Modus Operandi - UPDATE: Colored Portraits!!

[Tsuki-chan]

Elusive Blue is proud to announce the production of its first project: Modus Operandi! Here I shall detail all relevant information pertaining to the project, as well as maintain a running progress report as the game's creation continues. So, without further ado, let's get on with what this game is all about!

General

Title: Modus Operandi
Type: Visual Novel
Genres: Murder Mystery, Drama, Humour
Rating: T
Engine: Ren'py

Summary

You play as Logan, a young college dropout with a near obsession for all things mystery and a fierce determination to become a detective. Unfortunately, your only 'experience' includes the countless hours you've spent reading mystery novels and watching who-knows-how-many whodunit movies.

Fortunately for you, a recent string of seemingly unrelated murders has the police baffled. If you can somehow manage to solve this case before anyone else, there's no doubt in your mind that you'd be getting your foot in the door at last! The downside: attempting to track down an actual serial killer is a whole lot different than reading about one.


Setting

Fairly large city in modern-day United States.

Characters


Logan Crenshaw
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Appearance: Average build, 5'10", medium brown hair, darkish icy-blue eyes
Personality: Tends to overreact, stubborn, can be lazy, obsessive, extremely observant, can lie with a straight face
Likes: Mystery novels, ping-pong, mint chocolate chip ice-cream
Dislikes: Videogames (isn't very good at them), public transportation


Thomas Nohle
Nickname: Tilly
Age: 25
Gender: Male (transgendered)
Appearance: Slim build, 6', busty, blonde hair, bright green eyes
Personality: Melodramatic, self-assured, flirtatious, scheming, overly-cheerful
Likes: Banana cheesecake, stuffed animals, painting
Dislikes: Fire, dogs, flowers (as gifts)
Importance: Logan's roommate


Jacob Avilés
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Nationality: Dominican/American
Appearance: Lithe build, 5'6", creamy-coffee skin tone, curly dark brown hair, hazel eyes
Personality: Dependent, often speaks without thinking, frequently misses sarcasm and jokes, has a very good memory
Likes: animals, watermelon, comics
Dislikes: large amounts of water, blueberries
Importance: Assists Logan; Aden's twin brother


Aden Avilés
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Nationality: Dominican/American
Appearance: Lithe build, 5'6 3/4", creamy-coffee skin tone, wavy dark brown hair, hazel eyes
Personality: Protective, untrusting, manipulative, street-wise, highly intelligent
Likes: animals, blue roses, manga
Dislikes: frogs, women, strawberries
Importance: Assists Logan; Jacob's twin brother


Dorian Stross
Age: 22 1/2
Gender: Male
Appearance: Athletic build, 5'11", tanned, dirty blonde hair, honey-brown eyes
Personality: Extremely competitive, arrogant-acting, stubborn, good at devising plans and deciphering
Likes: Sports, esp. soccer and tennis, strawberry ice-cream, cooking
Dislikes: Cats (allergic), being inactive, hyperactive girls
Importance: Attended the same school as Logan; sees him as a rival


Bastian Kowalski
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Appearance: Toned build, 6'1", tanned, black hair, grey eyes
Personality: Extremely committed to whatever he sets out to do, fairly easygoing, though can be a bit too serious at times, slight drinking problem, something of a playboy, superstitious
Likes: Puzzles, writing, children
Dislikes: Most sweet things, leaving anything unfinished, clutter
Importance: Detective and longtime friend of Logan's father


Kitani Mitchell
Nickname: Kitty
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Appearance: Average build, 5'5", medium brown skin tone, dark brown hair, medium green eyes (right slightly lighter than left)
Personality: Portrays herself as a somewhat cold, arrogant perfectionist with little interest outside of school; in actuality, she’s extremely social, goofy, will do just about anything to make someone laugh, and loves to party
Likes: Partying, video games, researching
Dislikes: Pretending to be something she's not, people who think they're better than everyone else, college
Importance: Highly intelligent college student whom Logan meets


Madison Foster
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Appearance: Slight build, 5'4", wavy dark red hair, greyish-blue eyes
Personality: Cheerful, excitable, playfully flirtatious, outgoing, quick to offer a helping hand, somewhat ditzy
Likes: Strawberry shortcake, karaoke, roller coasters
Dislikes: Fish (as pets), self-absorbed people, ants
Importance: Recently moved to town to attend the local college; quickly takes a liking to Logan


Chris Rigett
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Appearance: Athletic build, 5'9", auburn hair, medium brown eyes
Personality: Tomboyish, stubborn, easily angered, self-assured, always speaks her mind, quick-witted
Likes: Sports, cherries, romantic guys
Dislikes: Losing, being told she can’t do something, anything she deems too girly
Importance: Lives in the same apartment building as Dorian

Features

The following list contains features I hope to include, if at all possible.

° 24 endings (12 "good", 2 alternate, 7 bad, and 3 special)
° Separate unlockable individual cases
° Clickable in-game objects
° Journal that automatically records clues found and possible suspects
° Detective themed mini-games (lock-picking, code breaking...)
° Timed events

Team

Writer: Tsukiyo (me!)
Editor: X__Sinister
Character Artist: LiwaRifael
Cut-Scene/Event Artist: N/A
Background Artist: N/A
Colorist: Deji
Programmers: Shadow, Forgotten Chronicle, Justin Lidy
Music Composer: N/A
Sound Effects: N/A

**Will edit as more are added. Please see following post for recruitment information.

Other

Modus Operandi allows for the possibility of developing a relationship with (almost) any of the main characters, gender aside.
However, regardless of the path, you will inevitably run upon BL content.

[Tsuki-chan]

Recruitment

Character/Sprite Artist

Each of the characters will be depicted with several different expressions and a few different poses (as in, it won't be the same pose throughout, but their won't be a different pose for each expression). The only character this does not apply to is Logan, who will only be shown with different expressions to the side of the text-box, as the story is first-person.

The character artist will, of course, only be doing the linework of the characters. Therefore, character artist's must be able to line their own art (or draw in such a way as to make it easy for the colorist to do their job). Samples should include both males and females.[/i]

Scene/Event Artist

Must be able to imitate the character artist's style convincingly. Samples should include both males and females depicted in different poses.

Colorist

Will be focusing on sprites and scenes for the most part. I'm looking for a CG colorist, not a traditional colorist, so samples should reflect this.

Background Artist

Should have a good grasp of both indoor and outdoor scenery. Again, samples are a must.

Music Composer

I don't have a particular style in mind at this time. It'd be helpful if the composer could come up with appropriate music on their own (based on what they will have seen of the game, of course), but not absolutely necessary. Must have samples!

Sound Effects

Pretty self-explanatory. I'll most likely assume you can create decent sound effects if you say that you can, but samples are always helpful...xD

Editor

Must have a very good grasp of the English language (of course). The editor's job will be not only to point out spelling and grammatical errors and inconsistencies in the script, but also to make suggestions of improvements and the like if they deem fit. Writing samples would be nice.

[N0UGHTS]

:quasi-fujoshi high-pitched scream:

...Nobody heard that. It wasn't me. I love women, it couldn't possibly be me... Err... Tsuki-chan did it! :dies:

It's about time we get another murder mystery ADV. (Though I'm hooked on anything concerning murder...) And what a cast, too! Looks like good stuff. And the character design artist... Oooh...

Wait... So "Tilly" is male-to-female? Or is it the other way around?

The plot, the plot, the plot... So it'll be realistic fiction? Not like CHAOS;HEAD?

[Tsuki-chan]

[ ]

[N0UGHTS]

Ah, so he's a transvestite going for surgery, though not gender identity-related surgery. Okay...

Wow. For the LGBT scene to be that big, the game has to take place in California. XD

[Tsuki-chan]

Tilly has a story.
...But of course, I won't speak a work of it.

[Enerccio]

However, regardless of the path, you will inevitably run upon BL content.

And I lost 95% of my interest...

[DrakeNavarone]

Not so sure about the transgendered bit, but a serious attempt at a mystery story will always have my attention. I've been having an idea that features a protagonist similar to your own, so that especially caught my attention. I don't keep my eye on much lately, but this is one I'll be keeping track of. Best of luck.

[Tsuki-chan]

And I lost 95% of my interest...

There won't be anything too major. After all, it is only rated T.
You should be more open-minded...XP

[Enerccio]

And I lost 95% of my interest...

There won't be anything too major. After all, it is only rated T.
You should be more open-minded...XP

Oh, I am open minded. Yuri, Loli, Guro, Tentacles, Futa, just name it.
But it has to have at least one girl in it =P

But I will play it (for the love of mysteries) unless there will be major clues in the BL scenes (which I will skip =P)

[N0UGHTS]

Oh, I am open minded. Yuri, Loli, Guro, Tentacles, Futa, just name it.
But it has to have at least one girl in it =P

Wow. Sounds a lot like what I'm interested in.

Kitani
Nickname: Kitty
Age: 21
Gender: Female

Madison
Age: 19
Gender: Female

Cassandra
Age: 24
Gender: Female

...They have boobs, right? Are they datable?

The text sizes messed up the quote... (0_0)

[Tsuki-chan]

unless there will be major clues in the BL scenes

You never know...XP
I won't make any promises, either way. I suppose you'll just have to try it out and see for yourself...^^

Are they datable?

Well, if your only specification is that they have boobs, then yes...xDD

[Tsuki-chan]

Perhaps I'll have more luck on that front if I actually put it in the title...xDD

[x__sinister]

Hey. I might be interested in helping you out as an editor.
I am a fairly good writer, and I'm always going around and super-checking grammar mistakes.
Having more than one editor is a good idea; one may miss something and another can catch it.
However, I don't know how to use Ren'Py at all; if that's what you meant by correcting the script, then I'm not good for this job. Obviously I'd just correct the writing portion. I suppose I don't really need to tell you what kind of editing I'd be doing, because you put it in the description. Any grammar and spelling mistakes, rewording sentences, making sure everything keeps to the tone and pace of the story, mythic structure, etc. etc. I'm also full of ideas, so if you need any inspiration, I'm available.

Also, I can do some coloring. I'm an adept artist, but I'm not an expert at it. If you can't find a colorist, and that's the only thing holding you back from getting the game out, I'm all for it.


Anyway...
I'm very interested in this game.
I was thinking of making a murder mystery of my own, though it would have more of a supernatural twist (ghosts, curses, hauntings). I also really love thriller stories, so this is a big plus.
I'm a big fan of BL, so I'm glad there are some scenes in there. But, I also like that you're balancing it out with the female characters, too. This way it pleases everyone. (:

[Tsuki-chan]

I am so sorry for taking so long to reply! I've been a bit busy these past few days, and though I saw your post and intended to reply, I kept getting distracted...x.x;

In any case, you sound absolutely perfect for the job! We're actually using Novelty to create the game, not Ren'py. But, thankfully, I wouldn't have asked you to edit within the game, anyhow...XP
I would provide you with the script.

The beta reader's job is to read through the script in-game, so any mistakes we both miss, they'll hopefully catch. However, it's still possible that I'll work with more than one editor.

I've actually already located a colorist (and just updated the first post), but thanks for the offer!

There really aren't enough mysteries around here. We need more variety!

In any case, I shall PM you.