Play investigation
Scales of Justice's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #1738 | 3.514 | 3.514 |
| Overall | #2520 | 3.162 | 3.162 |
| Style | #2667 | 3.189 | 3.189 |
| Enjoyment | #3276 | 2.784 | 2.784 |
Ranked from 37 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
This game is comparing the moral weight of people's actions as if they were actual objects that could be compared in size.
Development Time
96 hours
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See description for full credits
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Comments
Interesting use of the theme, and a type of game I haven't yet encountered in the jam yet! I enjoyed how the game started simply, seemingly only interrogating two people, but quickly spun into needing to question multiple people. Looking further down the comments, it seems it goes even deeper than what I encountered! Congrats on this big project!
Twas Gladys who set the blaze
Or was it?
A very well thought out Story, I had some issues with Resolution and UI positioning.
The Art style could be better with some sort UX. This is an incredibly ambitious for such a short jam but still good enough nonetheless.
You probably shouldn't put a return to title button, Maybe a Terminate Conversation or Questioning Button.
Some good Situational Music and A little better might improve stuff IMO.
Impressive amount of work for a game jam, keep up the good work!
Wow, very ambitious writing project for a jam! Maybe a little too ambitious considering people want to get through a lot of games and this one would take a while to fully get through. You've made some interesting choices to make this appear closer to life, like not giving a real answer and not highlighting keywords. I do respect that, but I also feel like they took away some of my enjoyment of the game. I'm also not a huge fan of having to click through conversations multiple times to explore the whole tree; maybe clicking keywords should 'collect' them for later interrogation? Some of the UX was also a little questionable in my opinion, do you really need a "go to Title" button on every dialog? The writing I've seen was pretty good, but I've got to admit that we probably only saw like half of the game; it was pretty obvious that Dylan stole the money but we did miss out on a lot of the other stuff you've mentioned in your full explanation. Definitely nice to see a different art style than pixel art, pretty cool artwork. All in all, a pretty cool and ambitious twist on the mystery genre! I have to admit I'd probably enjoy a more traditional game-like approach more, but I'm glad you decided to try something new here.
(also, this game is kind of violating separation of power, but meh, it's a game after all :D)
The game totally violates separation of power, but I’m working with this as more of an alternate universe ethics sim rather than a civics sim. The scale is basically an unquestioned god in this universe, and the detective is merely feeding it information.
I appreciate the feedback. I did worry as I was making it about the time it takes to complete.
You’re also not the first person to dislike the hidden words mechanic, but I stand by the choice. I didn’t want this game to fall into the detective game trap where you’re just clicking buttons without thinking.
As for clicking back through whole conversations, you may have missed it, but there is a back button that backs you up from your current page. That makes it a little quicker to navigate and take a different path. I did consider a “journal” that takes notes for you of places to come back to, but I ended up cutting that for time.
All in all, you’re not wrong that the writing was ambitious, possibly to my detriment here. I underestimated how much time and work it was going to take, but once I’d concocted this story it was hard to slim it down any more than I did. I already cut two characters entirely, but I needed Dylan to be responsible and Lena for motive. At the point I realized it was a bit much for the time limit, it would have required starting over to remove any more.
Lastly, on the UX front, that footer was supposed to contain a settings menu with audio sliders and text accessibility settings. It ended up only containing the exit button, which I agree I probably should have just scrapped. That’s getting fixed in the postjam release anyways.
Really interesting take on the theme! We really like the art style. You can see the tremendous work put into this! Awesome job!
Nice game! I'll have to check it again out post jam once the bugs are fixed to get the rest of the dialogue
Replying here to let you know the 2.0 patch is out.
Thanks! I'm not sure when I'll get to it but I'll let you know what I think once I give it a try
Pretty cool game! I feel like I've tried every possible move, but I could only get the one ending. I did encounter 3 bugs though: one is the "Chianti Q" glitch, couldn't find a way around that, another is clicking on "Hey, I just got back from Dylan's", and it says "I can't (go-to:) to the passage 'Dylan's Q' because it doesn't exist," and the third is pressing Proceed from that screen, then it randomly switches to a different dialogue point from Dylan.
