Pixel P.I.

It has potential but it still needs work to fill narrative, gameplay and artistic gaps. I hope said fields improve with following updates since at its current state i would hardly recommend it to others than hardcore mystery fans who want a short, somewhat inventive game. ***SPOILERS STARTING FROM HERE*** On the narrative side, when i solved the first case the story jumped into the conclusion without giving me sufficient time to think about it. The game assume you can deduce Ethan the robot is the same one used by the Hologram Detective but i found this not being the case, since it does not give you enough info and context to get there. On the second case, i was going quite well until i had to debunk a statement using the evidence of the second shot when i already had information to debunk the following statement of the found stolen card. However, i wasn’t able to formulate a question to debunk the recounted card accusation and i had to use a hint to know the game wanted me to answer the shots statement first and it got me out of the story flow. I believe the Hologram investigator´s letter could have been more useful if appeared a bit early but i liked Louie´s dog being a fake clue -btw there´s a bug where the dogs portrait appears when you open the clues menu on the second and third case. The case i found the easiest and my favorite was the third one. I didn’t used any clues and the data was presented on a easy to understand way. I liked Felicia’s well remarked and corporative traits and i got to admit i found the plot twist of Pixel being part of the case a nice cliffhanger -it made me think she was the culprit or that she is working for the bad guys but only time will tell if my conclusions are right. Different to Ace Attorney where you have to show evidence to later debunk statements in court both in a linear way, one of the strongest points of this game is fusing both gameplay sections into one more open questioning and debunking gameplay. Its quite pleasant hitting the right question and watching several answers get uncovered. Nonetheless, some of them can become redundant like Nina having 3 statements about her occupation; getting nervous and redundant could work better on other characters or situations given that the suspects are being interrogated about murders but it should be more concise. The mistake i found more breaking was how you have the possibility to ask non sequential questions but the game forces you into a more linear structure like at the example i gave on the second case. I would propose letting the player answer questions in a less rigid structure and more openly branched like giving some statements that can be debunked earlier. Getting to the artistic section, the characters feel quite generic so giving them more dialog, physical and more consistent art style traits will add more distinctive charm to the game. I can tell the developer felt proud of the full illustration of Pixel hitting Ethan but being drawn on a different art style and having only one in all the gameplay until now feels out of place. Also i would try to give more distinctive color pallet, sounds and design to the UI given that the story happens on the future. I understand the retro vibes this game aims for but it gets bland with the time (i would recommend tiles like NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD or Her Story as reference for a well pulled retro aesthetic). Adding a stronger TV scan line effect instead of the current computer monitor one would add more texture to the pixel art. My critic also applies to the sounds and music; my favorite track was the one from the 3rd case and i found the others dull. Finally, i would like to thank the developer for gifting me a key on Reddit and recognize his interest on setting affordable regional prices, but if i have to be sincere: i wouldn’t buy this game on its current state. Given that i can get more accomplished complete titles for almost the same money, reducing the game´s price until adding more content or getting to full release -in my opinion- would help to increase the players and interest. As for watching the credits i understand this is mostly a one person effort but i would ask the developer to correct said mistakes and if possible adding more people to the developing process in order for the game to achieve its full potential.

The concept of the game is really interesting and especially at the start of cases it was fun asking the questions. Eventually it's difficult to know what to do but I just used hints and I'm fine with that (I had trouble wording things even with hints once and that was because I hadn't read the statements closely). Overall I think you need to be interested in the novelty for it to be really worth it to you but the game is pretty cheap so I'm happy with it.

Good game - can be an interesting story, not fully released yet though, curious to see how it turns out

I enjoyed the questioning mechanic greatly and I think it has potential: in the current two cases available, it is sadly underutilized. Some of the questions do get a tad repetitive: separately asking the name, age, and occupation in each interview was a little annoying, as it gained you very little information that was actually important (i.e. refutable). The best part of this game, for me, was ferreting out connections and asking more probing questions about them but, unfortunately, most times the game didn't account for this. As such, I feel like this should be a priority for the other cases: the story of Pixel herself felt a tad disjointed and not particularly compelling to me, the cases are where the game truly can do something new. This was an interesting and fun experience that can truly shine if there is more meat to the new cases!

