Hey everyone!
I posted about my game here forever and a half ago (video games are difficult) and I just wanted to let you know the demo is out now on itch!
I love Obra Dinn and really wanted to try to capture that spirit while still making it my own. I hope you will give it a shot and let me know what you think.
I just finished the first 21 fates. This is actually my second time playing, and I have the same problem, now what? I’ve got everyone unblurred, so now it’s just the figuring out every identity process, but HOW? I’m sure everything comes down to small details, but I have no idea how I’m supposed to piece everything together.
I’m making a narrative investigation game where you play as an eviction officer revisiting his past cases with a psychiatrist.
You talk to people who are about to lose their homes, listen to their stories, collect testimonies, and compare them with the law.
It’s inspired by Papers, please and Return of the Obra Dinn. Bureaucracy, deduction and guilt.
You decide whether people lose their homes, then sit with your psychiatrist and try to live with the reason you gave.
Steam Page coming soon!
I want to start by saying that i LOVE this game. I've completed it and have been a fan ever since the year it was released.
Genuinely, one of my favourite games ever.
After a few years ive gotten back into it and recently started watching other people's playthroughs.
But it seems like i always have some unanswered questions about some parts of the story, that are always scratching the back of my brain, and i wanna hear others peope's opinions.
So please, feel free to answer any of these questions, cause im just a curious soul and i wanna see your own views and theories about these various topics!
What really happened to George Shirley, why is he missing in his death scene? Was he grabbed by a tentacle? Was he blasted of out the window?
Why is John Naples' leg so far away from the place his leg was cut?
Why wasnt Roderick Anderson's body thrown overboard and was kept under the cannon until the very end? Even more, when they got rid of the bodies of Abraham and Wolff.
Very similarily to that, why was Thomas Lanke's body kept when Wiater's and Davies' body were thrown overboard?
Also why wasn't Timothy Butement's body gotten rid off? Did the first mate never notice him hanging out of the window?
Why did Brennan, Hoscut, Walker and the Captain stay on the ship? Did they expect to steer it home themselves?
This is totally random, but when the inspector is in a memory, what happens with his body in real life?
As i said, feel free to answer any of my questions with you own view (even all if you have the dedication or time :D).
These may sound stupid in theory, but its just my curious mind and i wanna see what other people think of them!
(Also excuse my english and grammar mistakes please, its not my first language😭)
Was fiddling around with the game after a long break and determined the wages (pay) that the crew members *would* have earned had the final voyage actually made it to the Orient as expected without that whole minor "death of the entire crew due to giant sea monsters and murderous officers" event. Just in case anyone was curious:
Captain's wages: £120.00
First Mate's wages: £90.00
Second Mate's wages: £80.00
Third Mate & Fourth Mate's wages: £70.00
Bosun, Surgeon, Gunner & Purser's wages: £60.00
Carpenter, Gunner's Mate & Artist's wages: £50.00
Captain's Steward's wages: £45.00
Bosun's Mate, Surgeon's Mate & Cook's wages: £40.00
Ship's Steward, 1st Mate's Steward & 2nd Mate's Steward's wages: £35.00
Carpenter's Mate, Butcher, Helmsman & Midshipman's wages: £30.00
Topman's wages: £25.00
Seaman's wages: £15.00
3rd Mate's Steward & 4th Mate's Steward's wages: £10.00
Total base wages paid to the crew at the end of the voyage: £1,765.00
Random thoughts:
Being the lowest paid crewmen on the ship makes sense for the two younger stewards, as back then these would usually be cabin boys (teens) learning a skill (Roderick & Davey both look pretty young).
It is a little surprising that the carpenter is making a lower wage than the other four "standing officers" you'd usually find on 19th century merchant ships. While these five warrant officer-level positions were typically permanently assigned to a vessel by the EITC for its service lifetime, historically their assistants (mates) are usually culled from the more promising members of the general crew that signed up for that particular voyage much like other non-general positions like helmsmen, cooks and butchers. As a result, Wiater the Gunner's Mate seems generally overpaid compared to his fellow petty officers and particularly Gibbs the Carpenter's Mate (I guess the only two Americans on board get paid less for their qualities just as a snub for that whole awkward Revolution thing about 20 years ago...lol).
As junior officers-in-training, I would've expected the midshipmen (who are usually middle-class young men above the rank and file of the general crew) to be more highly paid than the petty officers as well. Certainly they should be making more than that absolute chud of a cook...
The complete anomaly to me, as someone who has always been fascinated by and has read (relatively) extensively on the subject of 18th-century merchant travel, is Edward Spratt. A "ship's artist" is not a quality that gets mentioned anywhere in nautical lore that I've ever personally experienced outside of exploratory vessels where such a thing might be deemed necessary for research or recording purposes. A standard East Indiaman bound for a run-of-the-mill round trip to the Orient has no reason or explanation for even having one on board, let alone him being one of the highest paid crewmembers for the trip. From a narrative standpoint I understand why Lucas Pope included him over a more historically-accurate quality like sailmaker, armorer, cooper, caulker or ship's master but it *still* bugs me to this day.
I played the game in probably 2021, but I've been watching some Let's Plays recently and have gotten back into the story.
One thing that struck me was that in the final insurance assessment at the end of the game, it states "no claim made" for Bun Lan Lim and the other Formosans. But if they were indeed royalty, surely the Formosa royal family would seek some sort of restitution from the British Crown/the Company? How does this make sense? I'm admittedly not all that knowledgeable of this era of history or the diplomatic relations between England and Formosa, so open to any in- or out-of-universe explanations people have in mind!
I got it in the end, but through a very twisted path and only later realized that there was a much more straightforward one..
