Chester Cornfield: Old Timey Detective

[Datadog]

Howdy, people!

I just made a new game in Unity (well, my first game in Unity), using Chris Burton's Adventure Creator. It's a short detective game set in Old York City where a detective must crack the case of a mysterious food poisoning. It comes fully voiced with 3D graphics and a point 'n click interface, plus it's free, so give it a go when you have half an hour to spare!

Download Chester Cornfield at GameJolt!



Hope you enjoy!

[Rath Darkblade]

I've had a look at the screenshots and the trailer. It looks pretty funny. ("Now showing - Oncoming train"). I remember reading about that - Lumière Brothers, 1895! Am I right?

Downloading now... I'll let you know what I think of it, Datadog.

[Datadog]

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat - that's the one!

[Rath Darkblade]

Well, I've now finished playing it! Very good and very funny.

I had fun looking around Chester's office, trying to interact with everything, and trying every way of talking to the witnesses. I like Chester's (and everyone else's) casual indifference to hard liquor and hatred of personal cleanliness.

I was worried for a while that I was going to badger poor Mary and stuff up the investigation, but it turns out that there's no way to stuff up the investigation.

I had a good laugh trying to read the diplomas and the press story.

Two questions: How did the voice actor for the mayor get to sound so "stubbed ub"? Oh, and what's the story behind Chester and Chlodwig? I can see you've given Chlodwig a blond Hitler moustache and a kind-of Hitler-esque haircut. Was that deliberate?

I also notice one bug, though - when I entered the diner and immediately came out again, the two pieces of piano music played across each other, creating havoc. However, I went back to the office and came back to the crime scene, and everything was okay again.

Good job, Datadog! Two thumbs up.

[Datadog]

Two questions: How did the voice actor for the mayor get to sound so "stubbed ub"?

That role was somewhat typecast. The voice actor has a share of inebriated escapades on his podcast. But he pulled off the role sober (I'm assuming), so he's also good at what he does.

Oh, and what's the story behind Chester and Chlodwig? I can see you've given Chlodwig a blond Hitler moustache and a kind-of Hitler-esque haircut. Was that deliberate?

Chester and Chlodwig's backstory is really just Chester being jealous of how happy his half-brother is all the time. As far as the Hitler design goes, Chlodwig didn't start out that way. I originally wanted one goofy character with a Chaplin 'stache, bow tie and bowler hat, but the further into design I got, the more German he became (the Three Little Pigs from Shrek were a huge influence.) But, yes, it was a deliberate choice in the end.

I also notice one bug, though - when I entered the diner and immediately came out again, the two pieces of piano music played across each other, creating havoc. However, I went back to the office and came back to the crime scene, and everything was okay again.

Whoo! First official bug reported! Thanks!

[Collector]

That role was somewhat typecast. The voice actor has a share of inebriated escapades on his podcast. But he pulled off the role sober (I'm assuming), so he's also good at what he does.

Troels of Frederick?

[Datadog]

Frederick was kind enough to lend his voice.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmmm... not a bug, but possibly a way to make the game better...

As I said, I had a good laugh trying to read the diplomas and the press story. Unfortunately, I never have enough time to read them, and I had to examine them four or five times to do so. Also, I find that the subtitles get in the way.

Is it possible to be given more time to read them? I just thought they were hilarious.

[adeyke]

A cute little game.

Some issues:

• One line in the opening phone call didn't have audio for me the first time through. I wasn't able to reproduce this error, though.
• The subtitles are a bit hard to read if they're over a very busy-looking background (like Chester's carpet).
• If you interact with the Personal Files, the word "lest" is used as though it were a synonym for "unless", but that's not what it means.
• In the diner, it's possible to click a "008" hotspot even while not traversing the floor.
• The text in the Old Wives' Tales book and the end credits was rather blurry.

[Datadog]

As I said, I had a good laugh trying to read the diplomas and the press story. Unfortunately, I never have enough time to read them, and I had to examine them four or five times to do so. Also, I find that the subtitles get in the way. Is it possible to be given more time to read them? I just thought they were hilarious.

This was brought up a few times. Maybe I'll add a back button for those in the next version.

Some issues:
One line in the opening phone call didn't have audio for me the first time through. I wasn't able to reproduce this error, though.
The subtitles are a bit hard to read if they're over a very busy-looking background (like Chester's carpet).
If you interact with the Personal Files, the word "lest" is used as though it were a synonym for "unless", but that's not what it means.
In the diner, it's possible to click a "008" hotspot even while not traversing the floor.
The text in the Old Wives' Tales book and the end credits was rather blurry.

Nice! A few more to fix, for sure.

[Rath Darkblade]

So, Datadog... will Chester be returning in another episode, perhaps? I think this particular short was only episode 1, and the end of the short said that he went on to solve other cases too.

[Datadog]

I intended to make a full length game (one big game, no mini-episodes), but then a lot of hardware problems happened at once. I was forced to replaced my 10 year-old computer, and my new "improved" one no longer ran all the old pirated copies of development programs I'd been using since 2005 (and purchasing legal ones was well beyond my budget). I was no longer able to modify my old assets, and I had to release the game as it was.

I salvaged a lot of assets and spent most of this year learning to use free programs like Gimp and Blender to get the job done, but I've lost the enthusiasm to rebuild Cornfield for now. I've been building a different 2D game to practice my new tools, so you may see something from that down the road.