After 6 long years, it's finally time to return to the Burden of Proof storyline with a brand new game to be released next year! Though Shinogi Chess Club has been an awesome series to develop, it's time to go back to its roots and further this intertwined world from the original perspective. This new title will showcase all of the improvements I've made as a developer with completely new music, artwork, environment and character modeling, and an exciting story that follows up on threads left behind from Burden of Proof. All new cases and courtroom antics await in... Burden of Truth!
Before we get any further, the game already has a "Coming Soon" page on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2923050/Burden_of_Truth/ The best way that you can support this new project is to tell your friends and give the game a wishlist so you can be notified as updates happen. It really does help out a ton and ensures that I can release the project in confidence so I truly appreciate it :D Now, on to the fun stuff...

What is this?!

Burden of Truth is a new game that expands on the missing Chapter 3 from the original title in order to flesh out Conrad Cross' transition between a steadfast prosecutor and a legendary defense attorney. This is content that I have alluded to in the past, but now it's finally time to realize it and fill in the gaps I meant to showcase back in 2018. But if we're seeing a story that takes place between that 2-year time skip from Burden of Proof, what more is there to learn? Without spoiling too much, a lot. Since the original Chapter 3 was so vague, it opened up a lot of room for new details and situations to unfold that allow Cross' character to undergo a much more gradual change to the person we see at the end of the game. After a crucial introductory sequence to get reacquainted with the gameplay, this new "Chapter 3" will be comprised of multiple different cases all tying in to each other with the ultimate goal of saving Sarah Fletcher from a guilty verdict.
Along the way, more context will be provided to everything that was introduced in Burden of Proof, and some concepts, such as Fletcher's disease and true role in the conspiracy, that were previously glossed over will finally be addressed in full detail. To kick off the hype, let's look at...

A story synopsis

One year after his mentor's poisoning, renowned prosecutor Conrad Cross accepts a new case tangled in web of conspiracy. In order to determine the true culprit, Cross and his opponent, Kate Flocking, engage in a battle of wits and piece together the incident by analyzing the available evidence. However, this objective proves difficult to accomplish when it's revealed that a mysterious organization is interfering with the flow of information to the courtroom. Even so, the legal counsel is determined to persevere through these limitations and expel the lies by uncovering contradictions within the witness' statements. To deliver justice, someone must be found guilty.
But as the trial winds down, an unsettling situation unfolds when a mysterious figure informs Cross that his childhood friend, Sarah Fletcher, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. At the same time, the dangerous rebellion group 209 Dive mounts an assault to retrieve the Zero Data, a database of information that could plunge the world into nuclear war if it falls into the wrong hands. Knowing that Sarah could never be responsible for the heinous crime she's accused of, Cross must turn his entire mindset around to become the defense attorney that his friend deserves. As the only person capable of saving Fletcher and preventing the catastrophic consequences of the Zero Data's exposure, Cross must enter a deadly trial that could very well determine the fate of the world.

Why now?

As you can imagine, a lot has changed since 2018 about the way I develop games and the way I tackle new projects. Having completed Shinogi Chess Club and Shinogi Chess Club 2, I've built up a ton of new tools and skills that make developing these "hybrid genre" projects a lot easier. Everything looks and sounds and plays so much better than it ever did before, thanks to a ton of practice with graphics, music composition, programming, and story writing.
I've had this idea for a long time; the idea to fill in the gaps and flesh out the Chapter 3 story I envisioned with the proper care it deserves. But now that I've had some practice honing my skills in visual novel creation, what better time than now to put all that to the game which introduced so many of you to my work? Originally that was meant to be one small segment in what would've been "Burden of Proof 2" (though the title would've been different) but after giving it some thought I realized a few things: [olist]

I want to ease people back into the story with something a bit more tame, before we get to the insanity I have planned

A slightly shorter project is easier to manage and will release faster

No need to update character/location visuals multiple times if I can make one new appearance that serves well for this flashback sequence, and put a lot more attention on this crucial moment in the story

