oelvn project Detective Butler and the King of Hearts

[Kinjo]

WISHLIST + DEMO ON STEAM

 

Detective Butler and the King of Hearts is a linear murder mystery visual novel, with emphasis on a fast-paced, character-driven narrative. The story is divided into 15+ chapters, each with its own mystery, while at the same time asking you to piece together a deeper mystery spanning across all chapters. No prior knowledge of the Detective Butler storyline is required to play.

Key Features

• Estimated 20-30 hours of content across 15+ chapters
• A unique hand-drawn art-style with animated sprites and backgrounds
• Fully voiced dialogue and narration (both optional, English language only)
• One big murder mystery, plus at least one small mystery per chapter
• Case Notes and Lecture Notes to help solve each mystery
• A large cast of characters with secrets to uncover
• Thought-provoking themes on truth, happiness, life, and death
• Original soundtrack

A Story of Mystery, Romance, and Adventure

Three years after the events of Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder, Gilligan Golder is now CEO of his late father's life insurance company, where Butler also now works as a fraud investigator. At the same time, Gilligan has been attending classes at the prestigious Diamond University. The company's investors have great expectations for Gilligan upon his graduation.

One day, Gilligan and Butler learn about a Detection Club at the university. At the same time, a serial killer has been targeting the female students, each victim's heart ripped out from a gaping wound. As none of the hearts have been found -- apparently stolen -- the killer has been nicknamed "The King of Hearts."

Tensions have grown on campus as the female students fear becoming the next victim, and the male students fear being falsely accused as the killer. In the midst of all this, Gilligan falls in love with one of the girls, but lacks the confidence to pursue her.

Eventually, a new victim is discovered: one of the members of the Detection Club.

And the prime suspect?

Detective Butler.

Gilligan refuses to believe it. With Butler as the brains and Gilligan doing the legwork, they work together to pursue the truth and catch the true killer.

The other members of the Detection Club all have secrets they want to remain hidden. Will Gilligan come to regret the truth he ends up discovering?

What are the consequences of telling comforting lies over the harsh truth?

And what are the consequences of believing them?

Think Like A Detective

The primary gameplay is within your own mind as you try and solve the mysteries yourself. The game will provide you with Case Notes and Lecture Notes to help you keep track of the characters, clues, and other important information.

You will encounter choices to personalize your experience and test your skills of deduction, but they won't influence the outcome of the story. Instead, you'll be taken on an emotional rollercoaster, with many exciting twists and turns as the mysteries slowly unravel themselves.

In addition to the overarching mystery of the King of Hearts Serial Murders, each chapter has at least one dedicated mystery for you to solve. Please enjoy solving all of them!

More details can be found below:

WISHLIST + DEMO ON STEAM

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Edited June 7, 2023 by Kinjo
Added trailer and link to demo

[Thanatos]

How did you get the backgrounds to look like higurashi?

[Steferd]

Detective Butler and the King of Hearts is a linear murder mystery visual novel, with emphasis on a fast-paced, character-driven narrative.

Regards: house keeping cleaning services

[Kinjo]

On 4/6/2023 at 7:37 AM, Thanatos said:

How did you get the backgrounds to look like higurashi?

Hey, sorry I missed this! It's just a two-step filter: first I add some white noise, and then I apply a small motion blur. I've seen other devs use different techniques, but that's what I do.

I've also updated the opening post to include a trailer and link to the Chapter 1 Demo. The demo contains 1-2 hours of content depending on your reading speed. It also introduces the major characters and themes of the story, and gives you a few different mysteries to solve. Hope you all enjoy it!

[GhostClown]

Looks like you've got an ambitious project here! I play just about every detective game I can find, so I'll definitely check it out.

Speaking as a fellow developer, I noticed you've got a free game up as well. Did you find that helpful in drawing attention to your work?

[Kinjo]

On 6/26/2023 at 10:57 AM, GhostClown said:

Looks like you've got an ambitious project here! I play just about every detective game I can find, so I'll definitely check it out.

Speaking as a fellow developer, I noticed you've got a free game up as well. Did you find that helpful in drawing attention to your work?

Thank you, I appreciate it! 

My free game has definitely helped by giving me an easy way to get in front of thousands of players. From what I've seen, people who play the first game all the way through, and end up liking it, are pretty much instantly sold on the sequel. That said, since it was my first game, I made a lot of amateur mistakes. I didn't know how to properly hold on to those thousands of people, so now I'm trying to find them all again. Steam's updates don't reach everyone, so I know I have thousands of players who'd love to play this game and just aren't aware of it.

But it is a super neat feeling whenever I get a reply from random Internet strangers saying "Hey, I remember Detective Butler and I loved it! Can't wait for more!" 

By the way, sorry again for replying two months late... Hard to get in the habit of replying on forums after so long. But I've also been working really hard over these past two months on a project called Mystery Gamedev. You might want to check it out, since you'll find many more detective games by other developers you'll likely enjoy.