A Medical Detective [Medical][Puzzle][Detective][Commercial]

[hedleypty]

History

I am a medical doctor. I am tired to hear that Medicine==surgery. Medicine IRL is more like a detective. We interrogate the patient, and we do an IRL click and point.

Description

The game is divided in cases. Each case represents a patient who is threatened by a deadly disease. You will start with a professor that annoy you with questions relevant to the case. You need to hear each patient story, click anything weird in the physical examination, resolve emergencies and answer questions from the professor or the patient to solve the case. The mechanic is similar to a generic graphic novel like Phoenix Wright, but focused on medical doctors.

All the cases, came from my personal experience as intern. They are rare and weird cases. The concept of cases is identical to the idea of chapters illustrated somewhere else in this forum

Problems

1. Ren´py SDK doesn't seem to build an Android .apk. I decided to work in Ubuntu, instead.
2. I am not very good drawing, but I am taking assets from here and there. I would like to have an illustrator and start a crowdfunding campain.
3. I would like to translate to other languages, if the project develops properly.So far, I speak English and Spanish. Other languages like Chinese could be great, but I need to have more resources to translate
4. Additional ideas are welcome! please help me to improve this.

Intro and future improvements
This is the intro of the first case (I couldn't make the youtube tag to work, so I uploaded and image with the youtube URL):


I'll try to post developings in this forum. probably a video o so weekly.

/Hedley

[Katta]

I'm very interested in the idea but if you plan the game for a larger audience there should be balance between giving the correct medical info and not info-dumping people (your "a professor that annoy you with questions" bothers me a bit in this regard). And of course you'll need a better art for a commercial release.

[Caveat Lector]

I'm very intrigued by the idea--I remember loving a few "doctor detective" games when I was younger, and I'd like to see more games along those lines. As for ideas, maybe you could include an optional in-game glossary or database of medical terms for the player to look up? Or maybe you could also address things like, say, how easy it is to mistake symptoms of one illness for another and how it's important to not overlook the smallest details.

[hedleypty]

I'm very intrigued by the idea--I remember loving a few "doctor detective" games when I was younger, and I'd like to see more games along those lines. As for ideas, maybe you could include an optional in-game glossary or database of medical terms for the player to look up? Or maybe you could also address things like, say, how easy it is to mistake symptoms of one illness for another and how it's important to not overlook the smallest details.

I would like not to mention technical details unless they are needed. They point is that patients and doctors mistake symptoms or overlook details... The point of the game is to point out contractions in the patient telling, in the physical examination or so on.

IRL interns have few handbooks with relevant topics. I would like to have an in-game version of that or the Professor might have such function for technical details. Lab test nowadays tell you if the value is in normal range or not (I plan to include that).

[hedleypty]

I'm very interested in the idea but if you plan the game for a larger audience there should be balance between giving the correct medical info and not info-dumping people (your "a professor that annoy you with questions" bothers me a bit in this regard). And of course you'll need a better art for a commercial release.

I get your point... This questions will not be very technical, I intend to be related to the case. Something like "Do you know what happened according to the patient?", ''Have we overlooked something?", "Are the labs wrong?" (with access to them) and so on. I would like him to be as rude as possible... like a villain, but that one who help you!

[kaleidofish]

I suggest looking up videos, or even playing if you have a Wii, Dr. Gabriel Cunningham's sections of the game Trauma Team. His part of the game was very well done & very medical investigation-ish. Maybe you can incorporate some of the features from his section of the game. It struck the right balance of being medical & fun. Lots of detective work involved!

[hedleypty]

I suggest looking up videos, or even playing if you have a Wii, Dr. Gabriel Cunningham's sections of the game Trauma Team. His part of the game was very well done & very medical investigation-ish. Maybe you can incorporate some of the features from his section of the game. It struck the right balance of being medical & fun. Lots of detective work involved!

I saw the walkthrough in Youtube... In my view, it is the closest thing to reality... There are 2 differences:

1. The "normal patient" was imprinted with blood and sweat in our brain. However, I don't require that the player knows that... It's ok to me as it is done in the game. However, you need to read textbooks or to have internet to diagnose you cases, specially rare diseases.
2. The diagnostician in that game is unable to cure. But, in reality they handle medications, diet and other things to cure the patient. In the game I propose, you must diagnose and also cure the patient without surgery.
3. Depending on the disease, it would take several days to get a diagnosis. As far I see, none of those diagnosis deserve to be solved quickly... Depending on the resources, it takes days to solve them. However, emergency situations require to solve and act the cases quickly. The game I propose, will be emergency.
4. Doctor job is closer to the stuff the diagnostician does. Even surgeons have to do such procedures.

After watching the videos, I think that watching a sat patient or in a stretcher could be a good idea.... I plan to put some of them laying in the floor!

