- Blog Post - Character planning system + Backend romance system - 3 October 2026
This was a good amount of code, but it ended up working better than I thought.What is this?Basically this is a forced planning system for the backend's character AI that forces them to use their past, relationships, perspectives, and more to determine what they should do.Perspective systemEvery time an AI meets with another or the player, they get a gathering of their susceptibility and charisma with some other factors to determine strength perspective. This changes every time an interactions happens as it's refreshed.Group IntelligenceThe intelligence system needs more work, but basically it determines the mental intelligence of someone from 1-200. The more intelligent they are, the more likely they will stick to a plan. And factors like doing certain actions will increase or decrease intelligence. This is mainly so there is more of a negative to getting injured and such for the charac…
- Blog Post: Replacement to certain promotional graphics - 29 September 2026
Certain graphics are going to be replaced over time. Mainly right now the logo has been changed. This won't be shown in the demo for a while.
- Blog Post - Character tracking system - 21 September 2026
This didn't take as long as I thought, but it's implemented with some bug fixes. I still have to go back to verify everything is working as intended for certain areas of it, mainly with player actions involving doors/airvents, but overall it works.How does it work?Whenever the player does a certain action or a character, it records it in that day's storage. This is so it can be referenced later. Some aspects are annoying to record. If I wanted to record purchases made through a shop that isn't randomized, I would have to rewrite a bunch of code to record item changes and that is not fun. So for the player it just records they went into the shop for this instance. In general it records a vast majority of actions with some info on it. For example if a character not controlled by the player messed with a door, it's recorded which door they messed with, along with what item they used to tra…
- Blog Post - The Mirror of Fates - 9 September 2026
AlignmentI talked about this in the last blog post, but it's a way to flavorfully simply and look at the actions of everybody and reference it with the 9 point axis system of law vs chaos and light vs dark. Everybody has a default and that default changes if default personalities are turned off.Before implementing a full on action tracking system, I knew I wanted something separate from it that's easier to call upon and manipulate. Mirror RoomThis unlocks a special room for this and it costs no energy to view the data. Originally it was going to be a simulated trial that shows how everyone could vote. I realized it ended up being too revealing, it would become extremely easy to see who the mole would vote for and compare it to the simulation. It didn't have much thought in finding the weakpoint, and it's not good game design to give such a powerful ability to any character for free.Now…
- Blog Post: Hint Events - 31 August 2026
I might add more to this in the future, as right now there are hint events with Cuddles and Bianca. The songs for these events I released a bit ago. These events are fully optional, outside one scene. I won't mention that scene since it's full of spoilers, but the only thing I will say is if the player goes a certain route, Bianca will no longer help the player with hint events. If Bianca is alive when the game ends, she is there. If not then Cuddles takes her place. General Gameplay HintsThis gives a general gameplay hint, sometimes it will give some lore instead for Cuddles/Bianca.Protag hintsThis will give a hint on the chosen protag's playstyle along with extra commentary on the flashbacks. Part of this is to make sure certain details aren't lost, but they mostly try to make the player ask certain questions of the events was too subtle about it.Motive HintsThis gives a hint based on…
- Demo Update - 26 August 2026
In general this demo update is mostly for backend related info, one of the graphics in the prologue has been updated as well.There is still some placeholder assets in the prologue I'm in the middle of getting them replaced, it's more I've been so focused on other aspects of the game that it's been put aside for a while.This demo update has some in progress content after the credits for showing hints, the name for this hasn't been chosen yet and the text isn't finished or proofread yet. Once the prologue graphics are fully integrated, then I will update the demo again.
