With Woman's Tears [Crime] [Mystery]

[Phil_NBI]

Name: Criminal Investigations: With Woman's Tears
Genre: Crime/Mystery
Status: In Development
Platforms: Windows, Mac Linux.
iPad, Android and handheld (eg: PS Vita) are also under consideration.
Release Model: Commercial.
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Trailer

Synopsis:
Do you have what it takes to be a criminal investigator? Take on the role of an FBI Special Agent in this contemporary mystery game where your investigative skills will determine the outcome of the case and the lives of everyone involved.

Monmouth, Rhode Island:
Fourteen year-old Madison Bradley disappears on her way to school. There are no witnesses, no ransom demands and no sightings. Monmouth PD call on the FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team to send one of their best agents to support the investigation. But when a second girl goes missing amid suggestions that both girls frequented an occult-themed website, media speculation is rife that the girls have been abducted by a “Vampire Cult”. Use your investigative skills to navigate through a complex web of truth and lies to find out what really happened to the girls and bring them home safely.

• Explore the fictional town of Monmouth and uncover the secrets that lie within small town America.
• Interact with a cast of complex characters, each with their own weaknesses and motivations.
• Utilize an array of tools and techniques to uncover the truth of Madison’s disappearance
• Experience a dynamic narrative where your every action has consequences
• Test your investigative skills against one of the most challenging detective adventures ever created.
• Discover a world of moral ambiguity, where doing the right thing may not necessarily mean getting justice.

Characters

Gameplay:
The game is going to be a classic visual novel in many respects, but there will also be investigation elements. Your role as an FBI advisor gives you unique oversight of the investigation, allowing you to do as much or as little investigation as you choose. If you just want a relaxing visual novel experience, you can simply observe the Monmouth PD investigation and offer little direct involvement. Alternatively, you can get involved in every aspect of the investigation and try to move the investigation in the direction you see fit. There are 10+ major endings and numerous minor variations but there is no "true ending" or correct answer. It's your investigation. It's up to you to determine what's true and what isn't. It's up to you to decide how justice is best served. All possible endings are available on your first play through, although we would encourage you to play through multiple times to explore other endings and learn more about the characters you meet.

Screenshots:

Feedback:
All feedback is welcomed.

Jobs:
We're not currently in need of any assistance, but if you have mad skills in art, writing, or audio design, you're welcome to drop a link to your portfolio.

How can you help?
The game is still very early in development. The art style for characters and backgrounds is pretty much set. Everything else is still very much up for discussion, and we would love to hear your views, thoughts, opinions and ramblings. We also need as much help as we can get spreading the word. We want feedback early and often and we plan on releasing several demos at various stages of production. The more people we can get feedback from, the better we can make the game.

What do you like about the game?
What don't you like?
What concerns do you have?
What features are must-have for you in a visual novel?
What would you like to hear from us? We're going to be posting a lot of pictures, discussions and features about the game on Tumblr and Twitter but rather than just posting what we want to say, it would be great to know what you would find interesting.

[HiddenCreature]

1) As far as I can tell, the art looks pretty solid. And I like the idea of a game really testing my skills to get the best results. Along with the moral ambiguity.

2) That there isn't a true ending. Normally, I'd argue against true endings, because rather than just being a distinctive, unique ending, it implies a success/failure kind of ending. But in this game's case, there should be an ending where you know if you successfully solved everything.

3) Only how the story will play out. I'm guessing characters are the game's strong point, so I have to see examples of that.

4) Believable plot.

5) How you plan to get the word out, so more people will hear about the game.

[Googaboga]

-What do you like about the game?

All the gameplay details seem great. And I like that there isn't a specific ending players should aim for. I like when it's up to the player to decide what the 'best' outcome is :].

-What don't you like?

The tagline. 'With Woman's Tears' sounds odd to me ^^;.

-What concerns do you have?

I guess that it won't deliver on what's being promised? I don't know enough to really have something to be concerned over.

-What features are must-have for you in a visual novel?

Good writing/spelling/etc and competent art/music direction.

-What would you like to hear from us? We're going to be posting a lot of pictures, discussions and features about the game on Tumblr and Twitter but rather than just posting what we want to say, it would be great to know what you would find interesting.

Character profiles are the biggest thing I'd like to see right now. Other than that I don't really care about what the content of the update is, I just like to see projects that consistently have updates.


