Facts more Fun than Fiction

April 12, 2019

It’s extremely hard to create something from nothing. I read somewhere once that that’s why only one in ten people are considered creators and nine out of ten are considered editors. Most people need something put before them that they can react to and say how to make it better (ideally in a constructive way). The truth is, even those one in ten people who are creators also need inspiration. It may come from a song, a painting, nature, a conversation, or just plain, old fashioned research. It’s this last that I turned to in order to help embellish and enhance one of the few puzzle sequences remaining to be implemented in Act 3 of Sleuthhounds: Cruise.

At a certain point in Act 3, depending on choices and decisions the player has made, it can become necessary for the player, as Jane Ampson, to have to procure a gift for Joanna Price, the daughter of the owner of the cruise liner. In point of fact, this particular gift is jewelry that needs to be tailored to the personality of Joanna herself. Young Miss Price dabbles in building mechanical contraptions. As such, I wanted the jewelry to have a somewhat practical nature that would complement her skillset.

My original thinking was that a charm bracelet might do the trick, with the player picking out various fine mechanical tools to use as charms instead of the typical glittery knickknacks that adorn such jewelry. That seemed all right, but it did feel like it would be a bit cumbersome for a person to use tools dangling about their wrist.

Going to that handy source of weird factoids, Wikipedia, I looked up a list of different types of jewelry. As I was going through it, I found what I, at first, couldn’t believe. There actually was a piece of jewelry for women, specifically used for carrying tools and household items, that also amazingly was fashionable during the nineteenth century in which Sleuthhounds: Cruise is set.

[Joanna wearing a three strand chatelaine about her waist.]
Joanna wearing a three strand chatelaine about her waist.

Chatelaines were decorative claps that were worn off-centre at the waist. Somewhat like a large brooch, these pieces of jewelry typically had several chains dangling from them at the ends of which might be such items as scissors (in a decorative sheath), the household’s master key, a thimble, a sewing kit, a pin cushion, smelling salts, or the lady’s purse. This was at a time when the gowns of the day had no pockets so women had no place to store these items on their person. The chains were lengthy enough to allow the items to be used conveniently, without being unhooked, but no so long as to be dragging on the floor. From various pictures I dug up it seemed like the items typically dangled at about mid-thigh.

It just goes to show that no matter how weird an idea someone creating a piece of fiction can come up with, there is someone else out there who has come up with something even weirder that is reality. That’s the fun part of doing research, when you go off not necessarily expecting to find anything and then BOOM something so outlandish as to be unbelievable appears to show it was really real. The more reality that can be brought into a fictional creation the more unreality that fictional creation can get away with.

During Act 3, Homes and Ampson operate, for the most part, independently. At the time of writing, I’m just finishing the implementation of the jewelry scenario. It’s the last sequence that needs to be implemented for what Ampson has to complete in isolation. Beyond that there are four outstanding puzzle sequences remaining for Homes and then two more sequences that involve both characters together. My earlier estimate for the critical path completion of Act 3 was for the end of day April 15. I can confidently say that’s not going to happen. However, Act 3 is in good shape and all the critical path puzzles should be completed before the end of the month (my revised tentative date is actually April 26). After that, just one more act to go before I can start working on other tasks, like making finished art assets and recording voices and sound effects. Exciting times!