[Railgun]

The concept is very interesting and I'd definitely play the game!
However the video doesn't reflect what I imagine the game to be at all and I'm not talking about the visual elements but rather about the gameplay.
How is it played? For instance, if there's two phases: an interview/diagnosis phase and a curing phase. I'd like to see short sequences of both phases in the video rather than the intro of the first case...
Also, choosing a music reflecting the mood of the game in the video would be a good idea

Good luck!

[hedleypty]

The concept is very interesting and I'd definitely play the game!
However the video doesn't reflect what I imagine the game to be at all and I'm not talking about the visual elements but rather about the gameplay.
How is it played? For instance, if there's two phases: an interview/diagnosis phase and a curing phase. I'd like to see short sequences of both phases in the video rather than the intro of the first case...
Also, choosing a music reflecting the mood of the game in the video would be a good idea

Good luck!

The phases that I envision in this case are:

1. Patient stabilization (optional)
2. Anamnesis (one of the names of the interview)
3. Physical examination
4. Labs and images (optional)
5. Diagnosis
6. Treatment (optional)

I am not very good drawing. I tried anime, but I am learning blender to handle 3d human models, instead.

[hedleypty]

I am trying to emulate pulse using the vibrator... I am having a hard time with that I made a post here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =8&t=29226

[hedleypty]

Beta released!
All files and screencasts are available in this forum:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 45&t=31936

Linux

[The extension apk has been deactivated and can no longer be displayed.]

Desktop

MedicalDectectiveVer2Eng-1.0-all.zip

(35.77 MiB) Downloaded 34 times

Main screen (it was modified, because default renpy saving is not possible)

[Rinima]

I'm really sorry, but I'm having a hard time understanding you.

Is English your native language? (also, it's not medical terms that are confusing me, I know enough medical terms, since I'm a student nurse, just so you don't automatically jump to that conclusion.)

[hedleypty]

I'm really sorry, but I'm having a hard time understanding you.

Is English your native language? (also, it's not medical terms that are confusing me, I know enough medical terms, since I'm a student nurse, just so you don't automatically jump to that conclusion.)

Thanks for your comment... I am not native speaker, but I value the opinion of a native speaker like you.

The concept behind the first case is very simple and there are not so many medical terms, since I try to convey a very simple story. It represents a combination of 2 very common diseases that leads to a rare condition. It seems like the patient is a workaholic: his life is his job... He could not imagine living himself as a blind person, receiving help from other... so he wanted to die!

[Rinima]

I'm really sorry, but I'm having a hard time understanding you.

Is English your native language? (also, it's not medical terms that are confusing me, I know enough medical terms, since I'm a student nurse, just so you don't automatically jump to that conclusion.)

Thanks for your comment... I am not native speaker, but I value the opinion of a native speaker like you.

The concept behind the first case is very simple and there are not so many medical terms, since I try to convey a very simple story. It represents a combination of 2 very common diseases that leads to a rare condition. It seems like the patient is a workaholic: his life is his job... He could not imagine living himself as a blind person, receiving help from other... so he wanted to die!

Ohh, that sounds interesting!

Just as a point of reference, you may want to get a artist and a editor to help you, since this is commercial.

Also, will you be expanding on what roles other healthcare professions play? That would be nice to see.

[hedleypty]

I'm really sorry, but I'm having a hard time understanding you.

Is English your native language? (also, it's not medical terms that are confusing me, I know enough medical terms, since I'm a student nurse, just so you don't automatically jump to that conclusion.)

Thanks for your comment... I am not native speaker, but I value the opinion of a native speaker like you.

The concept behind the first case is very simple and there are not so many medical terms, since I try to convey a very simple story. It represents a combination of 2 very common diseases that leads to a rare condition. It seems like the patient is a workaholic: his life is his job... He could not imagine living himself as a blind person, receiving help from other... so he wanted to die!

Ohh, that sounds interesting!

Just as a point of reference, you may want to get a artist and a editor to help you, since this is commercial.

Also, will you be expanding on what roles other healthcare professions play? That would be nice to see.

I understand that, but it intended to be something like an autobiography... Other health professionals are like Deuteragonists, the patients refuse to get treatment, you will measure vitals in other cases, and do other things: I consulted to create an aneroid blood pressure device and a pulse simulator (that only works in Android).

Indeed, in this particular case, the nurse and the patients are the antagonists. Nurses can refuse to follow the doctor orders if they consider them to not benefit the patient, as the nurse does if you lose all your karma point.

There is a hidden story about Dr. Layzee, the nurse and Dr. Bont... they are entangled in a weird triangle... but this case does not reflect that...

I am not sure if it game would be a "commercial" game, as I've planned before...