Om detta spel

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 that spans across all chapters. No prior knowledge of the Detective Butler storyline is required to enjoy the game.

• 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

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?



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 significantly 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!

Upplysning om AI-genererat innehåll

Utvecklarna beskriver hur deras spel använder AI-genererat innehåll så här:

Due to the ambitious scope of the game, as well as our limited budget and manpower, generative AI has been integrated into our workflow to create pre-rendered "AI-assisted" assets.

Character sprites (including facial expressions) are hand-drawn and colored, but enhanced using Stable Diffusion (img2img).

Background images may be real photographs taken by hand, and/or AI-enhanced versions of real photographs (img2img).

Voices are uniquely AI-generated by Eleven Labs. Proper inflection and tone are achieved by using an AI voice-changer to "wear" each voice and record lines individually.

All of the above work is being done by the team lead, who is also responsible for the writing and programming, in order to bring his creative vision to life in a reasonable span of time.

We appreciate your understanding, and hope you enjoy the game.

Beskrivning av vuxet innehåll

Utvecklarna beskriver innehållet så här:

This game contains swearing, written descriptions and animated depictions of blood, violence, murder, drug use, and alcohol use. The story deals with heavy subject matter not suitable for all audiences.