Suspect: a Game of Evidence and Assumptions

You are an evidence analyst for a small-town police department. Use what little evidence you have to make big decisions about people's lives.

Also, there's a ghost.

I created this "game" to explore the string connection mechanic. If you have thoughts about this mechanic that you'd like to share please reach out to me on Twitter @calebjross

Instructions

1. Drag Evidence from the Evidence Panel
2. Hold Ctrl + Left Click to place a thread
3. Right Click to remove a thread
4. Press Space when ready to accuse
5. Hope you made the right choice
6. Press Enter to begin

If this were to become a full game, I would love to include:

• Measurements of witness reliability (ie, if they recently had eye surgery or if the observation takes place at night, would the witness testimony be less reliable?)
• Continuity between cases (do associates with the previously convicted people show up as suspects who retaliate against the previous victims)
• Narrative thruline. The player is not directly involved in the policing. Rather, at the beginning of each day the player is simply given additional information by their boss which impacts what has previously been linked and what will be linked during that workday. For example, the player may have the case seemingly solved, with the culprit being Carl, but then the boss says “Carl is no longer a suspect.” The boss doesn’t give you any reason why Carl is no longer a suspect. This new information causes the player to re-link, and re-think. But also it adds to the meta narrative that something bigger is going on. Why are you kept in the dark? Why are these alleged criminals being let go?
• First day on the job. Not told why the previous person left, even though you ask (why the secrecy?). Maybe they find a note on their desk from the previous person: "Don't trust your boss." In this case, why does the boss allow your role to even exist? Is it a requirement somehow, which would then breed resentment?
• Additional evidence types including “whispers,” unofficial evidence that the player captures from speech bubbles from passersby as the player walks home each night.

Bleeping Demo by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license