The mechanic of writting in your own words is so good, I love that I can have so many typos or even write in spanish and the game still understand what I'm trying to say! Got stuck a lot, but the hints in game were really helpful.

Oh my goodness I am having so much fun with this game, I first played the demo after an ace attorney binge so getting to play it case 1-4 today was a blast! Can't wait for the final cases to come out! https://youtu.be/ozStufOyRPg

I like this game! It's very similar to Contradiction or Doctor Dekker with a side of Ace Attorney, which I can appreciate. The art style is really nice and worked well for the style of the game as a whole. I also really liked the design of being able to ask any question and seeing if it was relevant or not, or if that question would help unlock parts of future answers. The way the hint system is set up was also nice, gradually becoming more and more clear each time you clicked on it so that you could try and figure things out for yourself even after viewing a hint. I do wish there was a bit more detective work in actually solving the cases instead of it being solved for you - for example, I didn't even realize I'd solved the first case before the achievement popped up as I was still going through new evidence. I understand there are limitations, of course, and it was not a major problem for me while playing. I was more interested in the cases themselves rather than what was happening outside of them with Pixel, mainly because most of the 'meat' is in the cases themselves. This is not entirely a bad thing, unless we are intended to care a lot about Pixel and the world she lives in alongside the cases themselves. Through each case I played through (at time of review, up to case 3 was out) a few witnesses still had encrypted options even after the case was solved. I'm unsure if that's because I did a bad job playing this game or because it's in early access, but I'm hoping there's a way to unlock each answer a witness can have. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes :)

A short but enjoyable game. At the time of this writing, case 3 is available. I finished it in just over an hour. The story is interesting. I look forward to the next case to find out what's going on. The writing is a bit immature near the beginning, but once you're deep into the sleuthing it improves. The main draw/gimmick of this game is the freeform text entry. This occurs in two places. First, you can ask any interviewee anything, and if its a registered question from the actual police interview, the answer is decrypted for you. This works really, really well and was a lot of fun to play with. In fact, if anything it seems underutilized, like there is so much potential here that could be harnessed (and maybe it will be). It makes me look forward to more. Second, when you find a contradiction, you select a statement and a piece of evidence, then enter text explaining the contradiction. This works... much less well. More than once, I selected the correct pair of items but my text for whatever reason was insufficient. It feels unwieldly and there is no clear feedback of "hey you got the right idea but explain it better" which made me try other statements/evidence instead of refining my explanation. In my opinion it would better to just select a fragment of text from each item that are clearly contradictory. As a result, judging the game's difficulty is itself difficult. If it weren't for the freeform contradiction explanations, the game would be very easy - too easy in fact. But struggling with the game mechanics more than the mysteries isn't really a good form of difficulty. Is this "artificial difficulty" for visual novels? I received this product for free. Is it worth the current price of $5.99 USD? Not really, but I think with the last case(s?) in place it will be. And I think some of the earlier cases could be expanded as well. I know I said a few negative things about this game, but it's an early access game with a lot of potential and room for improvement, so I think being critical is important feedback. Despite my criticisms, I think this is a stylish and fun little gem and worth picking up if you like detective-themed games. It's doing something unique and is pretty successful at it.

第三案还是不错的

It has the potential to be great, but it's not quite there yet. The main issues I have are the contradiction system and the way of solving cases. You present evidence against a statement, but then have to explain why it's contradictory. Most conclusions are obvious and shouldn't need proof. Like if someone said they were wearing red, but you know it's blue, and have to explain that red and blue are different colors therefore the outfits are different. Solving cases is presented as a separate PI having already solved the case and you just figure out what he already told the police. As soon as you unlock the answer, it just fills in the info and solves it for you. It takes away the fun of putting together the puzzle pieces. FInally, there are minor plot holes (mild spoiler) like having police as backup to get an illegal product?? And UI issues, like the hint button stuck between the clue and interview button, odd choice. I love the concept, but the game needs work.