I hope all of these get fixed in the post-jam version, would love to play it!
The ending glitch and the Chianti Q glitch have been identified already . The Dylan’s Q glitch is new though. I can go in and fix that. Lena and the endgame went into the game last and didn’t get more than one playtest before the deadline, sadly, so those sections are bugged.
Do you know what you were on when it warped to a different Dylan line? I finished their dialogue early and tested it more thoroughly, so I’m surprised I missed an issue there.
Because of these known issues, I have posted a full explanation of the events of the game lower down in the comments for anyone who is curious. I’ve also been able to fix all the glitches so far, so the post jam release should be clear of them.
Okay I am so confused on how the Dylan's Q glitch happened, because Dylan's Q did exist and was formatted correctly. I went ahead and edited it to take out the apostrophe, in case that's causing a weird malfunction on the code side. It is at least working correctly for me now.
It was on the same screen as the Dylan's Q glitch, where Lena says "I mean like, I’ll come home and be like “Hey, I just got back from Dylan’s." and he’s all like “but where were you really?" Every single friggen time."
If you press Dylan it does the other glitch, and if you press "Proceed" it warps you to Dylan's dialogue.
oh that’s absolutely bizarre hold on.
figured it out. it was routing to the page titled "Lena", which is the one where Dylan tells the detective her name, instead of routing to "Lena 2", which is the second subsection of her dialogue branch. extremely inconvenient typo is extremely inconvenient, but also now fixed.
god I didn't know releasing a jam game would be such a bug squash fest. que sera.
The postjam patch is now out, if you're still interested.
Cool! Will def check it out later!
Hello! Just played the new version, very cool! Although I know the main idea is that important words aren't highlighted, but I would change it so that it is. Mainly just as a QOL thing, cause I find myself just scrolling my cursor over all the text to find stuff to click. Other than that, pretty fun, was almost able to find everything!
This is a really cool game! I had a lot of fun scouting through all the different dialouge options, to figure out the ploy. Though I did encounter 2 glitches in one character's path where I couldn't continue, I looked through earlier comments and found my way around them! and a but unfortunate that the ending didn't work because of that variable glitch, but I will absolutely check this game out after the jam when it's fixed!
Love the unique interpretation on the theme and the writing is pretty good. Spoilers: I ended up blaming Dylan on my play-through but pretty much everyone had something going on from what I saw. I couldn't seem to get much out of Lena though due to a glitch of some sort?
If you hit the "Chianti Q" glitch, you can route around it. If you hit a different Lena glitch, please let me know.
Also, blaming Dylan is absolutely fair. There's a bug in the endgame code, but I can tell you now that Dylan is supposed to confess to the primary crime if caught. There's a full explanation further down in the comments.
Nice entry!
Very cool concept, the multiple options for dialog is great. Forces you (in a good way!) to check all possibilities to uncover as much information as you can. Looks charming too! Well done :)
Leave no stone unturned! Just like a real detective, you've gotta pursue any leads you can possibly find. Never know what might be secretly important to the investigation.
nice art!
I really like this game!! It was fun doing the detective work, a bit buggy but I see that it already known.
Sorry about the bugs, but I’m glad you could see the vision. They’ll all be fixed in the post jam release.
It feels like alot of work was put into the story and the paths the player can take. Also, I think clicking on words is a great mechanic for unfolding a mystery. Well done!
Thanks! I feel like this game really came together when I came up with the hidden words mechanic. I'll definitely be working with that mechanic a bit more in the future.
Cool concept! It took me a while to realize that there were multiple words that could be pressed in some sentences, leading to multiple paths. Lena had a lot of interesting things to say once I found it. There is a nice balance to the crimes vs the benefits.
