Puzzle Design · Narrative Design · BYOG 2025
Dobara
Concept
North Star
You will be wrong twice before you are right once.
Dobara (Re:Murderer) is a node-based detective puzzle built for BYOG 2025. The player is a detective sequencing evidence into a causal tree to name the murderer. Each node in the sequence links causally to the next: every connection must hold logically from motive to action to consequence.
The design is built on a single detonation: new evidence arrives, the prime suspect shifts, and the causal chain the player built collapses. Not partially. Entirely. The restructure that follows is the game. Every phase ends in a conclusion. Every conclusion but the last one is wrong.
Project Highlight
Phase Escalation
Three phases. Three prime suspects. The node count grows each phase, but the prime suspect change is what forces a complete restructure of the causal tree, not just its extension.
Day 01
5
evidence nodes
Canvas on open
Partially pre-filled
Prime Suspect
Suspect A
Player guidance
Tutorial-guided
Design goal
Teach causal sequencing through scaffolded discovery
Day 02
7
evidence nodes
Canvas on open
Empty
Prime Suspect
Suspect B · shift
Player guidance
Player alone
Design goal
Force a total restructure: the prior chain is now entirely wrong
Day 03
9
evidence nodes
Canvas on open
Empty
Prime Suspect
Suspect C · final reveal
Player guidance
Player alone
Design goal
Arrive at a watertight conclusion with all evidence accounted for
Design Insight
Adding nodes alone creates a scaling problem. Changing the prime suspect creates a paradigm shift. Every causal link in the sequence flows from motive and opportunity. Shift the suspect and the logic inverts: the evidence that made Suspect A the killer now points away from Suspect B entirely. The player is not extending their answer. They are discarding it and starting again. That is the moment the design was built to deliver.
Game Design Document
Game Flow