SHINRAI [Murder Mystery] - Released (August 26, 2016)

[Gospel]

It's update time again!
We have another character introduction and this one's quite important.
Meet one of the two main characters of our story, Raiko Shinpuku!
You can find her description here: http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/raiko

Also, since Raiko's such an important character, I thought I might show you some sprite variations of her:



(She currently has 18 different sprite variations, but it'll probably be a couple more in the end.)

Since she's mentioned in Raiko's description, it'll be Nobara's turn next week.
Raiko and Nobara will be the two main characters of our story (as indicated by their silhouettes in the logo).
They will stick together for most of the time during the night, trying to solve the mysteries appearing before them.

I've also recently made a blog entry talking a little more about the story, our project in general, its origins and the people behind it.
So, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet and is interested, you can read it here: http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/post/95369 ... project-us

Anyway, that's it for now.
Please keep letting us know what you think of our project (especially the characters) so far!

[Ran08]

Wow... the characters are slowly coming in and they're all so interesting! Great job on everything, you guys.

Good luck on this project, Gospel! I'm looking forward to the release!

[Daarkess]

Firstly, I love a good murder mystery that is done right.
Any reason you chose Halloween as the setting of the game? (I just think Halloween has been done a little too often.)

Though, a few of characters do appeal to me. Miyamoto Rie does seem like a fun character to interact with. The group dynamic of the ten friends will make a fun journey for the player. (This could make or break the game)

[Gospel]

Firstly, I love a good murder mystery that is done right.
Any reason you chose Halloween as the setting of the game? (I just think Halloween has been done a little too often.)

Though, a few of characters do appeal to me. Miyamoto Rie does seem like a fun character to interact with. The group dynamic of the ten friends will make a fun journey for the player. (This could make or break the game)

Well, apart from the fact that I simply love Halloween, there are a couple of reasons.
Unfortunately, I can't really get into any detail about them without barging into spoiler territory.

Let's just say a horror-themed party at any random date would've worked as well, but it only seemed natural to choose Halloween, since the story needed to take place near the end of the year 2010 (Some time between October and December, but definitely before Christmas. Once again, I can't really get into any details, due to spoilers, but the story had to take place during this time frame).

Anyway, I'm happy to hear you're liking some of the characters so far.
I really hope you'll enjoy the interaction and relationships between them.
And speaking of which, it's time for another character introduction!

As I already announced last week, it’s Nobara’s turn today. You can find her description here:
http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/nobara

Nobara and Raiko are very close friends, similar to Rie and Runa. They always stick together no matter what happens.
These two will be the characters you will spend the most time with.

Here I also have some of Nobara’s sprite variations:

[Ran08]

The art is really soooo awesome. <3 Nobara looks really cute!

[Gospel]

Thank you very much! I'm so happy you like our art, haha.

Anyway, just added the next character description: http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/hiro
Hiro's already been shown on one of the screenshots, so I guess it's about time for his introduction
That only leaves four more important characters, three of which haven't been shown at all, yet.

I've recently been working on the menus and taking care of the in-game character profiles, as well.
There will actually be sixteen characters appearing in total, even though six of them won't play that big of a role in the overall story.
In any case, I thought I'll also show you what the in-game profiles look like, so here's a glimpse of another character, Nobara's father Henjin:

[Gospel]

And another character description: http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/kamen
This time it's Kamen's turn. Since it's related to her and I'm still working on all the menu stuff and additional content, here I also have the first diary entry:





The diary will overall function as a synopsis to keep track of the story. It will mostly summarize the events, but there will also be a few extra entries, like the one above. They're just there for fun, or to provide additional information. Some of them might only be available upon clearing the game, and meeting certain conditions, though.
(And yes, Raiko's mom not only likes to read her daughter's diary, she also sometimes writes into it herself )

[melelisun]

Very interesting presentation of the thread! Also, I love the whole unity between art, BGs, and GUI. Very well done.

[Ammeh]

In any case, I thought I'll also show you what the in-game profiles currently look like, so here's a glimpse of another character, Nobara's father Henjin:

"Weird person"? (I haven't taken Japanese in like 8 years; are all the names like that? The other ones looked reasonable.)

[AntiquedFae]

Everything is looking really good! The characters are certainly an interesting cast...Hmm.

[Gospel]

Very interesting presentation of the thread! Also, I love the whole unity between art, BGs, and GUI. Very well done.

Thank you very much! I'm really happy to hear you say that ^^
I'm not really well experienced at drawing backgrounds or designing GUIs, but still wanted to do everything myself, so it'd fit together better by sharing the same style.

"Weird person"? (I haven't taken Japanese in like 8 years; are all the names like that? The other ones looked reasonable.)

Well, I like having names reflect a character's personality, one of their quirks or just parts of their design, or even use them to create little puns, so... all the names are chosen with those ideas in mind. I usually don't pick names that would sound completely unnatural, though.
That said, there are a few exceptions, and Henjin is one of them. There actually is only one other character with a rather 'silly' name, who will be introduced next week.
I guess you could say... they're both pretty silly characters, so they got silly names

Everything is looking really good! The characters are certainly an interesting cast...Hmm.

Thanks! The characters are one of the aspects I'm worried about the most... after working on/with them for so long, I've naturally grown quite attached to them (wasn't easy to kill some of them of, as you might imagine, haha)... I really hope you'll like them in the final game.

Anyway, since we're already on that topic, I've added the next character introduction:
http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/momoko

Momoko has been mentioned during the last two introductions, so it's her turn today.

[Ferdokki]

WOOOOW, this looks awesome!!!! *_____________________*
I love the originality of the features and stuff! I also love how the characters all have unique personalities, it really fleshes them out and makes me excited to play! =D The artwork is also great! I really like that it's so smooth and yet cartoony, gives it a nice playable vibe. =)

I'm also a huge sucker for these whodunit mysteries, and I love the aspect of all these people in a place together where one of them might be a psycho killer. Muahahahaha. *__* It really starts unraveling a person's psyche and makes them paranoid (er, based on movies/TV episodes I've watched with these themes).

One HUGE recommendation: Please don't make the killer's motivation weak! >.< I hate going through all this awesome suspense and drama only to find the killer has a lame excuse for hacking off people. =P I feel thriller movies with these types of plots have weak conclusions like that a lot, and it kind irritates me. =P

Question: Will this game be free or paid? Also, is the game timed?

[TheOnlyKieran]

I have to admit, I don't usually go for horror-type games, but I'm intrigued by this one! It seems to have a lot of light relief which I definitely like. I'll be keeping an eye on this, keep up the good work!

[Gospel]

WOOOOW, this looks awesome!!!! *_____________________*
I love the originality of the features and stuff! I also love how the characters all have unique personalities, it really fleshes them out and makes me excited to play! =D The artwork is also great! I really like that it's so smooth and yet cartoony, gives it a nice playable vibe. =)

I'm also a huge sucker for these whodunit mysteries, and I love the aspect of all these people in a place together where one of them might be a psycho killer. Muahahahaha. *__* It really starts unraveling a person's psyche and makes them paranoid (er, based on movies/TV episodes I've watched with these themes).

One HUGE recommendation: Please don't make the killer's motivation weak! >.< I hate going through all this awesome suspense and drama only to find the killer has a lame excuse for hacking off people. =P I feel thriller movies with these types of plots have weak conclusions like that a lot, and it kind irritates me. =P

Question: Will this game be free or paid? Also, is the game timed?

Thank you very much for your comment! I'm happy to hear you like our project so far ^^
I'm not a fan of having some weak excuse for murder, either. Having a strong motive is very important to me. However, whether a motive is perceived as strong or weak somewhat depends on an individual's point of view.
All I can say is that I'm quite satisfied with our culprit's motive, and that I think their motivation to commit such crimes is 'understandable'.
I just hope you will feel the same.

As for your questions:
It will be a commercial release, but I can't really say anything about the pricing currently. That will depend on a variety of factors.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'timed'. As in, if you don't solve the crime within a certain amount of time, it'll result in a game over or something?
That certainly won't be the case.

I have to admit, I don't usually go for horror-type games, but I'm intrigued by this one! It seems to have a lot of light relief which I definitely like. I'll be keeping an eye on this, keep up the good work!

Thanks! I'm glad to hear that
It's definitely more mystery than horror, though. It'll hopefully be a little creepy at times and have a horror-like atmosphere, but we certainly don't want to scare the living daylights out of you. Some deaths might be a little brutal, but there won't be extreme amounts of gore, either.

And yeah, think of it a little like the Zero Escape or Ace Attorney games.
Despite the grave situation the characters find themselves in, there will still be some humorous moments occasionally.

[Gospel]

I've added the next character description: http://gosatsuvns.tumblr.com/kotoba
So that leaves only one of the ten party attendees who hasn't really been introduced yet.

Also, here's a couple of the characters blushing... just because!