Hemlock Manor, GxB, GxG, Murder Mystery/Dating Sim/VN

[melodym3]

Development Blog: http://www.losmuertosgames.com

In most dating sims the actions you take, the items you find and the people you interact with decides which character you pair up with in the end, but in this game those events decide who the killer is. There are romantic subplots as well, but the focus is definitely on discovering who the murderer is before it's too late.

There will be several suspects involved and each one of them will have a possible 'murderer' ending so there should be plenty of replay value to discover each of their stories. Anyone who has seen the movie Clue should have a general idea of the concept.


Character Art: (in progress)

Backgrounds and GUI: (in progress)

[Googaboga]

This sounds like a fantastic idea. I love mystery and games with multiple villain possibilities.

Will the choices you make set you on a certain path with a specific murderer and that murderer is a murderer for reasons unrelated to the actual actions of the MC? Or is it like the MC chooses to do something and choosing to do that helped encourage the murderer to be the murderer? Or maybe it is a little of both? Either way I really like the sound of it.

[melodym3]

The latter of the two is what we're going for (my boyfriend is a writer so I've got him doing the script for me). The player's choices not only effect who the murderer is, but also makes them at least partially the reason for those murders, and your choices also affect who gets killed in the game.

So not only will there be plenty of play-throughs needed to see all the possible murderer story lines, but you'll also have to play through again to save or doom whatever characters you choose.

It's definitely a big project but since we're planning on kickstarting/selling it afterwards we want to make sure people get their money's worth.

[merdeamour]

Clue, as in ClueDo...? Either way, I love mysteries, and I love your art, too. I want to play this when it comes out/if I can afford to buy it.

[Googaboga]

I see. That sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I hope your Kickstarter goes successfully :>.

[melodym3]

Mer: Yup! It's just called Clue over here. The movie based on it with Tim Curry had multiple endings with different people as the killer in each.

Goo: Aww thanks! It's a long ways off, I'm just excited to slowly post art as I get it done.

[gekiganwing]

If the player's actions determine who the murderer is, would that lead to plot lines that contradict each other? In other words, if the main character constantly interacts with Bob, and then Bob admits that he killed Aerith... then how would it be possible for anyone else to be the real killer?

Clue, as in ClueDo...?

I haven't played this board game lately -- local board game fans seem to prefer either complex strategy games, or relaxing party games. But I double checked... the game's original title combined "clue" with "Ludo" (Latin for "I play").

[melodym3]

I'm not sure I understand the question completely so my apologies if I'm interpreting this wrong, but think of each play-through as an alternate timeline. In one version your actions may lead to Mr. X killing Mr. Y and Miss Z. Then in another play-through your actions might lead to Miss Z killing Mr. X and Mr. Y.

And each character will have their own reasons for killing, hence the multiple play-throughs to find out all their stories.

There was an anime out a while back. I think I saw a couple episodes and it had a similar idea (something about cicadas crying?) where each story arc told the same series of events but with a different character being the killer. If you've seen the movie version of Clue, the ending does that as well. First they have it where it was the butler the entire time, then they replay the ending but this time it's the detective, then again with another character.

So the events are the same but the roles people play and their stories can be different from play-through the play-through. I hope I explained that alright. It's a little confusing without being able to use concrete examples. haha.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Clue!?! I LOVED that movie, totally apart of my childhood. We watched it over a hundred times at my Nan's.

So evidently I'm looking forward to it! I can't wait to see what you come up with

[merdeamour]

*drools in anticipation

Really, I love Cluedo (I still play it with my siblings) xD I'd love to play a mystery VN like the board game. I forgot to ask--is this a commercial game...? Sorry if you wrote it in here and I missed it >,,<

[melodym3]

Auro: haha you had an amazing childhood then because that movie was the best!

Mer: Yes, it's commercial unfortunately. Just for the time and effort going into it, that's the only way I can justify taking time away from my freelance work to make it. haha. BUT! For our kickstarter we'll have it for just $9.99, because it's really important to me that it's affordable. I'm kinda cheap when it comes to buying games so I understand other people who are like that too. haha.

So yeah, $9.99 shouldn't be too bad (especially since it's at least 6 months away from release), and if anyone misses the special kickstarter promotion the final price after that will only be $14.99. I know most games of this length/quality go for around $20 but I think that's too much for a studio's first game. Maybe I'm just thrifty. haha

[Reikun]

You may want to take a look at http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 11&t=10395. This game has a similar mechanic where

the player's choices affect who the murderer is in the end.

Though it sounds like you're planning to make this mechanic much more intricate.

[melodym3]

Added the second character illustration to the opening post.

Reikun: Thanks so much for the link! That will be really helpful to take a look at. : )

[melodym3]

Uploaded the background I was working on in last Tuesday's weekly tutorial with a textbox design on top. Still playing around with it so that may change (and font is still to be determined).

[Googaboga]

Wow the bomb shell sure is a bomb shell XD.

Plus the GUI is beautiful. As is the background sample.