I'm not sure if the ending works properly. Regardless of conclusions, the scales are always balanced.
okay, you’re the second person who has reported that bug, so I’ll have to go in and see what is doing that. probably a typo in the variable code. which is super frustrating because each character has dialogue if they’re guilty that I wanted y’all to get to see :(.
Update: I found the cause for that error. The page change code was running before the variable change function, which meant the variable that controls the scale stayed at 0 no matter what you choose. Ugh, programming, am I right? I fixed it, and it's working correctly now, although I can't update itch.io until after the jam <3.
Ah that's a shame, I getcha. I decided to look into the code myself so I did get to read their confessions, and I think I was sorta close! Will hafta check out your post-jam version!
I also ran into two times where a go-to flag fails? "Chianti Q" isn't valid Harlowe syntax for the inside of a macro call." Not sure where the second one was. Also got curious about the secret doctor tag and go-to which could be important to her story.
You found the doctor. You are absolutely correct that he existed as a way to prove or disprove Miss Walsh's illness claims, but I had to remove him from this version of the game because of time concerns.
Also, thanks for finding the broken link to Chianti. I added that late and apparently just. forgot to use quotation marks. god I should have slept more. Luckily, that passage is just Lena making fun of the detective for not recognizing her Silence of the Lambs reference. It's not mission critical.
As for figuring it out.
HEAVY SPOILERS DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU FINISHED THE GAME
Dylan stole the money from Jim's Comics. It wasn't in the register, since you can't store that much money in a register. It was stashed somewhere back behind the counter, in a place Dylan discovered while shadowing Jim at work. Only Dylan knows how to access the restricted parts of the shop. They hid the money for later, thinking that Gram wouldn't find it. She did.
Miss Walsh stole the remaining money from Dylan (which she got Lena to hide for her so she could intentionally get herself arrested and ensure Dylan wouldn't ever be caught. She figures that she's a sick old woman who's lived a good life, and she doesn't want Dylan's future ruined if they end up getting caught.)
Lena stole no money, but she did steal a camera and a computer from the shadowy figure who was trying to blackmail her. She didn't tell Dylan or Miss Walsh about it, because they both worry too much (in Lena's opinion). This information didn't make it into the game, since I didn't want the jam version to be too dark, but the stalker is actually Jim's "business associate", and that's how he discovered Lena exists. He's often in the back of the comic shop, and he sees her coming and going. Lena has figured this all out, and she's hoping the computer and camera footage ends up getting him and Jim caught for their crimes.
Jim is involved in a lot of shady business. Counterfeiting, drug dealing, and pimping people out through the comic book store as a front. He can be processed as a "thief" in the game for his sale of a fake Green Lantern action figure to Lena. Why did Lena want a Green Lantern action figure? It was supposed to be a gift for Dylan (not in the text, but you can guess this by looking at Dylan's character art).
Oh also, small detail. Lena really is more honest than most people. 100%, in fact. She doesn't say anything she doesn't believe to be true at any point. She definitely withholds information, but she is naturally averse to lying
Neat twist on the theme, and a lot of nice art. You can see a lot of love went into this one.
Awwww. Thank you. That’s the sweetest thing you possibly could have said.
Cool concept, I liked the branching dialog and the need to play through multiple times to uncover more information. I'm still not sure I've uncovered the full mystery of the case!
If you want, you can post your theories here or in the game comments, and I can tell you if you’re missing major information, and if so, where to look to find it.
love the art, and story/dialogue was definitely very interesting
Thank you! The dialogue was definitely the most intensive part of this project, so I’m glad it turned out okay.
Cool direction for the theme, and I love the art!
Thanks! I tried to make the character art distinctive and reflective of their personalities.
Hey, this was fun, I went through it a few times to see what I could learn. Can't say too much without putting spoilers in the comments, but I liked the twists!
I don't mind spoilers in the comments as long as there's a warning. This game requires a couple playthroughs, but some people don't have time for that. I'm okay with them finding out the game is bigger than they thought in the comments lol.
Here is a fun spoiler for you.
Technically, every character is a thief in some way...