Detective Butler - Now on STEAM GREENLIGHT!

[Hachiko]

Completed this game ages ago, but I'd like to say I've enjoyed it very much! The artworks were nice and the cast were really fun! I hope you make something similar in the future (but preferably with choices), cuz we def need more mystery/detective VNs here!

[Kinjo]

Completed this game ages ago, but I'd like to say I've enjoyed it very much! The artworks were nice and the cast were really fun! I hope you make something similar in the future (but preferably with choices), cuz we def need more mystery/detective VNs here!

Thanks! Glad you had fun.

I do have some interesting plans for the series, but I'm currently working on something else.
Stick around and look forward to it!

[Gospel]

Finished reading it now and just wanted to say that I loved it!

It certainly had some flaws, most of which have already been discussed in detail, so I won't be getting into those again.
What bugged me the most, however, was the dying message.
While the locked room(s) mystery was handled really well and certainly not too easy to solve, I think the dying message made it a little too obvious who the culprit was. The whole time I was hoping it wouldn't be that simple and the person I was suspecting wouldn't turn out to be the culprit, but... it did exactly turn out that way. In that regard, this case suffered from the same problem the first case in Danganronpa did.
I almost wish there hadn't been any dying message, at all.
Anyway, it might just be me. At this point, I'm always suspicious when it comes to dying messages of this kind and immediately try reading them backwards, mirrored or upside down So yeah...
But as I said, even knowing who the culprit was didn’t make solving all the other mysteries a lot easier or anything. There were still things that surprised me and overall it was a lot of fun.

As for the rest of the game...

The opening movie was awesome. Ever since I saw the Umineko VN openings, I’ve always been dreaming of having an opening done in the same style for my own visual novels one day. At this point, I dunno how many times I’ve watched it, but you did an awesome job there.
Watching it certainly got me excited for the game.

The soundtrack is also great. Some of the tracks sound really Umineko-ish and there’s not a single one I didn’t like. On the contrary, I loved all of them and have been listening to them a lot since I’ve completed the game (especially “Realization”, it’s so tense and dramatic, haha).

I also loved the character designs and sprites. I was never bothered by the sprite quality in Umineko, or even Higurashi for that matter, but, of course, it’s always nicer having some good quality sprites and these here were really well-done.

The characters in general were great. I liked almost all of them. Especially Butler. He can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but I thought he was funny. I loved the scenes during dinner when Gilligan was looking over to him, or when Gilligan was later shoved into the closet, lol
He’s certainly different from usual detectives, but that makes him more unique and interesting. I’d really love to see more of him.

Apart from him and Gilligan, I actually liked Blythe the most. I guess because she seemed more like the serious type, but had this unexpected fun side to her with her love for games.
So yeah... that’s another reason why I was hoping she wouldn’t turn out to be the killer. And when it did happen I was really sad and disappointed. But then her confession came and when Gilligan forgave her I thought, okay... this works really well. It would’ve been the perfect ending for me personally.
Consequently, what happened afterwards... wasn’t something I liked at all. It also made the entire confession seem kind of pointless in retrospect.
But yeah, this is a whole “matter of taste” thing. I still needed to get that off my chest, though

Anyway!
Overall, I loved it. The quality was extremely good, the menus looked nice, and I thought the writing was pretty good apart from some logic errors which have already been mentioned (another small thing that bugged me though, was that I found a couple of mistakes like missing words, words in spots where they shouldn’t have been, etc.).

Hmm, dunno if I’m forgetting something, but yeah...
I can’t wait to see more of Butler! Thank you for making this game!

[Kinjo]

Thank you for playing!!

Yeah, the dying message was hit or miss. Glad you liked the movie and soundtrack. I'm really happy you liked it as much as you did!

Yeah, I tried to make the culprit a likeable character so that when you realize she's the culprit, you won't want to believe it. And the dying message kind of adds to that. The ending is kind of ridiculous lol but I'm glad you liked it all anyway.

Also, if you remember any, could you PM me some of the typos, missing words and stuff so I could fix them?

And, as a general announcement:

The rest of the series has been in the works for a few months now. We have abandoned the idea of only four episodes and will instead be making a lot more, shorter episodes. The current plan is to get the episodes ready by Summer 2015. We are not using ONscripter again but will be using Unity, and each game will be playable in your web browser. I already have a lot planned for the story and characters, and the game engine is nearly done, so all that's left is to make each episode. You can read more about our plans here.

Also I'm really tempted to rename this game to "Episode 0" because the new series is going to be quite different, and this story will mostly serve as a prologue to everything else.

Some in-progress screenshots of the new version:

[mjshi]

I'm going to take the liberty of posting a solution to the issues I've faced here...

