A neon-noir visual novel about interrogating witnesses, the latest in bio-sensor technology, and street violence.
Content warning for blood and a handful of f-words.
You play as Alexis Brambilla - a detective inspector for the richest and most technologically advanced police force in the world. You have been given access to their latest research project - an interrogation room that can give you real-time feed back on a subjects emotions.
What might you uncover when you put it to the test?
There are 3 bad endings and one true ending to find! Getting them isn't hard, but I hope you enjoy the experience, irreverent dialogue and probably unsubtle political standpoints.
Words, coding, and backgrounds by Nathan Blades. Character art by Aryn Clark. Music is from Incomptech.org, and a brief clip from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Sound effects are from freesound.org.
Made in Ren'Py. Check out renpy.org for more information about the engine.
gotta love this style.. pretty intense story, would like to see a bit more depth in conversation/ interrogation options like phrases to choose from or something, even if they end up with the same story path
Nice visual novel, I managed to get all the endings! I liked the story, even if I felt that some more funny lines took away from the mood of mistery and danger of the game (at the end for example)! Great work!
Hi, this is Vector from the Victory Garden team! (posting under Solifuge's account)
Wow, this is a REALLY good short VN. I think I managed to get all the endings. Great atmosphere, great characters and art, and it's the best interpretation of "beneath the surface" as subtext that I've seen thus far.
If there's one thing I'd change, it's the humorous take on the scene where the officer nearly gets killed... there's places for humor in your game, but I really think that destroys a lot of the tension you've been building up. The other thing is--as you probably know--the image of the random policeman really doesn't fit the style of the rest of your characters.
Great job. Thanks for the experience! I'd love to see a full-length VN from you guys.
I have a terminal problem that I can't write serious fiction. The previous VN I wrote was extremely goofy, and I must admit, I had that weighing on my mind as I wrote this one.
The policeman was sadly a time concession. It was the last sprite required, and to ease the pressure on Aryn, I handled it. Thing is - I can't draw, so I found a functional compromise.
Great art and an enjoyable story with interesting twists! And I really like your choice of music - often music from Kevin MacLeod is easily recognizable, but in this case I even had to look up where it's from. All in all, good job!
I liked the emotion-reading element. I think it made following the dialogue and choice-making more engaging. Decent story and some nice unexpected humour :)
This game was hella neat! Loved it! I didn't expect the supernatural element to appear even if it was a setting in which one could read others' emotions with their smartphone, that was quite the pleasant twist. The beneath the surface theme has been implemented well.
Even though some might not like the extra humorous elements, I think it was ok, as I personally think detective games need a bit of tension-relieving humor. The random police officer in another style got quite a laugh out of me as I didn't expect it. It's also interesting how Jacek and Kayode seem to have been together. There aren't a lot of games with LGBT characters, but the representation you give them in this game is lovely. Great Job!
You've managed to tie the theme in to the game in quite a few ways, both in the setting and the mechanics. I don't normally play visual novels, but I found this to be well written and entertaining. Well done!
That was really awesome! I would love to see the story fleshed out since I was left tantalizingly engrossed in the characters, I was about to bust everyone out of that building. There's a ton of really great foreshadowing with the description of the building being super high tech as well as the city having the best surveillance. This escape is going to be tough!
The characters were cool and the device that reads emotions was very well thought out and well-integrated. The chief's reaction was priceless! :)
Omg hi GrooveMan! Thanks so much for the kind and completely accurate comment! I was looking forward to see if you made a game this LD. I'm not disappoint!!!!!!
This is ambitious and awesome, even more than Pizzapocalypse
This was really good! The story was really interesting. I didn't see that coming... It was surprising (the psychics powers), but didn't feel out of place.
Damn, didn't even learn about the psychics on my first run, but managed to make it out alive on my second. Nice art and well fleshed out story with some interesting twists and characters. Some of the choices didn't really play out like I thought they would, but that's a problem I usually have with VN:s.
Comments35
pretty intense story,
would like to see a bit more depth in conversation/ interrogation options like phrases to choose from or something, even if they end up with the same story path
Great work!
Great job !
Wow, this is a REALLY good short VN. I think I managed to get all the endings. Great atmosphere, great characters and art, and it's the best interpretation of "beneath the surface" as subtext that I've seen thus far.
If there's one thing I'd change, it's the humorous take on the scene where the officer nearly gets killed... there's places for humor in your game, but I really think that destroys a lot of the tension you've been building up. The other thing is--as you probably know--the image of the random policeman really doesn't fit the style of the rest of your characters.
Great job. Thanks for the experience! I'd love to see a full-length VN from you guys.
The policeman was sadly a time concession. It was the last sprite required, and to ease the pressure on Aryn, I handled it. Thing is - I can't draw, so I found a functional compromise.
I didn't expect the supernatural element to appear even if it was a setting in which one could read others' emotions with their smartphone, that was quite the pleasant twist. The beneath the surface theme has been implemented well.
Even though some might not like the extra humorous elements, I think it was ok, as I personally think detective games need a bit of tension-relieving humor.
The random police officer in another style got quite a laugh out of me as I didn't expect it.
It's also interesting how Jacek and Kayode seem to have been together. There aren't a lot of games with LGBT characters, but the representation you give them in this game is lovely.
Great Job!
The characters were cool and the device that reads emotions was very well thought out and well-integrated. The chief's reaction was priceless! :)
I was looking forward to see if you made a game this LD. I'm not disappoint!!!!!!
This is ambitious and awesome, even more than Pizzapocalypse
Anssi@MooseflyGames