Anyways this seems really neat. I'll be giving it a try when it gets released. Oh, and I'd suggest mentioning whether this is free or commercial somewhere in the thread so people know. I imagine it's commercial, but I still think it's worth specifically mentioning.

Good luck C:.

[Kinjo]

This looks really cool.

What do you like about the game?
What don't you like?
What concerns do you have?
What features are must-have for you in a visual novel?
What would you like to hear from us? We're going to be posting a lot of pictures, discussions and features about the game on Tumblr and Twitter but rather than just posting what we want to say, it would be great to know what you would find interesting.

I like the art, I like the premise, I like the interactivity. I'm hoping it lives up to what it's telling me ("one of the most challenging detective adventures ever created").

My only concern is whether or not it'll get finished, so best of luck to you there.

I'm interested in hearing about the gameplay/investigation elements and what might set it apart from other detective games.

[Phil_NBI]

Thank you all for the feedback.

That there isn't a true ending. Normally, I'd argue against true endings, because rather than just being a distinctive, unique ending, it implies a success/failure kind of ending. But in this game's case, there should be an ending where you know if you successfully solved everything.

Perhaps I should clarify what I mean with the lack of a "true" ending. This really ties in with the moral ambiguity. There are multiple endings which involve you uncovering all (or virtually all) of the underlying facts of the case. Even at that point, your skill and judgement will affect the outcome of the game. You may find yourself unable to get the outcome you would like due to lack of admissible evidence or uncooperative witnesses, or you may simply choose to pursue an ending you feel is "just", regardless of the legalities. So you'll definitely know if you've uncovered everything there is to uncover, but you won't be told that you "did the right thing" because that's for you to decide.

Only how the story will play out...

Believable plot.

Good writing/spelling/etc

I'm very conscious that visual novels, particularly those which focus on the story and characters need to have top notch writing. As the writer, I'll be putting all of my efforts into making sure the writing is as good as it can be. I'll be hiring an editor/proofreader to fix my typos, because I'm very typo-prone. If I need a co-writer to get the writing quality where I want it, I'll do that too.

How you plan to get the word out, so more people will hear about the game.

Good point. I imagine this will be of interest to a lot of people who are both fans of visual novels and creators themselves. As development progresses, I'll write some pieces on the blog (and link them here) on what we're doing with promotion and perhaps write some follow-up pieces indicating what results we had from our efforts. If you think that would be useful?

The tagline. 'With Woman's Tears' sounds odd to me ^^;.

Well, I'm open to the idea of changing the tagline, but it's the most apt that I've managed to come up with so far. If it sounds odd, it's probably because it's part of a quote from Shakespeare. (Othello)

Character profiles are the biggest thing I'd like to see right now.

That sounds like an excellent idea. I'm not much of an artist/designer but I've put together a template and added the first two character profiles to the first post. I'll add more as we go on.

Oh, and I'd suggest mentioning whether this is free or commercial somewhere in the thread so people know. I imagine it's commercial, but I still think it's worth specifically mentioning.

Very good point. I'll add that and the targeted platforms to the first post now.

I'm interested in hearing about the gameplay/investigation elements and what might set it apart from other detective games.

Yep, I'll definitely be talking about the investigation elements as the game progresses. I'll also be talking about some of the games which inspired the gameplay elements and some of those games will be surprising choices for some people, I would imagine.

My only concern is whether or not it'll get finished, so best of luck to you there.

I guess that it won't deliver on what's being promised?

Those are natural concerns and something that I can really only address in time, but I do have a good track record when it comes to delivering. This is our first visual novel, but not our first game. As well as the episodic comedy/adventure game that we released on Steam/GOG/Humble Store in January, I've also worked on a number of other games as lead programmer/project manager. I'm incredibly stubborn so once I commit to a game, it gets finished to the very best of my ability.

[Phil_NBI]

I've added our newly-published trailer and two more character profiles to the top post. Feedback on the trailer is very welcome.

[LadyOfGatsby]

What do you like about the game?
I really love crime in general and what I most like about this game is the art.
What don't you like?
I don't like that there is no romance but it is completely fine.
What concerns do you have?
Will it be in episodes?
What features are must-have for you in a visual novel?
Great story and interesting characters.
What would you like to hear from us? We're going to be posting a lot of pictures, discussions and features about the game on Tumblr and Twitter but rather than just posting what we want to say, it would be great to know what you would find interesting.
I would like to hear more on the case.