The Remnants
About The Project
The following game is a horror game that puts the player into the shoes of a Noir Detective as they set out to solve a supernatural case. The player must solve puzzles as they grow ever closer to solving the mystery of a murder that had taken place on the premises many years prior. Both its steam page and its demo can be found through the link below:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4554390/The_Remnants
This project was developed by ten people, myself included. While my roles were to be the primary systems designer as well as the lead narrative writer, I additionally made considerable efforts in the programming of the project.
The Detectives Journal
The detectives journal is one of the many tools that the player has at their disposal to solving the case, and provides lore and insight into the mind of the detective that you are playing as.
At the beginning of the game, the player has access to the journal, allowing them to see the games map as well as having information on each of the former residents of the apartment complex.
This part of the mechanic was inspired by the game known as “Return of the Obra Dinn.”
Visualizing The Scene
As the player solves puzzles, the journal updates accordingly, allowing the player to receive extra insight on the puzzle they solved and rewarding them with more lore.
Additionally, once a player has solved a puzzle they may select the “Visualize” button in order to see a visual representation of what they solved within the environment. There are plans to expand upon this feature so that it has even more visual representation in the environment, but that is not currently implemented.
This feature was inspired by Disco Elysiums “Visual Calculus” mechanic.
The Journal was something that (with the exception of the art) was solely developed by myself. Additionally, the process of taking all the puzzles within the game and bringing together their outputs into boolean variables served quite well for then making the save game system as well.
The Record Player
The record player is a puzzle where the player must find different records around one of the apartment rooms and play them to receive a riddle. Those riddles will then lead the player to solve various puzzles around the room.
It was my job to make the records interact with the record player (as well as voice the lines for it) and I feel quite proud of how the records snap onto the player.
Counting Cash
This puzzle involves the player having to count the cash items that get scattered by a ghost event when the player walks in.
