Badges? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!
Mar 26, 2015
One small design issues Gary and I are wrestling with is badges.
The two main characters in Thimbleweed Park, Detective Ray and Reyes, are both federal agents. As of yet, we've never called them FBI agents or specified what agency they work for, but they are real federal agents.
And occasionally this has posed a small adventure game design issue because they are federal agents and they have badges and guns. Why doesn't everyone just do what they say and answering any questions they have? If they want to use the photocopy machine, can't they just flash their badges and use it, rather than solving a puzzle chain to get a nickel? Let's ignore the fact that it's pre-debit-cards-1987 and why isn't everyone carrying some pocket change around at all times. Let's just ignore that for a moment.
Yes, Chet the survivalist out in the woods might be reluctant to let them explore his underground compound, and yes, Natalie, reporter for the Thimbleweed Nickel understands freedom of the press and isn't going to just answer any questions they ask, or do anything they want, but if everyone responded with "Not without a warrant", it would be highly unrealistic and, well, boring.
The sad fact is, in real life, most people will answer any question and do pretty much anything the authorities ask.
We've dealt with the largest of the puzzle issues that having a badge breaks, but we're always asking ourselves: "Why don't they just flash their badge?"
It's an interesting problem to solve. It's one of the things that makes this fun.
- Ron
In some countries in real life, the "agents" wouldn't even bother to go outside their offices :)
One dead body under the bridge-> suicide-> case closed :)
In that case, it might make sense that people would mistrust their badges - "Department of Such and Such... never heard of that."
Definitely a nut to crack, but a huge opportunity for running gags :)
when some police men tried to get for free some bottle of waters from a small street store, just because they were cops, the clerk and others attacked them!!
It would be funny if you could show them your badge in the game and the clerk has a funny reaction to this, so you need to try something else.
Generally it may be funny to let people try realistic stuff and get unforseen funny reactions
* Mind control via the "star wars" anti-missile program.
* Aliens (yeah, used so much that is is almost meh).
* Ronald Reagan is a communist space-reptile and the cousin of Queen Elizabeth.
* The middle ages is a lie (that is an actual conspiracy theory).
* The Smurfs (or similar non-trademarked word) was created to spread communism (that is actually also a real theory).
* The world is not flat or round... It is in 3D!!! (or something even more stupid)
* Some predictions about the internet, that all laugh at.
He couldn't find his badge. His dog took it and buried it in the backyard, so he couldn't find it.
He was not worried bacause he thought she was bringing her badge...
Shit happens... :P
(Btw: who's who?)
I would solve the problem two fold:
1. Sometimes badge flashing action should be even necessary to make people co-operate. It could make for some interesting puzzles and intensify the feeling that you are a bad ass agent.
2. Puzzles that would break if you could just flash your badge could be resolved by the same means X Files did it (by the way, everyone heard of the new six episodes that are heading our way? Yay!): By making people distrustful or a-holes or anti-government or blind or dumb or ghosts or CIA agents or just smashing the door in your face.
Be creative but please don't take away the badge action. Pretty please? :-)
You could make use of the crying wolf trope. Perhaps there was someone who pretended to be feds prior to their arrival and now everyone is burned and doesn't believe that they're actually federal agents. This adds the possibility of comedy beats, mugging to the camera, etc as the agents deal with incredulous townsfolk.
She has the badge with her (she has the obligation to take it with her), but it was given to her by a fellow detective whom she used to date, but was killed in an investigation (she had to move to another city because of this).
Now, every time she sees the badge, she gets sad. So she refuses to take it out of her pocket, because it affects her job.
He has a badge with him too, but it's not his real badge, but a toy badge that his nephew traded for the real one without him knowing.
He's now ashamed of take it out and make a fool of himself.
1) Write in some sort of cover story that means they have to keep their true identities secret.
2) Write in a recent incident in the town's history where a con artist used a fake FBI agent identity to trick everyone; nobody in town trusts the agents.
3) For the gun issue, maybe one of the agents has some dark underexplained incident in their past involving guns, and they refuse to carry one even though they're legally allowed. Dunno how realistic that is for either character.
These are all pretty heavy weight narratively and not easy to just patch in. Good luck!
Then there could be a character who is dressed in agent costume for thimblecon who flashes a badge and people think it's real.
One puzzle could be stopping the fake agent, by sabotaging his costume or something.
Perhaps they lost the badges in a poker game with agents from Homeland, U.S. Marshals and so on...?
Perhaps there were budget cuts so they have to create their own badges, but hadn't have the time for it yet...?
Perhaps the citizens refuse to acknowledge the federal government (I saw it in an episode of The Mentalist)?
Anyway, thank you again for this unique opportunity to "peek behind the curtain".
As for badge flashing, a character might be rectlant to always flash their badge, since throwing their authority around heavy handedly is not the best way to breed cooperation and trust.
