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NOW A WIP! (Click Me)

Had this idea literally this morning on my way to university, enticed out of my mind by listening to the soundtrack of Over The Garden Wall (no idea why xD).
I really like the idea and might even work on it once I am done with my current project.

Story:
Opal (gender can be chosen) is the crown prince/princess of Suendfrei, has turned 21 and is supposed to soon inherit the crown and throne. As standard for these procedures, they are expected to be married, otherwise their younger brother Mawsit would inherit the throne per statute (not that he wants to, if asked). The King and Queen thus promptly invite the future kings 'n queens to-be of their neighboring countries over for a week of romance and flirting in the hopes of their child marrying one of them. Everything goes as planned, all guests arrive and all are equally attractive, rich and powerful. After a dinner with everyone introducing themselves, the MC goes to bed...
...Only to be awakened by the horrified scream of the Queen, covered in her dead husbands blood.

Characters:
The Royal Family
Sir/Lady Opal
The main character. He/She is next for the throne and requested to marry to gain the crown. Next in reign with their fathers death, they try to find the murderer that brings chaos to the castle.
King Obsidian
The ruler of Suendfrei. He is a benevolent ruler and awaits the day of giving his crown to his oldest child. He never sees that day though as he gets murdered on the day that the marriage candidates arrive.
Queen Luna
The wife of King Obsidian. She is the unlucky one to find the corpse of the King and turns apathetic to everything afterwards. Is she just pretending to grief and actually a ruthless killer?
Prince Mawsit
Opal's younger brother. He tries his best to support his sibling in finding their fathers murderer. Is he helping to cover his own tracks?

The Marriage Candidates
Lady Larimar
Crown Princess of Riposo, famous for its fishery. She seems awfully tired each day, what might keep her awake at night?
Sir Andesite
Crown Prince of Raiva, famous for its forests filled with game animals. He seems very aggressive, what could he be capable of when ticked off?
Lady Poudretteite
Crown Princess of Voglia, famous for its gemstones. She was seen sneaking around the kings room, what was she doing there?
Sir Charoite
Crown Prince of Zilian, famous for its clothes from cotton shirts to silk dresses. He seems to not really be bothered by the incidents, why does he feel so safe?
Lady Clinohumite
Crown Princess of Glod, famous for its fertile lands. She has been seen repeatedly with a knife, but for what reason?
Sir Citrine
Crown Prince of Tanlan, famous for its gold and silver mines. He seems quite nervous all the time, is he hiding something?
So yeah, everyone's named after a gem right now. Because why not, people have weird names all the time :'D

Game Features:

• Find the murderer among the characters. Is it a guest? Is it the Queen? Is it...you? You have seven days, but the longer you need, the more may die.
• Dynamic Story, dynamic Ending: everyone can survive, everyone can die. Did you find the culprit? Who did you save? Both the game and the ending will change based on your decisions.
• Love in a crazy world: No matter what happens in the story, as long as one suitor is still alive, you can decide to marry them...or not.
• Insanity Mode: Go berserk and kill who you think is the murderer. If you're correct, you instantly win the game, if not then you will get brutally executed and all your progress and save files will be deleted.
• Find all secrets: Can you figure out what everyone is hiding? Can you find and understand the hints that are lying around?
• Spend the night with a candidate to learn about them in the attempt to find hints on their motives and habits.

I want it crazy, bloody and with lots of plot twists and suspicious people. Like Higurashi, like Corpse Party, like Saw. I don't know, I just want people to play it and then have nightmares about it. I want people to find the killer and then crush their head against a wall about how they should have seen the solution and yet didn't. No idea, if I am gonna go with CGs, if yes how many. If I make it small, I might even go with just 2-3 variations of each character, instead pouring my everything into the script.

I'll go ahead and be that person who brings up the obvious point that there is already a well-known Ren'Py game called "Long Live the Queen" and thus there might arise confusion if you use "Long Live the King" as a title.

It's a working title. I had "Happily Never After" and other stuff in my head, but for now I go with that xD
If I start working on it, I will definitely look into a proper title.

Wow, the story plot sounds interesting. I can't wait to play it.

This sounds really interesting! I like the concept, a murder mystery is always a lot of fun.
I especially love the idea of "Insanity Mode", brutal sounding, but fun.

Looking forward to more info, and good luck

It sounds pretty interesting especially the Insanity Mode idea you are posing. (Take away auto skip IMO as well to make the punishment more worth while lol)

But yea, I always like this kind of mystery/detective games so I think it's going to be fun if you can pull it off. Good luck!

I'm going to second somestrangecircus about the title. When I came here I thought it was parody x)

But the concept is fantastic!

MoonByte wrote: [...] crazy, bloody and with lots of plot twists and suspicious people [...] I just want people to play it and then have nightmares about it. I want people to find the killer and then crush their head against a wall about how they should have seen the solution and yet didn't.

I want it.

I am making it