The Crown Mysteries

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a browser-based 2D investigation game titled “THE CROWN MYSTERIES,” Episode I — “Murder at Versailles.” The presentation is a 1280x720 fixed scene framed by a thin antique-gold border, with an elegant dark brown/black and muted-gold UI using Georgia and Playfair Display-style serif typography.

Start on a centered main menu against a near-black brown background. Show the large gold title “THE CROWN MYSTERIES,” italic subtitle “Episode I — Murder at Versailles,” and the period setting line “Spring 1788 • Hall of Mirrors, Versailles Palace.” Provide gold outlined buttons: “Begin Investigation,” “Continue,” and “Credits.” Begin Investigation opens the investigation scene; Continue attempts to continue but, in this prototype, has no functional save-loading implementation and should fall back to starting a new game. Credits may be a simple credits action/display consistent with the menu.

The investigation is a single-screen, fixed-camera, side-on/flat 2D scene rendered in a Three.js canvas with an orthographic camera. Use a wide cinematic background image of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles: a grand gilded palace hall with tall windows, elaborate gold ornament, chandeliers, warm candle/fire illumination, a long royal dining table and seated/onlooking eighteenth-century guests. The shown composition places the royal table across the middle, a brightly lit fireplace on the far left, guards and guests around the sides, and a dead royal taster lying face-down on the polished marble floor in the foreground. Add a subtle dark translucent overlay and warm, slightly hazy atmosphere. The player is a simple black detective silhouette near the bottom foreground: a rectangular black coat/body with a pale round head, initially at the lower-left/center area. Do not add combat, enemies, inventory items beyond evidence, or additional rooms.

The game is click-driven. Clicking an empty area of the scene makes the detective walk smoothly toward that point at a slow constant speed, with movement constrained to the visible room bounds. Clicking an interactive region instead of empty floor does not move the player. Use invisible or very faint translucent rectangular hotspot overlays so they are not visually distracting. Hovering an interactive hotspot changes the cursor to a pointer and updates the bottom description bar with its name; hovering elsewhere shows “Click to walk or examine.”

Place object hotspots around the royal table and room: a “Silver tasting spoon” near the left side of the table; “Royal plate” near the central table setting; “Goblet” on the right side of the table; “Serving tray” toward the left; the face-down body of “Étienne Moreau” in the foreground; the “Fireplace” on the west/left wall; and the “Tablecloth” over the dining table. Clicking an object immediately records its evidence clue once and displays its description in a dark bottom description bar for several seconds. The evidence entries and exact text should be:
- Silver Tasting Spoon — “The spoon used by Étienne Moreau shows faint traces of a bitter, acrid substance.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, royal table. Related: Étienne Moreau. Importance: High.
- Royal Plate (King’s Meal) — “The King’s dinner plate remains completely untouched. The taster collapsed before he could sample the royal portion.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, royal table. Related: Louis XVI, Étienne Moreau. Importance: Critical.
- Wine Goblet — “The silver goblet has a thin layer of dark residue at the bottom.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, royal table. Related: Axel von Fersen. Importance: Medium.
- Serving Tray — “A long scratch runs along the edge of the tray.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, royal table. Related: Kitchen Servants. Importance: Low.
- Étienne Moreau’s Body — “Étienne Moreau lies face-down on the marble floor in the foreground, just in front of the royal table. Signs of sudden poisoning.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, floor in front of table. Related: Étienne Moreau, Royal Guards. Importance: High.
- Fireplace — “The fireplace on the left wall burns brightly with warm light. No signs of disturbance in the ashes or nearby.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, west wall. No related characters. Importance: Low.
- Tablecloth — “A small dark stain near where the taster fell.” Location: Hall of Mirrors, royal table. Related: Étienne Moreau. Importance: Medium.

If the player examines the royal plate, after a short delay trigger the main discovery cinematic only once. Fade the scene toward black with a dark overlay and centered gold serif text: “The poison was NOT placed in the King’s meal.” Beneath it show smaller text: “The investigation has only begun...” Hold it briefly, fade it away, then show a full-screen dark completion panel titled “Episode I Complete,” with the message “You have discovered that the poison was not in the King’s meal.” and a gold outlined “Return to Menu” button that reloads the game.

Also place character hotspots among the figures: Louis XVI toward the left side of the table, Marie Antoinette near the center-left, Axel von Fersen toward the right side, Kitchen Servants on the far left, and Royal Guards on the far right. Clicking a character opens a centered parchment-colored dialogue modal with a dark-gold border, serif text, character name, optional portrait (portraits for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; no portrait required for Axel, servants, or guards), and outlined response buttons. Use these exact initial statements and options:
- Louis XVI: “Étienne was a loyal servant. He tasted every dish before we sat down.” Options: “What exactly happened?”, “Did anyone approach the table?”, “Leave”. If the first is selected, show “We were about to dine. Étienne took the spoon to taste the soup. He suddenly clutched his chest and fell.” with a Back option. If the second is selected, show “No one approached after the food arrived.” with a Back option.
- Marie Antoinette: “This is terrible... Étienne has been with us for years.” Option: “Did you notice anything strange?”; answer: “He seemed perfectly well when he entered. Then... it was so sudden.” with a Back option; also provide Leave.
- Axel von Fersen: “I arrived moments before the collapse.” with Leave.
- Kitchen Servants: “We brought the dishes straight from the kitchen.” with Leave.
- Royal Guards: “No one entered or left the hall after the food arrived.” with Leave.
The modal should support leaving/closing. Preserve the prototype’s simple dialogue behavior if desired, where selecting a question can return to the character’s dialogue rather than implementing a complex conversation tree.

Overlay a HUD at the top of the scene with a translucent black gradient. On the left show “The Crown Mysteries” in gold. On the right provide gold-outlined controls “Evidence Journal,” “Deduction Board,” and “Menu.” The Evidence Journal button includes the current count, e.g. “Evidence Journal (3).” The Deduction Board is visibly disabled/faded and clicking it displays an alert/message that it is for the next slice. Menu asks for confirmation before returning/reloading to the menu.

The Evidence Journal opens a parchment modal titled “Evidence Journal.” List all collected clues in acquisition order, each with a gold-brown title and description; if none have been found show “No evidence collected yet.” Clicking a listed clue can show its description again. Include a Close button. Store collected evidence and the discovery state in local storage when acquired, and update the journal count, but keep the prototype’s Continue/load behavior as a nonfunctional fallback if matching the original slice.

At the beginning of the investigation, show the bottom description prompt: “The royal taster Étienne Moreau lies dead in the foreground. The table is set, fireplace lit on the left. Examine objects and question the witnesses.” The bottom bar should be a black-to-transparent gradient, with pale beige text and pointer-events disabled so it does not block the scene. Overall tone: a polished but intentionally small point-and-click mystery prototype, combining a dramatic historical palace image, simple silhouette player, evidence collection, witness questioning, journal UI, and one concluding deduction cinematic.