Like a thief having stolen that luggage.
The card was confused with one looking ALMOST identical, from a spy toy set.
The card needs to be used to open a lock, and then it breaks.
Something like that.
And you could actually have them *show* off those cards, and people can respond with varied answers.
"Oh. Of course! How can I help you?"
"Oh. Of course, how c-...." "... wait. What's with this crummy card." "Never mind."
"You it's a crime to pretend to be agents, right?"
Or other serious, offended, silly, stupid responses. It could even be a running gag like in the Broken Sword 2 game, where you can talk to everybody and offer them to shake hands ... to give them a small electric shock. And everybody has a completely hilarious and bogus way to decline ...
Whenever asked, the agents will not have any badges or warrants because they have actually forgotten them in their other pants.
As for why no one has a nickel, why does it have to be a nickel. "The machine is from Japan. It only takes 100 Yen coins. We can't change the money lock without voiding the warranty, so we have to wait for the technician from the vendor. "
Handcuffing innocent inhabitants of Thimbleweed Park to a pipe to get a completely unremarkable object (a nickel?) is definitely something I would like to do in the game ;-)
Only thing that really matters is, that the solution should be logical in the context of the game. The story itself has to be a logical continuation where character behaviour is set in certain way. And if that path is followed the things that happen in the story are accepted, no matter how unlikely they would be in the realworld. It's one reason why well done action films work, as if the internal story logic is sound, then the unbelievable action scenes work too.
I think a good solution, besides the tragic death of the beloved Thimbleweed mascot, would be bureaucracy. Yes, Ray and Reyes have badges, but people keep refusing to cooperate because they just don't buy it or have all sort of excuses. In order to enforce the law, Ray and Reyes need to call the agency and ask for warrants and such, and that is a bureaucratic mess that involves dealing with a kafkian/TerryGilliam-esque phone operator. Of course, warrants will always arrive after the puzzle for what they are needed is already solved.
Having contact with the outer world (the agency) will help defining the characters (like in Maniac Mansion, where you could contact the external world by mailing things). Twin Peaks did that all the time, first with phone conversations and, later, with David Lynch itself playing the role of the boss visiting the town. The phone conversations with the phone operator can provide background information about the players, clues for some puzzles, all sort of jokes, and so on and so forth.
P.S. Reminds me of Mr. Bean diverting almost everything from its intended use just to make a sandwich.
Just an idea!
Also the perfect inside joke would be one of the characters telling another: "Don't be a shit-head" at the start of the game.
The corpse has been found just outside the town and that gives to the US federal agency the right to investigate, but the town itself is outside their power and the two agents can ask questions only because the local police has generously conceded a bit of informal support to them. As a result, they can ask for things but what they get is up to the people they interact with.
Actually, Thimbleweed Park is somewhat disputed between USA and Canada. For unexplained reasons, each country would like to pass to the other one what seems to be a quiet but hot potato.
NPCs in adventure games are always so stubborn. When you want credit from the Shopkeeper in MI, there's nothing you can do to convince him. Yet he walks to the Swordmaster every time you ask.
I can imagine a similar scenario with the badge. The badge *should* be able to get you immediate access somewhere, but instead you have to do something to satisfy some power-hungry towns person like "prove" you're a real agent. Guybrush could hold his breath for 10 minutes, so one of the agents can do a handstand for 10 minutes. It's a dialog puzzle.
But do they have to be feds? Private detectives/ bounty hunters sounds more romantic. FBI gives me this sort of serious bureaucratic retarded csi vibe.
Besides witness statements can deviate from the real occurrences because people sometimes misinterpret what they see.
In Day Of The Tentacle for example Dr. Fred doesn't remember the safe's combination although he seems to want to assist you with saving the world. So you need to videotape him while he opens the safe asleep.
By the way: The internal revenue agents in Day Of The Tentacle actually flash a badge, but Dr. Fred is still sleepwalking.
As far as the copying machine is concerned, it couldn't give a shit whether you have a gun or badge. It won't make a copy unless you cough up a coin.
- The game could be taking place in Germany where there are no police badges, just paper IDs for policemen and those are easy to fake.
- There could be a puzzle at the beginning of the game in which both badges get damaged and become unuseable.
Seriously, though, I really like Zombocast's suggestion a lot.
I would probably have the characters lose their badges after their motel rooms had been broken into by local hoodlums, or by fanatical ill-mannered gamecon visitors who thought some über famous stars were residing in those rooms (badges are invaluable costume props of course and therefore free to "loan"). After that incident the characters would always have to explain their non-badgeness and those hopefully amusingly varying attempts would accumulate during the game as a running gag of sorts. Of course, this approach would make them seem a bit goofy.
Pretty fun design puzzle actually.
This make things more believable, and - in case it gets crazy - humorous.