feedback—it really helps me improve, and I’m glad you still had fun with the game despite some of the rough parts!
Wow, so this is also your first complete game? That's awesome - congrats! 🎉🥳
Yeah, it's definitely a tricky balance to strike when creating a mystery story. *EDIT: I feel like "The Suspect" is almost there, but it's missing a couple dotted i's and crossed t's, as you mentioned. There's a reason mystery writers came up with a list of "fair play rules," whether that's Ronald Knox's "Commandments" or Van Dine's Rules. Kinjo Goldbar, the host of the jam, has a lengthy post and video talking about making mystery game visual novels, although I feel like it applies to any kind of mystery game/story.
Ahhh, gotcha, so that was the intended connection to the storage room - makes sense. 👍 I guess I didn't notice them there, since the storage room was the first place I checked and I didn't seem to find anything near or around the barrels, despite one of the characters telling me to look there for clues. 😅 Maybe I missed them because I wasn't looking for them there, and by the time I found the other ones, the countdown was almost up so I didn't have a chance to double back.
Out of curiosity, have you ever played Murder Most Misfortunate (also available on Steam)? It's more of a visual novel, but "The Suspect" reminds me of a game jam version of it, which is pretty cool! e.g. MM has an option for a real live countdown timer, after which you have to present your deductions.
Regarding the lighting and camera sensitivity, I'm glad you're considering adding settings for those in a future build! 🙏 Also, if you wanted to patch those in, on the Mystery Gamedev Discord server, Kinjo mentioned that jam participants can upload additional game builds (with things like updated features, bug fixes, etc.) as separate files (with a new upload file name) - so long as the build of the game submitted for the jam is preserved, for voting purposes - should you decide to do that. (e.g. The Suspect v1.1.zip)
Oh yeah, and one more small suggestion: personally, I find the background colour + text colour combination on the game's itch page hard to read. 🙈 Maybe brighter coloured text would stand out more against the grey background? Kinjo said on the Discord that it's okay for developers to update their game page even though the jam is over, since that's not part of the judging criteria, so feel free to tweak or mess around with that.
Again, great job! The game itself is pretty fun, and the "core" of it feels almost there, which is impressive for your first full game, especially given the time constraints of the jam! 👏
Hey, thank you so much again for the kind words and thoughtful feedback—it really means a lot to me, especially since this was my first fully finished game and my first game jam!
Yeah, finding that balance in a mystery story turned out to be much tougher than I expected. I hadn't heard of Knox's Commandments or Van Dine’s Rules before, so I’m definitely going to check those out! Also, thanks for mentioning Kinjo’s post/video—I’ll dig into that too, sounds super useful.
Regarding the matches: I totally get that! The clue in the storage room was a bit too subtle, and I didn’t guide the player well enough toward it. Your point about running out of time before being able to double back makes a lot of sense, and I’ll be more mindful of pacing and visual emphasis in the future.
And wow—I haven’t played Murder Most Misfortunate, but that sounds really cool! I’ll definitely check it out; it’s awesome to hear that The Suspect reminded you of that, even a little bit!
About the settings: thanks for confirming that I can upload additional builds! I actually didn’t realize at first that bugfixes should go in separate files. I did update the original jam build early on, but after learning the correct way to do it, I’ve reverted it and will upload all future fixes or changes as separate files (like “The Suspect v1.1.zip”), so that the original jam version remains unchanged for judging.
And yep—you’re totally right about the Itch page. 🙈 I didn’t test the text/background combo on different screens, so I’ll definitely brighten the text to make it easier to read.
Thanks again for playing and for all your awesome suggestions. Super helpful and motivating!
Happy to help, especially with such a solid first game! :D And I love how to open to constructive feedback you are - that's also a good sign. 👏
Re: the matches, even if I did have more time (another 1-2 minutes may have been helpful for me, but maybe other players might find that too long?), I'm not sure I would have gone back there to have another look during my initial playthrough, since I felt like I had no reason to. It sounds like you were on the right track when planting that clue though! 🔥
One other random thing I remembered: in the brothers' room, there's that suitcase-like object with a cross type pattern on it - I kept trying to find a way to open it lol, since it seemed like it might contain something hidden inside of it.
If this is your starting point, I'm excited to see the games you work on in the future! 😄
EDIT: And I'm really liking what you've done with the game's itch page now! LET'S GOOOOO! 💀🔪🔍🔥
Thank you so much again—your support honestly means a lot! 😄
Yeah, you’re totally right about the matches clue. I think the storage room clue could work, but only if the player had a stronger reason to go back there. I’ll definitely keep that in mind and try to make future clues either more compelling or better hinted through dialogue or events. And adding an extra minute or two of investigation time is a good idea—balancing time pressure with exploration is definitely something I’m still learning!
Haha, I love that you tried to open that suitcase in the brothers’ room! 😄 It was meant to just be a prop, but now I kind of wish I had hidden something inside! Maybe next time… 👀
Really glad to hear you like the updates to the Itch page too—LET’S GOOOO indeed! 🔥
Thanks again for being so helpful and enthusiastic. Feedback like yours is super motivating and honestly helps me grow a lot as a developer. Looking forward to what comes next!
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Show post...
Oh cool! I'm excited to try it out - I love game jams!
You look like the type of person who'd enjoy this jam: WOW JAM
They have a very interesting platform and are even offering prizes xD
This was fun! It was cool being able to explore in 3D, and the environment looks pretty good.
For your first game jam, great job!
A couple smaller issues:
I like how we can also talk to the victim, who makes a groaning sound - that made me laugh. :D
Thoughts about the story: (spoilers below)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
First off, I like the initial setup about the other characters and who might've done it, based on the dialogue clues.
While I'm not against the twist of YOU, the player character, being the murderer - I felt a bit cheated based on what I discovered in-game during my playthrough.
I found the debtor's note, the note under the victim's bed ("trust no one, not even yourself"), the poison in the Viking's room, and the poison and matches in the MC's room. I assumed the MC was being framed, either by the other character who shared their first initial (i.e. random fluke), or the victim's brother, who would have known about the debtor's notice - and could have used that opportunity to kill his brother, frame the player, and become the sole inheritor of the castle & kingdom.
I just *happened* to pick a character name that shared the first initial with another character, so when I saw the "Debtor's Notice," I figured that was referring to the other character, assuming a fair play mystery (which has an implicit assumption that the detective is the not the murderer).
I don't like how a player can have an easier or harder time depending on which name they choose for themselves. e.g. If we enter a name starting with 'A', there are what, 3 or 4 other character that share that first initial? Versus picking a name starting with a letter that doesn't overlap at all with the other suspects, like 'Z'.
When I found the note saying "Trust no one, not even yourself", I did have some suspicions regarding the player character, so I went and checked the player's room and found suspicious evidence there... which made me think that the player was being framed for the murder. Just as the player planted evidence in Bjorn's room, another character could have done the same thing to frame the player character.
Also, not sure if I ran out of time and missed something or just overlooked what was there, but were there any clues during the game itself about the significance of the matches? I only learned about that after making my guess, and then the game's like "Oh btw, those matches found in your room? Yeaaaaah, they were really important to the murder", which was a complete surprise to me. Did I overlook something?
IMO making the player character just a "guest and friend," rather than a/the detective, would've made the twist feel more fair to me.
Anyway, despite all of this, I still enjoyed the game. Thanks for making it!
I'm really glad that you enjoyed my game, and as I mentioned, this was both my first game jam and the first full game I’ve managed to finish—so it was definitely a learning experience! Making a story-based game turned out to be trickier than I expected, especially when trying to balance surprise twists with a fair mystery.
About the technical part:
You're right about the lighting and camera sensitivity. I’ll definitely look into adding a settings menu in the future so players can adjust things like volume and mouse sensitivity to what feels best for them. Thanks for pointing that out!
Spoilers
.
.
.
About the story and mystery:
I really appreciate your detailed feedback—it’s super helpful.
I actually noticed the issue with the first-letter name matching and did think about ways to fix it. I thought about adding a full name or signature to the debtor’s notice so it wouldn’t rely just on the first letter, but at the time I was worried that might feel too forced or take away from the mystery. I decided to leave it as it was, because I liked the idea of making the player feel unsure. But looking back, I can see how that might confuse players or feel unfair depending on the name they chose.
As for the matches: you're right again—I could’ve explained their importance better. There were matches in the player’s room and also in the storage room near one of the barrels, and my goal was to make players wonder if the matches in their room had been planted there. But I didn’t give enough clues or context for that idea to really come through, so that’s something I’ll try to do better in future games.
And I totally understand your point about the detective role. Having the MC as a guest or outsider might’ve made the twist feel more fair and created a clearer line between what the player expects and how the story plays out. My thinking at the time was pretty simple—why would a regular guest suddenly take on the role of solving a murder? But your idea makes a lot of sense, and I’ll definitely keep it in mind for future projects.
Thank you again for playing and leaving such thoughtful feedback—it really helps me improve, and I’m glad you still had fun with the game despite some of the rough parts!
Wow, so this is also your first complete game? That's awesome - congrats! 🎉🥳
Yeah, it's definitely a tricky balance to strike when creating a mystery story. *EDIT: I feel like "The Suspect" is almost there, but it's missing a couple dotted i's and crossed t's, as you mentioned. There's a reason mystery writers came up with a list of "fair play rules," whether that's Ronald Knox's "Commandments" or Van Dine's Rules. Kinjo Goldbar, the host of the jam, has a lengthy post and video talking about making mystery game visual novels, although I feel like it applies to any kind of mystery game/story.
Ahhh, gotcha, so that was the intended connection to the storage room - makes sense. 👍 I guess I didn't notice them there, since the storage room was the first place I checked and I didn't seem to find anything near or around the barrels, despite one of the characters telling me to look there for clues. 😅 Maybe I missed them because I wasn't looking for them there, and by the time I found the other ones, the countdown was almost up so I didn't have a chance to double back.
Out of curiosity, have you ever played Murder Most Misfortunate (also available on Steam)? It's more of a visual novel, but "The Suspect" reminds me of a game jam version of it, which is pretty cool! e.g. MM has an option for a real live countdown timer, after which you have to present your deductions.
Regarding the lighting and camera sensitivity, I'm glad you're considering adding settings for those in a future build! 🙏 Also, if you wanted to patch those in, on the Mystery Gamedev Discord server, Kinjo mentioned that jam participants can upload additional game builds (with things like updated features, bug fixes, etc.) as separate files (with a new upload file name) - so long as the build of the game submitted for the jam is preserved, for voting purposes - should you decide to do that. (e.g. The Suspect v1.1.zip)
Oh yeah, and one more small suggestion: personally, I find the background colour + text colour combination on the game's itch page hard to read. 🙈 Maybe brighter coloured text would stand out more against the grey background? Kinjo said on the Discord that it's okay for developers to update their game page even though the jam is over, since that's not part of the judging criteria, so feel free to tweak or mess around with that.
Again, great job! The game itself is pretty fun, and the "core" of it feels almost there, which is impressive for your first full game, especially given the time constraints of the jam! 👏
Hey, thank you so much again for the kind words and thoughtful feedback—it really means a lot to me, especially since this was my first fully finished game and my first game jam!
Yeah, finding that balance in a mystery story turned out to be much tougher than I expected. I hadn't heard of Knox's Commandments or Van Dine’s Rules before, so I’m definitely going to check those out! Also, thanks for mentioning Kinjo’s post/video—I’ll dig into that too, sounds super useful.
Regarding the matches: I totally get that! The clue in the storage room was a bit too subtle, and I didn’t guide the player well enough toward it. Your point about running out of time before being able to double back makes a lot of sense, and I’ll be more mindful of pacing and visual emphasis in the future.
And wow—I haven’t played Murder Most Misfortunate, but that sounds really cool! I’ll definitely check it out; it’s awesome to hear that The Suspect reminded you of that, even a little bit!
About the settings: thanks for confirming that I can upload additional builds! I actually didn’t realize at first that bugfixes should go in separate files. I did update the original jam build early on, but after learning the correct way to do it, I’ve reverted it and will upload all future fixes or changes as separate files (like “The Suspect v1.1.zip”), so that the original jam version remains unchanged for judging.
And yep—you’re totally right about the Itch page. 🙈 I didn’t test the text/background combo on different screens, so I’ll definitely brighten the text to make it easier to read.
Thanks again for playing and for all your awesome suggestions. Super helpful and motivating!
Happy to help, especially with such a solid first game! :D And I love how to open to constructive feedback you are - that's also a good sign. 👏
Re: the matches, even if I did have more time (another 1-2 minutes may have been helpful for me, but maybe other players might find that too long?), I'm not sure I would have gone back there to have another look during my initial playthrough, since I felt like I had no reason to. It sounds like you were on the right track when planting that clue though! 🔥
One other random thing I remembered: in the brothers' room, there's that suitcase-like object with a cross type pattern on it - I kept trying to find a way to open it lol, since it seemed like it might contain something hidden inside of it.
If this is your starting point, I'm excited to see the games you work on in the future! 😄
EDIT: And I'm really liking what you've done with the game's itch page now! LET'S GOOOOO! 💀🔪🔍🔥
Thank you so much again—your support honestly means a lot! 😄
Yeah, you’re totally right about the matches clue. I think the storage room clue could work, but only if the player had a stronger reason to go back there. I’ll definitely keep that in mind and try to make future clues either more compelling or better hinted through dialogue or events. And adding an extra minute or two of investigation time is a good idea—balancing time pressure with exploration is definitely something I’m still learning!
Haha, I love that you tried to open that suitcase in the brothers’ room! 😄 It was meant to just be a prop, but now I kind of wish I had hidden something inside! Maybe next time… 👀
Really glad to hear you like the updates to the Itch page too—LET’S GOOOO indeed! 🔥
Thanks again for being so helpful and enthusiastic. Feedback like yours is super motivating and honestly helps me grow a lot as a developer. Looking forward to what comes next!