The crashing issue has caused the game to be unplayable to me for... nearly half a year now xD Detective Butler was just sitting in a folder on my desktop, waiting for some kind of resolution... after messing around a bit with my computer, I stumbled upon a fix to the video encoding issue: Your Windows 7 is labelling it as a possible harmful data execution, and so force-quits the program to "preserve your system". This is called Data Execution Prevention, or DEP. The reason why the game would run on an older computer is probably because DEP was enforced more strictly in newer versions of Windows, and only was added to Windows XP in a SP2 patch.

You need Admin privileges to resolve DEP errors, and this guide is strictly for Windows 7/Windows Server 2008
A resolution to the crashing-after-intro-movie issue:

1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.
2. A box labeled "System Properties" will pop up. Click on the the third tab, labeled "Advanced".
3. Under the first category "Performance", there is a "Settings..." button. Click it.
4. A box labeled "Performance Options" will pop up. Click on the third tab, "Data Execution Prevention".

> If your second option is selected, select the first option. Click "Apply" and close the window. You can now resume playing Butler.
.:. End
> If your first option is selected, however, and for some reason Butler.exe still crashes, select the second option.
--- You need to click "Add..." and find the path to where Butler.exe is located. Choose the file, and click "Open".
--- "ONScripter-EN" should appear on the list. Click "Apply", then exit out of the windows by clicking the red "X" or "Okay"
.:. End

[bluebirdplays]

Just leaving my bird-like footprint on this post, as I reviewed it here:
http://bluebirdplays.com/the-misadventu ... me-review/

For a TLDR - I really loved it. As a newcomer getting into visual novel games, I really enjoyed the episodic feel and the fact that the writing established that YOU could solve the mystery yourself, by carefully observing the narrative and the details being given to you. The journal was fantastic, and I wish that I'd remembered to check it more often so I could see it as it updated. Silly me!

I am not a mystery-solver by nature, so I looked at everyone as a guilty party. I think in my own head, I for some reason thought

The cook and the maid were ABSOLUTELY in on it. Think the whole key borrowing dealy had me for a loop!

As mentioned in my review, I loved it, and I definitely can't wait to see more from this series!

[jesusalva]

We are not using ONscripter again but will be using Unity, and each game will be playable in your web browser.

Unity? Ooh, don't think it can be run in Linux, if anyone knows how do that or if it's possible, many thanks.
Last time I tried it was, like, over half year ago. I have no idea if it changed since then.

[mionhax]

o-o i can't download it..... the web site 404 not found

[Kinjo]

o-o i can't download it..... the web site 404 not found

Sorry about that; we've had technical issues with the site for the past two weeks or so.

Fortunately, there is a mirror download available on itch.io, so you can download it from there in the meantime.

[philip]

@Kinjo-

Well I downloaded it - TWICE - and it will not open on my mac. Too bad, looked like it might be an interesting story, but I have better things to do than play detective to try to get this story to open.

I have difficulty understanding . . . you create a game using Ren'Py, supply a download link . . . I download it, click on the Ren'Py icon, the game opens and away we go. I have downloaded literally hundreds of games on LSF and played through them without a problem, so lots of authors know how to do it; why can't you make the process work?

philip

[Kinjo]

Well I downloaded it - TWICE - and it will not open on my mac. Too bad, looked like it might be an interesting story, but I have better things to do than play detective to try to get this story to open.

I have difficulty understanding . . . you create a game using Ren'Py, supply a download link . . . I download it, click on the Ren'Py icon, the game opens and away we go. I have downloaded literally hundreds of games on LSF and played through them without a problem, so lots of authors know how to do it; why can't you make the process work?

Actually, this game was made with ONscripter, not Ren'Py, so the process is quite different, as ONscripter is primarily designed to work on Windows (so there may be problems on Mac and Linux). You should use the provided 'Detective Butler.dmg' to run the game. I don't actually have a Mac myself to test this on, but I know others have been able to get it to work.

[philip]

@Kinjo-

Thank you for your response. I concede that I should be able to download a copy of your game to my mac. I did a third download, clicked on the Detective Butler.dmg folder, then on the ONScripter icon - and got the following message: Missing game Data - No Game Data Found - This application must be run from a directory containing ONScripter game data.

philip

[Kinjo]

Thank you for your response. I concede that I should be able to download a copy of your game to my mac. I did a third download, clicked on the Detective Butler.dmg folder, then on the ONScripter icon - and got the following message: Missing game Data - No Game Data Found - This application must be run from a directory containing ONScripter game data.

That error happens because the ONScripter app is not in the same directory as the game data. So I believe you need to move the ONScripter icon into the folder with "Detective Butler.exe" and then double-click the ONScripter icon from in there. Let me know if that works.

[Kinjo]

For anyone still following this thread, or maybe to anyone just now seeing it, we have a big announcement.

Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder is now on Steam Greenlight! Please vote for us!

We're still working on the sequel, though our updates for that are on our official website and social media from now on.

[Zelan]

Psst, the image doesn't link to the Greenlight campaign. Here is the link for anyone who wants to vote. c: