FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD36 → The House on the Right

The House on the Right

By kai20

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vegevan 2016-08-29 20:00

About the game, the realision is a bit draft. Some light effect could have been done by Unity instead of white pixels on the objetcs (for instance). The movements are fine, we could totally see what was revelent or not. That was fun, thanks for the game ! ;)


Okay so let's try to find what happened !
--- SPOIL ---
This is the house of Mr and Ms Burnwood. We observe two bodies, one on the couch, the other near the main door with blood track on the ground from the other couch. The bullets are respectively in the tv in front of the big couch whereas the other bullet is in the second couch. The bullet-box (socket?) are both in the bathroom. It appears the shooter shot through the wall to kill the first one in the head, but miss the head of the other Burnwood. This one tries to reach crawling the main door where the security engine is broken where it died sit against a wall.
In the bedroom, we can observe boxes of medecines, might it be somniferes next to the bed and some selfies in the house.
Finally, many daily papers on the table and in the living room. The Burnwood are owner of a successful company but some day Ms Burnwood sells a fourth of the company. The name of Sarah Zuch is mentionned without any clue.
My conclusion : Some one wanted the Ms Burnwood stop to sell the company parts. Somehow, M. Burnwood didn't stop her so he deserved to die too. Maybe the second of the Burnwoods' company wanted the whole power and kill them both.

I fatally missed a clue, did the killer entered by the kitchen window ? Or is the third photo one of the secret lover of Ms Burnwood that came to avenge for waiting too long ? Dunno, give me the solution please :D

zeriver 2016-08-29 20:29

Really cool game, i love visual style and music fits perfectly and sets great mood. Gameplay concept is also interesting, maybe not completely fleshed out in your game, but i can imagine game where you just investigate crime scenes and try to figure out what happened, how it happened and why. Great game and idea overall, good job!

BTW: Could you please tell me how to achieve this visual effect? I would like to experiment with it.

blinry 2016-08-29 20:51

Our theory: Sarah came to visit Diana to complain about the loss in value of her 1/4 share of the company because of the financial crisis. They argued and spread the papers all around the living room. At the same time, Henry discovered the heart on the fridge and realized that Diana was cheating on him with the glasses dude. He got all mad, and because of his medication, he shot her through the wall. He turned to flee, saw Sarah, and had to kill her as well because she was a witness.

Can you tell us the solution? :) (I'm @blinry on Twitter)

We would have enjoyed a little more interaction (opening cupboards and stuff), or an in-game resolution, but we really enjoyed it as-is. Cool art style and fitting music!

We didn't find a connection to the theme.

keln 2016-08-30 13:54

So cool! The ambientation and the music made it. I'm bad at guessing things, good game :)

onyon 2016-08-30 15:43

Great music and graphics. Game gets you into a kinda mystery mood which is good. Thumbs up!

mvasko2 2016-08-30 16:20

The visuals and the music are hypnotizingly good! I don't recall seeing this kind of art style anywhere else, and I really like it.

As for what happened - I don't know, I may attempt to solve the case later, when my mind functions properly, though my first theory was that Mr. Burnwood got pissed about his wife selling a quarter of WIPO to some Sarah Zuch, and so he shot both of them as a result of pure anger.

I kinda have a feeling that I'm completely wrong, and there's more to that. I'm going to have a go at it later.

That said, really nice game!

efmi_ 2016-08-30 16:32

Love it!

sn0uk 2016-08-30 16:32

I... I don't get what I just played really, I walked around the house and I found some credits?

jadernak 2016-08-30 16:42

Not a big fan of the art-style, the music was great though. Not much to experience here I am afraid and that's coming from gone home/dear esther fan, some voice over would help a lot in my opinion.

ishikawanakamura 2016-08-30 16:56

Love the style. Music fits good into scenery and is really fun to play and feel like an detective. The only drawback is the lack of something to do, for example: evidence to collect, but as you said "i am not a programmer and its a miracle that this even runs" so you really did something awesome with the things that were at your disposal ;)

tomboftheancients 2016-08-30 17:03

Would have wanted to try this out, but it scales the window according the whole length of my 2 monitor setup and bugs if I try and move the window. Maybe add a window size setup next time?

amine-tcherak 2016-08-30 17:09

very nice game great work!!

gassasin 2016-08-30 17:23

Cool game! Nice design of the modern/future house:)

kai20 2016-08-30 17:26

@TombOfTheAncients i am sorry for that. I dont know why it dosen´t stat with the default unity launcher.

