Make It Good is a dark, noir-esque detective mystery (interactive fiction) from Fail-Safe author Jon Ingold. You are cast in the role of a down-on-his-luck detective struggling to solve a murder case or risk losing his job. Moving about a complete, living world, you'll turn over every potted plant, scrutinize every room, and question every character as you attempt to stitch together shards of information to discover just what happened.
The story begins sitting in your car just outside a typical suburban dwelling. Thoughts of losing your job float through your head, while a nearby bottle of whiskey quietly beckons your attention. Jack Draginam, husband, accountant, guy who actually employs a maid, has been murdered. No leads, just a bloody body and a lot of suspicious people. It's time to untangle this mess and get some answers.
It doesn't take long for you to realize Make It Good is much more than finding clues and putting them in the right order. It's about picking up on subtle hints, whether they be nervous looks from non-player characters, noises in the background, or curious placements of furniture in the room, then following that lead and prying more information out of it. Each clue-strand offers a number of new leads you could pursue, creating this beautifully organic structure that doesn't feel like solving a linear puzzle, it feels like exploring a story from the inside out.
As far as playing the game goes, most of the commands you'll use will be familiar to anyone who has played interactive fiction before. Moving around the environment involves simple N, E, S, W commands, manipulating objects is straightforward, and asking people questions is a breeze. The real game is in the subtext, as nothing you do shows an obvious next step to take. Because of this, Make It Good can be a brutally difficult game to play, so make sure you're ready to get involved before you click that link.
Analysis: Make It Good is a superb piece of interactive fiction on many levels. It manages to create a world that seems so alive, so independent of you, the player, that if you never bothered to play, no one would seem to mind. Each non-player character moves about the house on their own, has their own motives, their own knowledge of the situation. Prying information out of them requires asking the right questions and picking up on nuances in their demeanor, a task that's much more difficult than realizing you have to use the RED KEY in the RED DOOR.
Finding clues can be tricky, but figuring out what to make of the information is even more of a riddle. You'll come across more than your fair share of cryptic notes, discarded letters, mysteriously sealed cabinets/boxes, etc. But are they just a part of the game world, or is there something more there? Is it really that suspicious someone would have dirty laundry on their floor? You'll sometimes drive yourself mad wondering about the scraps of information Make It Good feeds you. But each step forward in the story feels like an epic leap ahead. A leap you earned!
From the technical side of things, programming a game that's so open-ended requires a lot of planning/forethought, a lot of testing, and a near-infinite amount of patience. The fact that the game was pulled off at all is a feat unto itself, but that it's so incredibly well-written, intriguing, and absorbing is quite impressive. The murky, gritty feeling the writing style imparts sets a brilliant mood for the game. You can almost see the muted colors, feel the stale atmosphere and taste the tension in the air.
Make It Good is one of those games you don't play, you let it absorb you. It requires you to think outside of gaming convention and react naturally to each situation. You'll probably have a difficult time solving the mystery, starting from scratch more than once and feeling lost at almost every turn. You'll enjoy every moment of intrigue, however, and the drive to see the story through to the end never waivers.
If you would rather download the game, grab the file at the Interactive Fiction database followed by an interpreter for your OS: Gargoyle for Windows, Zoom for Macintosh and Unix.
Walkthrough Guide
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Make it Good Walkthrough
General:
Complete command-by-command walkthrough is below.
The entire fun of this game is in figuring out the mystery yourself, but it's very difficult to get all of the pieces exactly right even if you know the general ideas, so here are the specific instructions.
It is strongly recommended to save your game frequently so you can replay from a previous point if you make an error.
All of the sub-goals:
Convince Emilia that Anthony is the killer by putting the incriminating photo, a bottle of whiskey, and a blackmail note in his pile of clothes, and then demonstrating that his pills are fake
Plant evidence convincing Joe that Emilia is the killer by:
standing in the muddy garden while wearing her shoes without letting her see you
cleaning your prints from the letter opener
leaving the letter opener for her to pick up in the kitchen without her seeing you carry it
making the letter opener bloody again without Joe catching you
getting the impression left by the blackmail note on the dresser
giving all of this evidence to Joe
Getting Anthony to the house so that Emilia will confess when arrested, thinking she's covering for him
Now, the specific commands:
out
n
knock
show badge
u
n
search body
search pot
(wait for policeman to arrive)
analyze key
wear gloves
get stake
s
s
go to bathroom
wash knife
get tube
out
s
get briefcase
get pencil
put knife in briefcase
close briefcase
n
e
get silver key
w
n
go to guest bedroom
get frame
out
d
open desk
get all from desk
n
unlock closet
get maid's shoes from closet
n
give frame to maid
s
s
s
s
enter car
open glove compartment
open catch with pencil
get note
get whiskey
put whiskey in case
out
n
n
u
go to guest room
move wicker chair
stand on chair
look on wardrobe
unlock suitcase
open suitcase
search clothes
get incriminating photo
out
s
go to maid's room
search clothes
get scrap
put incriminating photo in clothes
put whiskey in clothes
put note in clothes
out
n
d
n
n
give silver key to maid
wait (until she leaves, one turn)
drop letter opener
go to maid's room (repeat until room reached)
wait (once arrived, wait for her to react to the items in the clothes)
take note
take note
take incriminating photo
analyze incriminating photo
take silver key
out
n
n
(this should be before 4:00 pm, so body is still present)
put knife in wound
put knife in briefcase
close briefcase
turn on lamp
look at marks
s
d
n
n
get whiskey
s
s
u
n
open whiskey
pour whiskey on marks
put whiskey in case
put sheet on marks
rub sheet with pencil
get sheet
s
d
n
n
eat pills
eat pills
eat pills
ask maid about anthony
ask maid about note
give key to maid (when she is present)
remove shoes
wear maid's shoes
out
out
stand in mud (make sure new prints are created)
in
remove shoes
wear my shoes
s
go to joe (repeat until you reach joe, or wait until he has returned)
show photo to joe
show shaded sheet to joe
go to garden (repeat until reached)
analyze footprints
(wait until joe returns)
open briefcase
analyze letter opener
go to study (repeat until reached)
look at scrap
dial (4-digit number on scrap)
tell jenny police
tell jenny anthony
tell anthony emilia
wait (you will reawaken in the foyer)
go to joe, repeat until you are permitted to do so
give incriminating photo to angela
asK angela about photo
ask angela about window
open briefcase
close briefcase
joe, arrest maid
yes
The ending is easy enough to play through yourself, so it'll get a sub-spoiler.
out
n
get key from basket
unlock door
n
z
hide behind hat stand
z
u
n
yes
give envelope to jack
get money
count money
wait
hide under bed
get hat
wait
out
get letter opener
cut pain
ask angela about photo
ask angela about window
go through hedge
[Updated with Jake's corrections ~ Kero]
Posted by: JakeIsGames | September 18, 2009 12:01 AM