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May-20-2004 09:28

On Sunday, we'll launch our first player written Featured Mystery.

The Clutch of the Green Specter, written by your very own, Wayne Williams Jr. It is a very long mystery, in terms of the amount of reading involved. We'll have another contest. The first to solve it, without first getting a false accusation, wins a Magic Top Hat. Wayne will be inelligible to enter, of course.

Thanks to Wayne for taking the time to write this mystery. It looks really good, so I'm looking forward to seeing all of your reactions.

Please leave any questions or comments about The Clutch of The Green Specter in this thread.

May-23-2004 15:25

Oh such a sad ending but the very last sentence was a brilliant end, i totally forgot about that person (i'm trying not to ruin it for anybody...)

bah, i read everything so fast but still took me a whole hour! congrats ellie for winning the hat...sleuth admin, can u tell me whether i was close to ellie's time? thanks :-)

p.s. wayne, you wrote a brilliant mystery, i'm very impressed :-)

May-23-2004 19:31

admin, could like, put a limit to how much story there is to a featured mystery

no offense Wayne, but that more like a novel

May-23-2004 19:32

sorrry for the bad grammer

just tired from all the reading, and a little dizzy

May-23-2004 23:53

Ah, my critic James. Okay, that's a valid critique.

Would appreciate more feedback...

May-24-2004 00:10

The story was *FANTASTIC*.

(Warning -- possible semi-spoilers.)

Other feedback--

(1) Like Sleuth Admin said, it's tricky about new evidence not being able to show up
sometimes.

(2) Also a couple of the alibi references are busted I think? Like someone saying bar, ending up at tailor?

(3) A little weird how at some point, something special happens with one person you visit, but then next time you visit it's as if nothing happened.

(4) Do the witnesses who have something to say get randomized some? Confusing but good.

(5) Excellent use of witnesses for evidence. Tricky :) -- but great.

(6) I swear the two times I played, the first time I couldn't get anything special to happen by visiting the person I was supposed to after collecting a bunch of evidence. And instead one of the characters (C---, I think) had another question I could ask. That question never showed up the second time. Don't know if this was just me asking different questions, or what.

May-24-2004 00:10

(3) and (6) the "something special" refers to J---

May-24-2004 00:11

Oh one last bit of feedback --

A little too linear at some points, but maybe that's good for Intermediate level -- in the sense that it's a series of questions that unlock each other, without much branching or possible dead ends.

May-24-2004 02:20

Thanks, sirgarr. Responses to:

(2)Yes, a couple of the alibis are messed up. That is my fault. I'll ask Sleuth Admin to correct that, if it is still possible.

(3) That is true. But I can't see any way around this limitation. Due to the game having a certain fixed structure, it's not easy to incorporate story elements into it, and still make perfect sense.

(6)I played a second time, and I think the gameplay flow should be correct. It's not always a direct route to get things to happen with a suspect. Sometimes, you gotta ask somebody else first before that person will open up.

The play is a little linear, but I never really wanted to plant too many red herrings to the gameplay. Because the story is already rather complex, so in fact I tried to make the gameplay easy so as not to distract from the story.

May-24-2004 09:50

OK, those two characters who's alibis were messed up should now be fixed.

May-24-2004 14:33

congrats wayne on your mystery. too bad i cant subscribe i would really like to read it.