Inspiration

Something this comic took advantage of was the use of first-person perspective, which I thought was interesting but ultimately decided wouldn’t suit my project as it is more narrative based.

Sherlock Holmes: International is a graphic novel adventure by Ced and Boutanox, published by Van Ryder Games (who are known for their solo and co-op graphic novel adventures as well as their tabletop games). I specifically picked this GNA to look at since it should be set around the late 19th century, and should therefore share more similarity to my vision for my own graphic novel adventure.

This graphic novel acted a lot like a point-and-click adventure game and could be compared readily to games like The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel and other Sherlock Holmes point-and-click detective games.

I liked the ‘Survey Sheet’, giving the player a place to keep track of parts of their story without having to source their own notebook. This improves the UX greatly and inspired a similar ‘Character Sheet’ that I will be including at the start of my own project.

You are essentially able to ‘click’ on an interactive element by flipping to the number specified on the panel, allowing you to investigate objects and areas with the goal of solving a murder mystery. In my own graphic novel, I would implement this mechanic, as I think placing numbers next to the object or area it refers to is the clearest and simplest way to move or investigate objects throughout. This is typical in this genre. While my project will not be directly about investigation and mystery, there will be aspects that will be navigated in this way, and there will be mysteries to discover.

The panels in this comic were also very mixed up, with a lot of flipping between pages. I think that this aided this gna in keeping aspects secret, avoiding reveals that might come about from accidentally glancing at irrelevant panels. They also took advantage of the physical medium by revealing suspects upside-down, so that it would be harder to accidentally see this before you get there naturally. These aspects are more important in a detective game, but something I want to keep in mind within my project.

I was definitely interested in the questioning mechanic, especially since I want to highlight the relationships between characters to drive the story in my project. I like the idea of social options and consequences for those options, in Sherlock Holmes: International this manifests as having to avoid questions that will offend the suspect, as this will force you to end the questioning early. In my project, this will be more dynamic, as social options will add or reduce your relationship score with that person, and some options won’t be available without a certain score minimum or maximum. This will be tracked in the front of the comic on a ‘Relationships’ page.