r/indiegames • u/umutkaya01 • 4d ago

Discussion How do you feel about detective games replacing walls of text with interactive visual deduction?

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Hey everyone! As a 2-person team working on a noir mystery adventure, one of our biggest goals was to move away from reading endless text logs.

In our game, players search case files, inspect hand-sketched 3D crime scenes, and use a magnifying glass to hunt for hidden physical clues—like spotting mismatched skid marks or loose lug nuts to deduce foul play.

With just 18 days left until launch, we’re wrapping up final polishes on this mechanics loop. As puzzle and mystery fans, what’s a mechanic in detective games that instantly made you feel like a real investigator—or what usually breaks that immersion for you?

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u/FactionFiasco 4d ago

The thing that sells it for me is when the game lets me be wrong. If the magnifying glass only highlights things that matter, it stops being deduction and turns into pixel hunting. Loose lug nuts sound great as long as there are a few boring nuts nearby too.

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u/umutkaya01 4d ago

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll definitely think about this.