Hidden Intentions

Hidden Intentions was the most commonly used name for WildWeasel's detective game. In reality, the game went through several incarnations (and titles), and despite various attempts to revive the project, the idea was eventually scrapped. All the various versions of the game featured private detective David Lanley as the protagonist, and took place on the fictional Areston Island (the setting of Telecrisis).

History

In 2001, WildWeasel first played Gates: The Puzzles, and admired the artistic style of the game. Being on a 1940's detective story kick, Weasel sought to create his own detective mystery game.

The First Incarnation: Dark Generation

WildWeasel began work on his detective game, with little planning whatsoever put into the story or characters. The music was ripped from Gates, and the decision was made immediately to make the game 100% greyscale, with no colors to be seen. For lack of a better name, Weasel called it "Dark Generation", because of the game's dark mood. ZergMind saw the game and commented that the game's name sounded too much like a science fiction game, so the name was later changed to Deadly Games, and the plot centered around the murder of a famed tennis player.

The Second Incarnation: Hidden Intentions

The only version of the game to be shown publicly, Hidden Intentions featured the same setting and protagonist as the first incarnation, but the game and plot were recreated entirely from scratch. The story of Hidden Intentions involved a national conspiracy, and one detective's attempts to unravel it before anything drastic happened. A pre-alpha demo showcasing three boards was released to the DigitalMZX archives shortly before the project was abandoned altogether.

The Third Incarnation

While the name remained the same, Hidden Intentions went through a third incarnation, designed for the up-and-coming ZIG game creation engine. Weasel stated that the ZIG engine was easier to make this sort of game for, but later ate his words as ZIG's development stopped before any meaningful progress was made on either the game or ZIG itself.

The Fourth Incarnation

At some point, Weasel decided that the reason his game never got off the ground was because he was being too complex and ambitious. Hidden Intentions became a ZZT game, making liberal use of Super Tool Kit colors to maintain the greyscale style. This incarnation only had one board made before it, too, was abandoned.

The Fifth Incarnation: A Machination of Terror

Nothing digital ever existed of the fifth incarnation, A Machination of Terror. The new title was chosen to symbolize the game's new central plot element: a diabolical villain's attempt to assassinate the mayor using an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine, under the cover of an invention festival. The player trailed a Goldberg-enthusiast named Dylan Stavrou, attempting to piece together various crimes attributed to him in order to figure out what his plans were, and to stop them before he had a chance to take action. The plot outline, drafted with assistance from ZergMind, was written on paper, and never transcribed to the computer. The game was never officially started, though was mentioned once on the DigitalMZX forums.