@Jadernak voice over were planned in the kitchen with this voicemail device but it was 4 am and after 18+ hours work i simply didn´t managed to "write" the code

mekuri 2016-08-30 17:33

First off, on a technical note, I run a dual monitor setup, and when I started the game, it stretched with window over both my screens- Luckily I could resize the window, so I was able to have a nice experience playing it.
I liked the graphics style, combined with the music it had a nice mood. I really like games where the environment tells a story, and your imagination fills in the gabs. A more fleshed out gameplay could definitely benefit this game.
Nice job!

misspeld-games 2016-08-30 17:45

I like the art style! The game got me walking around the house, trying to figure out what had happened. Nice work!

rttstudio 2016-08-30 17:51

Amazing art-style, also like this genre of game. Love the music too. Not sure about the theme of the jam thought. Good entry, love it.

colozz 2016-08-30 18:00

Surprising game! Very nice looking, great music and mood; we have our opinion about the case, but not as accurate as some comments here. We don't really undertsand the link with the theme, but are surprised by the concept!
Good job :)

kai20 2016-08-30 18:03

@colozz i would love to hear your conclusion. I am a bit embarrassed but here is no link to the theme is just needed a time limet. if you really want to stretch my way to handle the theme than you could say you have to use your brain or there is no "new" media

m110 2016-08-30 18:16

Great mood and somewhat unusual gameplay. Would be cool to play an extended version based on this!

maximumillusion 2016-08-30 18:25

Mhhm some interaction would have helped a lot but I guess that is personal preference.
Nontheless both were killed through the window kitchen window because the bullets went through the wall there and ended in the TV and on the couch. I assume the neighbor from the house to the right (or left) shot them just because he was envy or whatever.

stevenjmiller 2016-08-30 18:51

Amazing music and I love the atmosphere. My guess for what happened pretty much lines up exactly with what Vegevan guessed.

crazyrems 2016-08-30 20:39

Yes, good music and nice graphics. The movements are a bit too rigid but I guess you just picked one in the examples. That's way sufficient.
I don't think I found the solution, even in my head :(

junber 2016-08-30 21:18

That was really nice. While it would have been cool to comfirm my theory ingame there would have probably been no satisfing way to programm something like this even for a programmer with more time on his hands. The movement might have been a bit too fast and the zoom too close-up. Also not sure how it fits the theme.

So her is my theory (and something i found confusing):
Mr. Burnwood was the killer who shot both of them through the wall from the kitchen. One of the victims (probably Ms. Burnwood) tried to get to the phone/security system to alaram to police but died befor/after doing so. Mr. Burnwood's motive would have been that he was angry that Ms. Burnwood sold part of there company to Sarah. The pills in the bedroom suggest that he commited suicide after killing them (maybe out of guilt) and ran away hence to books in front of the shelf.
What confused me were the magnets on the fridge. Why should Ms. Burnwood be in love with someone else (possibly Sarah), when she clearly shares a room with her husband, and then put magnets on there shared fridge showing that? It is possible that Sarah shares their house (and lives upstairs) but that doesnt provide too much of an explanation.
It would be awesome if you could notify me here and tell me wheter I was right or wrong.

mewsoul 2016-08-30 21:55

The ambiance from this game made possible with the graphics combined with the music is really great, it felt a bit like Miami Hotline!

