Underworld Blues: The Chameleon's Dish (Jam Edition / Demo)

Version Notice Update - As of Tuesday, March 7th, 2024, the version of the demo uploaded on this page has seen quite a number of fixes and updates, which should have hopefully brought it to a much more functional and playable state (the previous version had to be uploaded in a hurry due to an approaching jam deadline and a really spotty internet connection, so it ended up being bugged to heck and back).

Here's a quick list of all the fixes and updates:

• Fixed the dialogue query system. It should mostly work as intended now. Now you can add topics to your main screen from the database at any time. If you click on an NPC marker on the map (Currently the only NPC available for interview is Mona) and have the topic selected, Andrea will query the NPC about that specific topic (as long as a dialogue scene isn't already running, of course).
• Fixed the opening screen ... it no longer takes you straight to the Quinlan House, thus skipping a rather important expository scene. 
• Added missing music track to the Quinlan House location.
• Fixed a bug where new topics added to the database via dialogue wouldn't show up properly, despite the notification popping up. 
• Made a few minor adjustments to portrait and background overrides. 
• Added a settings menu that allows switching from fullscreen mode to windowed mode. The menu also contains functioning controls for BGM volume and SFX volume, which should work on separate channels. (Note that, since the save and load systems have not yet been implemented, the settings currently reset at game start - but it's better than nothing for now).
• Changed default window mode to fullscreen - windowed behavior still works, as per above, though there is still a bit of jank that I'd like to look into. 

As of today, the demo SHOULD be quite playable, and the player should, theoretically, be able to see all of the content included therein (previous build's bugs had basically made more than half of it completely inaccessible). There may still be a few bugs and breaks here and there. I have not yet swept for typos, so bear with me on that front. 

Note: There is no "ending" to the demo. As the game, in concept, is meant to 'simulate' an open-ended investigative process, planned progression is nonlinear and based on reaching specific milestones within specific story threads, which can in some cases be approached in any order. This demo, however, only features a small vertical slice from the very early game.    

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Entering the town of Ryme ...

Nobody expects Andrea Laiver to actually solve a year old murder. With a trail this cold, it would take a minor miracle. Plus, solving murders isn't exactly her primary stock-in-trade. Generally speaking, that sort of thing is better left in the (admittedly less than capable) hands of the law. 

Her actual mission is a great deal more esoteric in nature, and the mission must always come first, if only because even brilliant detectives cannot live on bread alone. 

That said, it's not like anybody told her NOT to at least try. Whether or not the death of Michael Quinlan, a mild mannered college town librarian, amateur alchemist, and collector of minor oddities, was in any way related to his unusual interests, Andrea can't seem to help her own curiosity. Or maybe she's simply gone soft. It'd be nice to give his still grieving family some closure, after all. 

Wouldn't it just ...

Note: As should hopefully be obvious from the title, this is essentially a prototype / proof-of-concept. It was originally put together as a submission for the Mystery Game Jam, ending in early May of 2024, after roughly a month of development. 

As such, it is certainly not a complete, standalone product but rather a limited vertical slice of the game's intended feature-set and story. It's meant to give folks a taste and hopefully facilitate a soon-to-come crowdfunding effort for continued development and a complete release.

What to expect:

 - An early portion of the narrative, encompassing the first several hours of the investigation, with a handful of characters to read about and interact with, and one character available to properly interview. 

- A functional investigation and database system that allows the player to combine evidence, as well as known persons, places, things, and ideas of interest, into theories. This system also allows the player to query individual characters on specific database entries (again, only one interview subject is presented in the demo, but she's got a lot to say about a lot of things). In the final version, unlocking certain theories, or presenting them to certain characters, will open paths of progression and new events, but, obviously, this demo version is quite limited in that regard.

- A pretty sizeable chunk of written material (I think we're hovering somewhere around 20,000 words in this demo so far) from database entries to dialogue heavy scenes which, in my view, paints a picture of a larger living world full of mysteries and rabbit holes. 

- A dash of high strangeness. This version isn't gonna get too weird with it, as it covers a very early part of a much larger narrative, only hinting at certain stranger elements. If you know me, however, you know it's probably gonna get flippin' weird eventually, and I wanted to at least leave some breadcrumbs of weirdness all over this demo, for those of you who are especially attuned to that particular frequency.

- Several pieces of original pixel artwork, all hand-crafted by yours truly, and several bits of music by Monplaisir / Komiko of Loyalty Freak Music. 

- Some bugs, probably.

- Some typos, presumably.

What NOT to expect.

- The answers to the Big Mysteries. The murder of Michael Quinlan, the central and inciting mystery presented herein, is not going to get officially solved in this demo. In fact, very few answers are provided outright, though some might be hinted at. Doing otherwise would risk spoiling the final product (which, at this point, I will likely be releasing one way or the other in the hopefully not too distant future) for those folks both kind and curious enough to check it out at this early stage. Kindness and curiosity, in this context, ought to be rewarded, not punished. Also, it's a jam release, so time in preparing it was limited.

That having been said, I did my best to include enough nuggets of information to get the amateur sleuths among you a chance to whet your appetites and warm up your engines. Ponder and theorize away if such is your want. 

- A functional save / load system. That's currently next in line for implementation on the technical side of things, but this is a jam release, made in a short time and pushed out by a specific deadline. If you know anything about game development, you know that the saving and loading functionality is something you don't want to rush. This is not necessarily a "short" demo (as mentioned prior, if you really want to see everything in it, you're in for almost half a novel's worth of reading), but it isn't so vast as to require this feature.

- Perfect polish or a complete game. That should go without saying, obviously. The former doesn't exist and will never exist, and the latter will hopefully come in due time.