- Blog Post: Wakeup events part 1 - 21 August 2026
Wakeup events These events can happen when someone enters your dorm room, if you are aligned with them or are romancing, they have a stringer chance of happening. Sometimes they won't happen at all unless you are romancing/aligned with them.Bias SystemThis is why it's called part 1, but this system's framework was added where it's going to use cafe events to determine dialogue tied to it so it's more natural/continuing. Eventually once I add more text events when talking to people before 1 on 1 events, it will get this as well. Once the cafe rework is done, then I'll go back to this.General stuff about the wakeup eventsWhen an investigation happens they allow for evidence sharing and if the other person likes your character enough, they will ask your opinion on who is the killer or not. Shanks won't talk to your character in this way unless romanced/aligned with him, but in an investiga…
- Blog Post: The Lawbreaker’s Edict - 7 August 2026
I talked about the Taboo Roulette already for that aspect of this motive, so I'll go for the rest of it since it's now done. I talked a bit about the general idea of the Lawbreaker's Edict, but it's a motive where the killer can choose a new law to go into effect and if they survive it gets applied.All of these are suppose to be weaker than normal motives as they become secondary effects. Only one rule can be altered per game, so these don't stack on each other.The Action SqueezeEverybody gets a limited max amount of actions per day that is randomized from 5-10. Going over leads to the character being punished with injuries.Inflation ProtocolThe funny name aside, this leads Crafting to have a cost behind it that is based on the date. The longer the game is, the harder it is to craft effectively.The Price of Lies This impacts evidence sharing, if anybody tells a fabricated lie they have…
- Blog Post: The Lawbreaker’s Edict : Taboo Roulette - 29 July 2026
I'm making a blogpost to one aspects of Lawbreaker's Edict since it's bigger than the rest. The way this motive works is the killer will be able to select 1 out of 26 law changes to shake up the game which will be permanent. The only way this gets into effect is if they survive the trial they caused. The general idea is to make it highly dynamic so the Lawbreaker's Edict is more lively based on the personality of whoever gained the motive bonus. -- Taboo Roulette --This, like I said before, has the most dynamic actions involved. Until the end of the trial, these will be in effect. One the trial is over the taboo actions are reset and there is 54 different taboos that can go into effect. Everybody has a unique one. How it works is it uses Influence Points for most of them. Breaking the action removes an influence point, and if there are none then the person dies. Obviously I took inspira…
- Blog Post: Updates to the pool - 24 July 2026
In short this adds some graphics to the swimming pool dialogue events where it has a more stylized version of the characters and their swimsuits. Every character is unique and they are isolated from the others, this image is being uploaded with everyone in it so it's easier to visualize. Note: Jade and Stripey doesn't have any art because:1. Jade is a Robot who cannot swim.2. Stripey isn't that interesting enough to get a stylized version since he has no swimsuit.It's mostly fan service, there is also a day and night time variant. Bianca is still only at night, but I wanted to post the day time version with her here. I think overall it makes the swimming events more special.Anything else?Back to what I was doing before, which might be a little longer than expected due to one element of the idea I have set up.
- Blog Post: More Motives implemented - 15 July 2026
These mostly are motives that are tied to having the assistant talk to the player the day afterwards.Wakeup eventsThis will be heavily expanded upon in the future, but this is the start of a framework for certain characters to go into your room at the start of the day to say something to the player. Right now it only works for the assistant with dealing with motives if the player has gotten a motive bonus for certain motives. In the future I plan to have it work for everybody and to react to certain events. I have to brainstorm it a lot more so it flows the best and feels the most dynamic.-- Motives tied to this -- The Recovered FragmentAllows the killer to regain certain memories. Since there are spoilers here, I will say that most memories from this are not part of the flashbacks and some of them are tied together in a sense but on different perspectives of events for "how and why?".…
- Blog Post: Songs: "NO MIND" and "You Thrill Me" have released! - 14 July 2026
I'm going to release another blog post sooner than later for some gameplay related stuff I've been working on, but this is for a planned "hint corner" optional mechanic that can be accessed after viewing the credits. Mainly as a way to explore certain aspects in more detail and to give more helpful advice to the player than the current Lily Corner which is more of it's own thing for now until it gets expanded upon much later on for the trials and Lily's gameplay. Of course there are two tracks for this due to the first and alternate credits/intro.Link to previewhttps://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/michaelrichardlannon/no-mindYou Thrill MeThis is the starting track, it's more modern and made to be calming to get the player to relax and introspect before starting another run. There was also an idea to have it be more like a dance song so it can stand on it's own and to have the feeling of th…
- Demo Update : Bug Fixes - 2 July 2026
These mostly include bug fixes and some backend stuff that doesn't impact things in the demo too much to note of it at this time. In the future I'll open more content to be available in the demo, along with making more exclusive content, but I mostly want to get a bunch of stuff done before that happens.
