Valentina, a pop star from the small town of Rosefield, commits suicide on one winter night after returning secretly to the town. However, six months later, evidence emerges that it may not have been a suicide after all. The player must interact with four suspects and learn more about them…or get romantically involved with them. Decisions are key and the paths branch, each playthrough allowing for new evidence and facts to be uncovered.
The idea for the game first came from the prompt “murder mystery dating sim”, merging two distinct genres. When creating the story, it seemed natural that each suspect for the murder would also be a potential date for the player.
Thus, we decided to go for a highly character-focused narrative, and an interesting dynamic where the more you want to get to know a character, the more suspicious evidence comes up.
The characters all relate to the victim. I left the characters themselves to the team, but I designated four areas of Valentina’s life for each character to fill. She’s an enigma, so through exploring family, friendship, love, and career, the player not only learns about the suspects but also Valentina’s life through different eyes.
Visual novels emphasize story, art, music, and most importantly, choice. I wanted to make sure the player felt like their choices mattered, and that each player had a different view of the characters.
At the halfway point the game diverges and the player can choose to hang out with one of the four suspects for each day of the Festival. Information is fragmented based on the path you choose, and each player will see the characters in a different light based on what they unlock (this was very apparent in our playtests! Everyone had a different suspect in mind, or got distracted by romantic entanglements.)
The story lasts nine days, and when the Festival is over, the player must choose someone to accuse of murder...or ask them out to the Ball. Or both! That's the thrill of the game.
We also implemented an investigation system, in which a point and click mechanic is used to find various pieces of evidence. Through these segments, the player gets a break from just reading and choosing, but also acts as reminders for the backstories of each character as the player tries to figure out who the murderer is.
This was my first time ever working on an interactive narrative with a team, so I learned how to balance individual writing styles with overall thematic consistency, and also steer the narrative to make room for player choice. As we playtested, we improved on making story beats and the existence of unlockables clearer through writing edits and also UI and sound effects.
We also worked on adding transitions, flashes, and other screen effects unique to visual novels to emphasize different story elements as we coded the game in Ren'Py.
I led the creation of a Wiki and made sure everyone was on top of it, as all the character facts and lore must be consistent in a visual novel, especially one like ours that has a unique setting.
