Conviction Chronicles blog post #2 - Influence Game and main floors are done

 Judge Replacement

I'll get this out of the way, it's not going to matter for a long while, but I might as well state it. Originally I had the judge for the future Trials being a giant guy, but they didn't really have much of a personality for them and they didn't fit the theme I made for him representing overbearing chaos/judgement. It's a bigger role for a guaranteed antagonist, so they needed to fit the role. I also had some other problems, an animal mascot was already filled with Stripey, and having another wouldn't be the smartest since it would diminish them both. So I decided to use a new character I came up with called Bianca. Her design has lots of pink with colorization with her eyes and she has bandages on her arms. Changing the Judge to Bianca allows more of a commentary about kids not understanding the true scope of crime/death along with commentary about child stars. The disconnect with the situation and her would allow for a more antagonistic role and actions being more wacky. Which falls in line with other parts of the game being treated like a game show. I honestly don't know yet if she will have personal events like the rest of the cast or be more separated from them. Maybe something as a hidden secret only certain characters can access. I might change an idea I have for a secret to do something more with Bianca. Depends on how I feel on it when I get to that point.

Influence Game

This took a while to make. But it's made to always cause some sort of tension added per day, progression with the relationships of the cast members with showcasing it before a trial, and adds something consistent with each day outside eating or not. 

Influence Points are something very important. Each Cast Member starts the game with 3 and it's reset to 3 after each trial. What is the point of them? They allow someone to do more actions during a Trial to influence the outcome. 

For Example, let's say Shanks has 5 IP and Agatha has 0. Agatha has very limited options during the Trial. Shanks has much more of an influence to bring things to light. This gives Shanks an advantage, since there isn't much Agatha could do if Shanks wanted to use his 5 IP to frame Agatha for a murder.

The Influence game is very inspired from Virtue's Last Reward, which has the AB game, this is like that with the prisoner's dilemma.

Everybody is put into pairs outside the one Remainer and they are given a group to fight.

Slot 1 +2 vs Slot 3+4

Slot 5 +6 vs Slot 7+8

Slot 9 +10 vs Slot 11+12

Slot 13 +14 vs Slot 15

This is randomized each time it is done. If someone is dead or unable to join due to being tied up, they are automatically going to Collaborate. 

There are two options. Collaborate and Sabotage. 

If the two teams collaborate. Everybody in both teams gets 1 point added.

If one Collaborates and the other Sabotages, then the Sabotager gets 3 points while the Collaborators lose 2.

If both Sabotage, then there is nothing gained or lost.

The player gets stuck in a room with their teammate, if they are alive, and they say what they want to do based on how they feel on the other team. The player can agree or disagree. Disagreeing forces it to a game of Rock Paper Scissors until there is a winner and the winner's desire is put through.

Shanks has a special ability where his choice will always be the one used.

After the choice is made, the results are revealed, everybody reacts to what happened, and people go into the cafe right afterwards. By forcing the game to happen before breakfast, it makes it where an investigation cannot start right then and there, and a murder is revealed afterwards. So if someone doesn't show up, it could mean they are dead before an investigation is called.

This took a bit to code, but it mostly works flawlessly. It solves many problems for pacing and tension adding this game. And it makes the Trials much easier to code having Influence Points being the main goal. It also adds much more gameplay depth. You can make yourself look less trustworthy for IP, or you can collaborate with someone who you know will betray you to make yourself look more innocent. You have no idea how many days until the next trial, so the risk of losing or gaining points at a certain time is huge. 

This ended up being the result of removing the solitary confinement mechanic. Since having it removes more options for later by removing bad items from the game when selected, and this has much better pacing and interactions.

Floor 2

3 main things can be done here:

Working:

Working gives the player money with spending energy with a chance to injure them.

Crafting:

Almost everything can be crafted or deconstructed. So a backpack can turned into fabric which can be turned into a hat. Or a weapon can be melted back into metal after being crafted from metal.

Free box:

Every day, the box has some sort of item in there to collect. it's first come, first serve. But it gives some sort of crafting material.

Floor 3:

Anything on this floor has anybody else in the room have their likeness of you and anybody in the room go up.

Parlor:

This allows the player to play Baccarat with a machine to bet money they have. Uses the card graphical assets I used in Upsteam Ante. Emma can cheat against the machine to trick it in that it ends in a tie.

Library:

Reads a random book.

Music Room:

Plays some random piano music.

Pool:

A giant pool to swim in. Can be trapped with a toaster to kill anybody who swims.

Gaming Room:

Play video games. (I have to add something for Nova here to try to hack the game to get more information about what is going on)

Floor 4:

This is mostly for the Medical Room. 

There is a water fountain for water, it can be contaminated.

Drug Cabinets where drugs can be stolen. Once per day. 

Painkiller Cabinet is where painkillers are stored. The bottle labels can be edited to cause someone to overdose. Once per day as well.

Hospital beds: There are three of them at a time. Someone who is injured can go into one and become frozen until the next day to fully restore themselves. But the machine behind the beds control it. So anybody can come along and collect data on the Injury they have to use it in a Trial. But they can also switch it on or off. If it's off, anybody in the hospital bed will die. If it's on, it works as normal. Makes healing from injuries much more risky, where using painkillers might make you overdose, a hospital bed is faster but with more risk.

Love Hotel:

Actually haven't started this yet, since I want to make the free time character interactions first before making the place where romance happens.

Floor 5:

This place is different since it has waterfalls and a small park. In the middle there is a bench with a metal floor. Anybody can sit there to relax. But the metal floor can fall down to kill whoever is sitting on the bench by making them fall to their deaths. With a screwdriver, the screws can be removed or placed back on.

I might add one more mechanic to this area.

Anything else?

I need to make sure everything is 100% working correctly without bugs before moving on, and I do want to add some stuff for unique mechanics for the cast members like Nova.

The next order of doing things are:

1. Finalize the layout and everything that can be done within them

2. Set up the UI to look more polished.

3. Do the free time events with everybody and make the love hotel content.

4. Make the title screen and some sort of intro for a demo to boot the game if exported to play, just in case I want to make the Steam Page around this time.

After that then I can figure out the AI and then the trials, or do something first like the intro/main tutorial that is more finalized. 

Going to take a while to do everything. It's going to be slow but steady, it will be worth it.