Burden of Proof should be an anthology--an ongoing series that I can return to every now and then when I have ideas and motivation. You might think that this leaves Cross' story in a bit of a weird place, but I think these games are more about the journey than the destination. There are always new puzzles to solve, new twists to experience, and unlike Shinogi Chess Club, there is no specific end to these courtroom adventures. This is absolutely inspired by Ace Attorney and The Mandalorian, which do progress characters but in a more subtle/infinite storytelling sort of way. All that is to say: I cut out a lot of ideas so that they can be utilized in the next game after Burden of Truth, and this can be seen as a bit of a transition not only for Cross, but for the game series to set up a new standard. [/olist]
But make no mistake; this IS "Burden of Proof 2", and although it serves as a bridge into the next story, you will get the experience of a complete game that ties up some loose ends and clarifies a lot of details that were previously left up in the air. In fact, there's even more to the game than just that, but I'll save it for you to discover on your own :) Be rest assured that it will be a satisfying entry for BOP fans!

What's next?

Over the next few months I'll be sharing a lot more screenshots and information about Burden of Truth, so do feel free to follow me on Twitter or join my Discord server for updates! In addition, I hope to release a demo of the first chapter of the game later this year, so be on the lookout for that! I highly encourage you to click "wishlist" over on the Steam page as it really helps a ton: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2923050/Burden_of_Truth/ In the meantime, feel free to check out the trailer showcasing some incredible voice acting by Skip G and a brand new song which will be heard as part of the game's soundtrack! [previewyoutube=C7Jpry8kmBI;full][/previewyoutube] That's all from me, so I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of what's to come and I hope to see you in the coming months as more info on the project is released! Again, I truly appreciate every bit of support from everyone who has played my games, and though it may take a while to bring it to life, know that I'm cooking up a powerful game that will add something meaningful to the story while still respecting the original tone. While I have progressed a lot since 2018, it wouldn't be Burden of Proof without a bit of jank and camp, so I'm taking measures to recapture that sort of magic as well :) Thank you for all the kind words I've received so far, and... Thanks for playing, - Matt

The latest patch for Shinogi Chess Club 2 has arrived, and it includes a few crucial bugfixes as well as some exciting new settings! Let's take a look:

Update Details

Patch Notes: Version 1.1.0

• Fixed NaN pixel flickering across all scenes
• Changed Antialiasing setting default to 2X
• Renamed Antialiasing setting to Multisample AA
• Added Subpixel Morphological AA setting
• Added Render Scale setting
• Added FSR 1.0 support via Upscaling setting
• Tweaked Tomiko's hair physics

The big fix for this update is addressing the problem of flickering light errors which mainly occurred in the Shinogi Chess Club Room. I'm not exactly sure which shader is the culprit but this seemed to stem from NaN (Not a Number) errors that became visible on screen. NaN pixel values work incorrectly with the Bloom effect that is used extensively in the Shinogi Chess Club post processing stack, causing the intensity to cascade out and create an ugly blob on the screen. This is mitigated in Unity by enabling an option to replace NaN pixels with a clamped color, stopping these errors from effecting bloom. The downside is a minor hit to performance but I believe the impact should be minimal. And, with the new options added in this update, you'll be able to balance it out by squeezing out better performance for the same level of quality. Speaking of which... Previously, Shinogi Chess Club 2 relied on both Multisample Antialiasing (MSAA) and Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing (SMAA) for cleaning up jagged edges. MSAA provides a really clean result but can cost a lot of performance due to how it gathers the necessary pixel information. Due to me mixing up the two methods in my head (they've got really similar acronyms, oops), I gave the user control over MSAA thinking it would be the only AA applied to the screen. I naively set the default to 4x sample and believed it was actually affecting SMAA. That was a bit of a mistake.
Now, the option is labeled correctly in-game (in the settings file it is still called "Antialiasing") and the default has been lowered to 2x in order to preserve the original look of the game a bit. In its place though, I have now added the option to customize the SMAA quality, which was previously hardcoded to be "medium". SMAA is a much cheaper AA option that provides really nice results, so I encourage you to turn it up if you'd like a more performant AA method! Finally, there is now a "render scale" option which allows you to lower the 3D rendering resolution while keeping the requested screen resolution from the video category. This is becoming a common option in modern games as it allows you to keep a clean UI presentation while sacrificing some 3D quality. It's essential for running games on low-end hardware and can even boost your FPS when combined with... FidelityFX Super Resolution! This smart upscaling method is now available in the options under "Upscaling Method", and when combined with the render scale setting will sharpen up the image back to your desired resolution! This FSR implementation is somewhat basic and doesn't utilize temporal information, but it still provides great results at 90% or even 80% render scale, which should let you boost your FPS if you don't need a perfectly clean image. Regardless of whether you use these options, it is great to offer more ways of running Shinogi Chess Club 2 on low-end devices. As a final bonus, you can increase the render scale up to 150% if you have plenty of FPS to spare in order to get a very high quality view of the game. All of these new settings should help in future-proofing the game!

