“JUDGE” is a puzzle-solving interactive novel game, that takes place in the late 1980s fictional dystopian country “The New Republic of Chiu”. Player can play as the government employed investigator Yao Bang working for the “Committee of Justice” to solve a series of various cases, and discover the truth about this tyrannical society.
Players’ objective is to utilize the computer system to track suspects the organization wants to investigate. By examining identity details, spending records, and emails, players can conclude whether the suspect is guilty or not. Ultimately, it's up to the player to decide whether to submit the correct information to arrest the suspect.
Notable Contributions
· Designed and developed the in-game “Operation Manual” as a text tutorial within the levels
· Designed and implemented a unique start scene of the game
· Designed and implemented a unique start scene of the game
Stories Behind
Notebook System
At first, we planned to design a notebook system in order to record all the clues and events players collected, and a to-do list that guides the players.
While designing and implementing this system, I realized that it had a lot of overlapped functions with the bulletin board system, a system that was responsible for showing all the clues the players collected, and some evidence players printed out. I shared this concern with my teammates. As we could not come to a conclusion, I decided to cut this system and work on another system.
Later, during a playtest, I realized that the lack of a tutorial in our game could confuse players. To address this, I came up with the idea of creating an "operation manual" to guide players through the game. This manual not only helped improve players' immersion but also added an enjoyable element of discovery while players searched for solutions. Additionally, it allowed me to reuse some of the features I had originally developed, such as the index page and page-flipping functionality.
Moodboard for notebook
Sketch of systems for Judge
Operation Manual at last
Start Menu
This project required developing a game based on a previous version created by one of our teammates. In the original JUDGE, players begin by clicking the power button of the computer, a simple yet immersive way to introduce the office staff character. Inspired by this, the goal was to create an equally immersive start menu that would instantly show the player's role as an office staff.
The starting scene requires players to enter a password to access the system, while also addressing the game's lack of a tutorial. To help players learn basic controls, a simple puzzle was incorporated. By limiting interactions to just two objects—the computer password input and a printed paper on the board—players could easily grasp the mechanics.
Start Menu
In case you got stuck playing JUDGE, check the guidance below.
