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Ghosts of Miami, a mystery-solving VN with five romance routes, is on Steam Greenlight and we could really use your votes!

http://ghostsofmiami.com/greenlight

It's 1986, and Chelo Martínez is an aspiring PI who dedicates her life to finding people who fall through the cracks. She has to explore the back alleys and beaches of Miami to solve five cases -- and you get to choose where she goes. But along the way, you can get to know five romantic interests, and they may distract you from your true purpose. Balance your love life with your crime-solving, and you may uncover Chelo's biggest mystery: the disappearance of her father, ten years ago.

The Details

• Words: 90k+ (with an extra 5k metadata, for vision-limited readers)
• Languages: English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
• Endings: 7
• Romance options: 5
• Engine: Unity + Fungus dialogue runner
• Demo: available now at https://pillowfight.itch.io/ghosts-of-miami
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpp135MCUlM
• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS (eventually)

Pillow Fight
Hi! I'm Jo, and this is my first time on the Lemmasoft forums, despite working on multiple commercial VNs over the years! I produced: Starfighter: Eclipse, Hustle Cat, We Know the Devil, and Rose of Winter! Ghosts of Miami is a game that I wrote, which features the work of amazing artists. Our sprites were designed and created by Cassie Freire of Catnip Circle, and our lush neon BGs were drawn by Iasmin Omar Ata, of Mis(h)adra! We commissioned a lot of stuff for this game, including a hand-animated opening, a song by a live band, a beautiful 80s synth OST, and some adorable pixel sprites for loading zones!

More screenshots at the Ghosts of Miami itch.io page!

Romance Options!

Parttimestorier asked about romance options, so I pulled some sprites from the game! No cool character cards (maybe I'll make them when we get closer to launch!) but here's some good, romanceable people!



Janet performs as drag king Prince Charming at a run-down drag revue called The Cannery. As Prince, he's brave and fiercely protective, but as a former Tennessee redneck, maybe he doesn't have the street smarts to navigate all of Miami's mainland.

Ethan is an EMT, working double shifts to save enough money for medical school. You're both so busy, it's hard to find time for a date -- unless a missing person has brought you to the hospital where he works. He wants to love you so much... but your line of work is so dangerous...

Tala is a high school senior, and your very biggest fan in the whole wide world! She's a nerd for Miami Vice, and is auditioning for some local TV shows. But after she sees the excitement of helping you out on some cases, maybe she's got the chops to be a PI too...?



Luci is my favorite, haha. On the outside, she seems like a ditzy princess, the daughter of a minor lieutenant in the Escobar family. But maybe she knows more about the family business -- drug-running, smuggling, and murder -- than you care to remember. She's your childhood best friend, but a dangerous one to have.

The mysterious Richard. He's recently hired your excon brother, and he offers to help you with some underworld connections and info. But you don't know WHY he's helping. Dodgy, handsome, and mysterious--and he's really interested in you.

Hope this piques your interest enough to run to Greenlight and give us a vote!

Thanks!

This looks really well done and super cute! I also played hustle cat which was a lot of fun ^ ^

welcome to the forum, and good luck with the new game

This sounds really cute, I gave you a vote on greenlight! I'd love to know some more detail about the love interests, since I was intrigued by [GxAll]. How many romance options are which genders? Are some (or all) of them ghosts?

I loooove the 80s style you have going on.
Voted - I am looking forward to it!


I've been working a lot with Fungus as well, so it's nice to see games that are using it.

parttimestorier wrote:This sounds really cute, I gave you a vote on greenlight! I'd love to know some more detail about the love interests, since I was intrigued by [GxAll]. How many romance options are which genders? Are some (or all) of them ghosts?

Updated the OP with sprites of the romance options! Everyone else, thank you for your support! ;~; I'll probably do a follow up post, since we ordered an enormous number of NPC sprites, all of whom I'm completely in love with.

I saw this on twitter and I'm excited for it! I get a slight ace attorney vibe from the game play and I'm always hungry for that kind of content.

Aww no ghost love interests, haha. (Unless some of them are hiding it?) But lovely art - I think Luci will be my favourite too. Good luck with everything!

I love the art for this this, so colourful. I'll certainly download the demo and give it a try. ^_^

Best of luck with the project

Blackcross

Just finished playing the demo and I also voted for it on steam greenlight. Loved playing the demo, specifically I just love that its set in the 80s because the art and music fits so well and are both beautiful!! Can't wait for the full game!

We commissioned a lot of amazing art for Ghosts of Miami, and I want to show it off!

These pixel animations are by Ian Schlaepfer! We got them to show some time passing as Chelo goes from place to place to investigate.



This one, I asked for "Chelo rage-eating an ice cream," and Ian nailed it.



Our buddies Lindsay and Alex Butera-Small also did a 90-second opening animation for us! Here's one of my favorite bits:



Our Greenlight campaign is still going on! If you like what you see, votevotevote! http://www.ghostsofmiami.com/greenlight

And if you have some extra budget, I HIGHLY recommend Ian and Smallbu's work. They're really professional, in budget, and on time.

We got Greenlit, everyone!! Thank you all for your support.

I look forward to posting dev updates, but if you're by any chance in Toronto next weekend, we'll be hosting a free panel at Comics x Games about Visual Novels and how to survive making them!

Ooh! I can't believe Lindsay and Alex did the opening animation! That's so cool I love their work.

Also congrats on getting greenlit!

this game looks really cool. that pixel animation looks really good, it makes me emotional. I haven't been able to get around to playing the demo but I'm excited for it, maybe I'll just wait for the full release B) I'm also really digging the aesthetic and the theme and the everything. I live in Toronto so maybe I'll swing by your panel too. Good luck on everything

And, again, I haven't played the demo yet but I will silently hope that the game features some cool funky music B)

I liked the demo, and I was pretty much sold when I saw it was a cross between VNs, detective stories, and 80's vibe.

Is the soundtrack going to be available for purchase?

Thank you for your support, everyone!! I know we've been pretty quiet recently, but it's been a pretty tough crunch!

The good news is, WE'RE NOW LIVE!! Price is $15, with a 10% launch discount this week only!
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/67730 ... _of_Miami/
Humble: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/ghosts-of-miami
Itch.io: https://itch.io/s/8008/ghosts-of-miami-launch-sale

If you liked the demo, please help us spread the word about our game! Here's a tweet you can share: https://twitter.com/pillowfightio/statu ... 1332860928
And a Tumblr post: https://pillowfightio.tumblr.com/post/1 ... mi-1986-on

And the soundtrack will be available on Bandcamp as soon as I hit the button. Thank you, everyone!!

Mods, do you mind moving this thread to the Completed games board?? Thanks!