Ludum Dare 43 – Body Language

December 7, 2018

Ludum Dare, an international game jam, ran its 43rd installment this weekend just past. The theme of the jam was “Sacrifices Must be Made”. As it happens, I had an idea for some game mechanics that I wanted to try out for the upcoming Sleuthhounds: Cruise game that I saw a way to fit to the jam's theme. I scared up a few hours to work on a short game, Body Language, to test out the ideas. While the result wasn't an unqualified success, it was useful as a trial run for Sleuthhounds.

Body Language

In Body Language the player takes on the role of a crash site investigator. A plane has gone down and been found and the player must talk to the survivors to find out what happened. During the investigation things take a dark turn as befits the theme.

This game was another attempt to better gamify dialog between a player and a non-player character. I've blogged several times in the past on how dialog trees in and of themselves are not a good game mechanic. I had also created a new interview system for Sleuthhounds: Cruise to address this issue. However, ideas kept percolating away and for Body Language I created a variation on the interview system that added a bit more depth to it without overcomplicating how it works.

In the new system, players are able to talk to the different people in Body Language on a variety of topics. By observing their body language the player must determine if the character is lying or telling the truth. The player can then mark that a character is lying and ask them about the same subject, hopefully forcing the issue.

My idea was that in some cases, simply confronting a person about their lies would be enough to get them to tell the truth. In other cases, I thought it would be necessary to talk to a different character to get more information to get past the lying block. Well, best laid plans.

Due to the limited time to create the game for Ludum Dare I didn't have the opportunity to do much playtesting. I discovered very close to the deadline that it was possible to get through the game without ever having to call anyone out on a lie. The mechanics for doing so are all included in the game but the way in which I wrote the story means that said mechanics are not strictly necessary. Unfortunately, I found this out too close to the deadline to correct it. In essence the story as presented in the game is very much a first draft and a rushed one at that. Still, it was good to experiment with the tech needed to make the body language and lying mechanisms work.

I'm keen to incorporate this into Sleuthhounds: Cruise proper. However, I want to let Body Language sit for a couple of weeks first. At that point, when I've got a bit more distance and perspective on the game, I'll go back and take a look to see what works and what doesn't from a gameplay point of view.

In any event, if you, faithful reader, are interested in playing this experiment then click on the download link below. Note that this game is very different from the lighthearted Sleuthhounds games. It's a much grimmer story and touches on some fairly weighty issues.

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