- Blog Post: Aishia + Shanks + Victor Reworks - 23 June 2026
I'm getting this out of the way so I don't forget about it in the future. Didn't take very long since it's mostly editing functions that already exist.Aishia ReworkI was struggling to find a way to make her abilities less defensive/passive for player freedom and to make her more unique to play. I ended up going with a "borrowed time" concept that fits her backstory.Aishia, if uninjured, when at 0 energy can gather more energy from herself. This check happens every time Aishia goes to 0 energy until she gets injured.This borrowed energy is removed from the next day.There is a 1 in 10 chance she starts to bleed which has 2 days of recovery.There is no limit to this. So Aishia can theoretically take more energy than she has the next day, starting a day with 0 energy can be a death sentence in of itself.I consider this to be much more of a softer version of Jade. Jade has more weaknesses an…
- Blog Post: Crow + Edgar Reworks - 21 June 2026
This covers a bit since the Crow reworked worked really well with implementing it along with Edgar's spells. I'm also writing this up before it's mostly done to save time.Susceptibility This is a -10 to 10 meter from having less to having more where actions are taken at a stronger or weaker degree. Let's say someone wants to do a manipulative event to sway votes with a base of 20. So if someone has -10 for susceptibility, they only are moved by 10 instead of 20. If it's 10, then they are moved by 30 instead.CharismaLike susceptibility, it's -10 to 10, but for your words against others. If someone have a strong charisma, their words have more of an impact. If the charisma is bad, it may backfire on them.This makes things a little more interesting with spoken word dynamics. It also impacts gifting. If a the gifter's charisma is 5 or more, they get a bonus. If it's -5 or less, they get a p…
- Blog Post: Jade rework + Voting Motives - 10 June 2026
Due to some stuff that happened, I'm reposting the blog posts I make on blogger onto the steam announcements as well as blogger. None of this can be really seen in the demo, so if I update the demo in the future, I'll put it in the announcement title that it's a demo update, and normal blog posts as Blog Posts. Jade ReworkI've thought about it, and I think Jade should have more of a cost for dealing with injuries with how aggressive she can support. So I made some changes.1. Jade cannot heal injuries with drugs, she can still die from them from it's effects. Overdosing only impacts the battery levels instead of outright killing2. Resting at night doesn't automatically reduce injury levels. Instead of Jade has some metal sheets in her inventory, she will consume them for an accelerated healing. With how easy Metal is to get, it makes it so Jade can quickly and easily repair herself every…
- Demo update + Image showcase - 28 May 2026
Demo update:Added some graphics before vaporization in the first trial. Every main character has a unique sprite for the event they are chosen to be executed in the first trial.Fixed some bugs.Backend content that isn't available in the demo at this moment.The dreamThe dreaming events have been reworked to have 3x the amount of dialogue as they originally had along with a redesign to the graphics, character designs, and more.
- Welcome one and all! - 12 May 2026
Welcome one and all to the greatest show on television!Listen to the great Edgar and Stripey in their playhouse.Unique dialogue for every day of the year, and certain events.Slightly changes to the settings menu which shouldn't destroy the quality of certain assets when lowering the texture quality.
- Demo Update - 30 April 2026
Some in-development content has been added.
- demo update - 9 April 2026
Some major bug fixes. Performance updates. I've decided to lock down the demo a bit to end after the First Trial for now. This is because I'm still updating some aspects with some playtesting. The demo end events have been updated as well.