As some said, just the controls would need to be a bit less rigid, otherwise that's great!

The credits at the back of the house are a nice touch ahah

robert_steiner 2016-08-31 10:31

I'm crap at detective stories, so I won't make guesses (other than Mr shooting his Missus and her friend from the kitchen), but still:

I LOVE narration in this one. The behining (title should probably disapper after you enter the house, though), music, and even hte hidden credits.
Good job, maybe you should try making more vignettes at this one.

ianb96 2016-08-31 15:51

Nice game, I like the models. Would be nice if you could interact with some of them though.

kai20 2016-08-31 15:54

@Junber @MaximumIllusion @mvasko2 @blinry @Vegevan so if you want to know if your theory is "correct" watch my post mortem. Thanks -Kai

_waterman7_ 2016-08-31 17:07

This is one of my favourite entries so far! I enjoyed it very much.
Just watched your post-mortem video. I like how you managed to sidestep programming and focus on art while still having some kind of gameplay (figuring out what happened)
And it was really fun to speculate what could have happened. There were enough clues to get the imagination going, but not so many that the solution was immediately obvious.
Only thing I kinda had an issue with was the "shooting through the wall" part. I spend some time trying to find an explanation as to how he could have accurately shot both of them from behind a wall. But I guess he just got lucky :D
Anyway, great entry! Looking forward to seeing more of this!

standardcombo 2016-09-02 14:42

Can't seem to open on OSX El Capitan.

anaguilefdez 2016-09-02 16:14

Cool game, I like the idea of setting an environmento to explore and investigate, so the player can come up with a theory. Art is really nice, reminds me to noir films and Sin City, however since it involves investigation it could be a bit easier to understand. But overall, a great game!

This is my theory: Mr Burnwood and Mrs Burnwood lived together. He was aware that Mrs Burnwood was going to sell to Sarah since it was on newspaper, so he prepared the himself : he made a hole through the wall of the kitchen, so he could spy on them. Mrs Burnwood and Sarah met on the living room. Mr Burnwood shot against the wall and killed the one sitting on the sofa, later he stepped out of the kitchen and shot the other one in the living room.
Now this is what I don't have clear: the dead mark on the door, which I assume is someone that wanted to call the security before dying. Blood marks tell me that she was the one sitting on the armchair, but as far as I am concerned the white dead drawings are meant to mark where they were found dead, not that someone went from one place to another before dying. I can only think that the one dead on the dead is Mr Burnwood, but I don't know how, and why there are the blood marks on the floor.

pixelpotions 2016-09-02 16:52

I really like where this is going. This just shows that you don't have to program to make a game. Love the art even though it's a little 'rough'. Solid entry!

I fixed the bugs and updated my entry if you want to check it out!

bmacintosh 2016-09-03 01:37

Cool idea, nice music! The art is a bit hard on the eyes for me. My theory was that some third party (probably this "Sarah") climbed into the kitchen and shot the Burnwoods through the wall. I think Junber's theory is more solid, though. It's hard to imagine how someone could have shot them through the wall without preparing it ahead of time.

finlal 2016-09-03 18:25

Interesting game.
A piece of art)
The lack of gameplay is not much spoils the impression)

rfgpfeiffer 2016-09-05 08:31

I like the art style, but Igot stuck on the furniture and could not move.

plasmaernst 2016-09-05 14:12

Hey, very good atmosphere and super visual style!

dollarone 2016-09-14 23:00

Ah nice, something different. Love the music. The house is nicely designed and feels authentic. I like the stylished noir style, and had a lot of fun trying to figure out what happened here. Overall, very enjoyable and original!

My theory:
I think the two lovers (Sarah and Diana) were killed by Mr Burnwood who just realised that Diana purposely sold 1/4 of her share to help finance Sarah's company, who then did very well.

The bullets were fired from the kitchen, so either he snuck in via the window (but there's no broken glass) or he was invited into the home. Perhaps the picture of the lovers pushed him over the edge?