(edit : just finished the game) So I knew the guy was one of 2. And I also had 2 other people I was certain about. So I just tried the 2 and one worked.
Toward the end of the game it happened so often. Especialy with the Russians and chines characters, Stewarts etc.
I know the game relies on clue being obscure, like just a character standing next to someone else they're related to. For zxemple the 4th Stewart on the drawing if you know what I mean. While it had a 3 difficulty rating. And the other Stewart I had had like a single difficulty rating and I literaly had zero clues about them.
Same for the Russians. The first one I got was kinda coincidental. Same for one of the 2 women that arnt the obvious one. Same for the chines character, where after looking at shoes I only had 2 of them, and the other 2 I had to guess because I genuinely spent hours searching.
Like I'm not mad at anything. I'm having fun with the game. But when I'm looking for the one Russian guy with a Pipe, and It never shows up ever, except on the illness memory.... I kinda felt like the real clue was gonna flee me forever.
So is it a normal thing that sometime you have 2 character closely related but not enouth to disernate?
Again I'm not mad against myself as just putting off guesses from time to Tim based on the cluse you have some time results in good answers, whilst not having the best clues, or the wrong one. But still.
It took me 13 hours to finish the whole game with all cases solved now I am gonna yap about some problems and questions and unless I ask for spoilers please dont do that. I did the game without any help besides just checking what laungauge are in some words and thats pretty much it.
Now there are some things I dont quite understand still for cases.
-3 chinnese sailors I have no clue how I was supposed to connect names with them so I went all combinations that was easy but is there any way besides just trying 6 combinations? Beacuse numbers of beds only show with them during chapter II and all of them are covered, there is also not a single object related to any of them and very little chapters, I know game intentionally gave little things but maybe it was the way? Tell me.
-Then there is stupid part when Dr.Evans and women leave, and I didnt know it was his book and I had no clue where they could went so I guessed and got Africa correct. Only when I saw that one of the women wrote me the letter I realized its one of survivors and since it mentions Morroco its only logical so that settled with me. And since she mentioned in letter only 4 survivors and there were those guys during doom chapter leaving I assumed they died from the beast even though I guess I was supposed to know since they started leaving as attack from beast started?
-There were also other two sailors I wasnt really sure so I just switched their names then got it right(and again, not sure if there are any clues beside beds but even when I checked possibilities related to certain scenes I still had to use that method).
-Then the part when captain steward got tied up, but the thing is he torn one dudes leg? It wasnt that illogical but it wasnt showed in previous 2 scenes and I assumed it was the monster while that steward just went crazy.
-Also one more part which was confusing me so much was frenchman. I got bosun before bosun mate, beacuse I assumed tattoed dude was french since he was torn apart my the beast(no he wasnt the only one there was one dude in 7th andn 8th scene spearing the kraken and you have to assume he also got torn apart even when its not showed)and beacuse bosun mate was fench I corectly got who bosun is(and it also took me a bit at first, english is not my first laungauge to get right that bosun was torn apart by the beast but this makes to me less sense since shouldnt it he more logical to say, bleed to death, since thats the cause of his death)and then I was like looking at dudes and that other dude with french physique and shirt gave me hint with previous reason so I got that. And that tattoee guy what are other clues besides his looks?
-Oh yes, and one annoying thing was execution, yoi have 4 officers shooting formosa guard but you cant say unknown officer but only Berrnam.
Besides those chinnese dudes and 2-3 sailors(which I just switched basically until got it right) I found for every other some related proof and clue and + deduction I am satisfied with that. Now I could just a little more get deeper into relations among characters and into the lore since it didnt click with me fully.
-For example, so two officers started talking about mutiny, then young guy heard that and gunner mate one stabbed him, but officer who just talked with gunner mate about mutiny shoot him!? Then Brennam went and killed that guy who tried to save kid, and then 1th mate went to check on kid but he is on the side with Brennam!?
-There is also part when 2th officer came back with 2 boats and I guess it makes sense since every other crewmember who was on that boat got killed and he prob had zero chance on his own.
-Or why those two women with some kid and doctor went together, also they were wanting to escape with Paul who was 1th hand of 1th mate but he got killed, so how are those characters any related, I never saw them have any interaction, and also how exatcly are related pursuer with others who tried to escape when doom started?
Best example is escape part 6.
You get two names 1 could realistically be just about anybody, and the other is likely 1 of the other 2 people in the scene. You COULD go from scene to scene and make observations and inferences, OR just open the book and see that two new faces are unblurred and and that only one of them is in the current scene with you.
I think its a good hint system, i do like it, but i think it would be a little better if the faces unblur in bulk when you lock in 3 correct choices, rather than instantaneously.
So here is the deal.
When I find a memory with people in hammocks, I can find a whole lot of information. But where do I take notes.
So if someone is mentioned as part of the memory but I can't find them, it means they're inside one of the used hammock. And if I can't find them, it means their hammack is not one of the currently used one.
Exccep I only know their faces.
So here comes the issue. How the hell do I easly order all of this data? Because no spread shit I know of takes images easly inside of them.
Obra Dinn is one of my top favorite games, and it's really inspired me to want to make games of a very similar style. I don't have twitter or most other socials and i can't find Lucas Pope's email on his website, but i would like to ask him for permission to base something off his game. anyone know how i could contact him?
I played Obra Dinn a few months ago and have been enamoured with it ever since. As an avid reader, I was immediately curious whether there'd ever been talk of a novel or some kind of accompanying literature.
I couldn't find anything, so my next question is: What are the rules on unofficial fan-written projects like this, if they're not for commercial gain?