News Update

I now have an official Discord Server which will serve as a place of discussion and questions about all of the games I release! I'll be updating it with announcements and chatting with the community for as long as I can :)
All are invited to join through this link! The server is still in its very early days so I don't expect much activity for a bit, but please feel free to help grow the community and ask any questions you may have about my development process over there! In other news: You can now get both Shinogi Chess Club games and their soundtracks in this new Complete Collection bundle on Steam! Pick it up here if you'd like a 10% discount on the additional content!
We're now (hopefully, if everything goes to schedule) less than a few months away from the announcement of my next big game! I hope you'll all stay tuned on Twitter and the Discord Server when the time comes. Until then, thank you to everyone who's been supporting me and trying out the Shinogi Chess Club series! Happy gaming! -Matt

The latest update for Shinogi Chess Club 2: Resistance is here! Let's go over the details:

Update Details

Patch Notes (1.0.3)

• Fixed Exit button not appearing on completed scenes

This is a pretty simple fix for a bug that seems to have been introduced by accident during the construction of a previous patch, so I apologize for the inconvenience! What happened was that a game object present in the UI for one of my core objects was disabled, probably for debugging purposes. After enabling it, the UI system was able to function correctly again. Additionally, I added a cap to the number of times an "interactable object" can track your progress through its scripts. This should eliminate the number reaching absurd heights in extreme situations and clarify the state of the object when I'm debugging the "exit script" functionality.

Community Highlight

I highly recommend checking out Visual Novelty's new series covering the game on YouTube! [previewyoutube=xT5yuKsR64k;full][/previewyoutube] I had a blast watching so best of luck with the rest of your playthrough, and thanks for trying it out! I also want to highlight streamer VernonCrowe who is currently annihilating Shinogi Chess Club 2 AI opponents with his incredible gaming skill! Thank you for playing through the series! That's all for now, so again I highly appreciate the support everyone has provided and I hope to update you all soon on the exciting stuff I've been working on! As always, you can follow me on Twitter @RobProductions for the latest updates. Thanks for playing! - Matt

We're a few months after the initial release now and I want to personally thank everyone that supported Shinogi Chess Club 2: Resistance and tried it out! In this post I'll talk about a new patch to the game and some upcoming content to look out for. Without further delay, let's take a look at the latest update to the game which was just uploaded today:

Update Details

Patch Notes (1.0.2)

• Fixed rendering bounds for several characters
• Fixed helmet culling issue in the intro cutscene
• Crashed a car into the Investigation Club Room (out of bounds)

The fixes here are pretty simple as they mainly related to rendering issues that you'd barely notice unless you were looking for it. During the intro cutscene, a helmet prefab had its LOD settings set a bit too generously when it comes to culling the mesh completely, which becomes an issue when you adjust the graphics lower with the in-game settings. Since you can adjust the LOD bias, it means objects can use lower-detailed versions of themselves at closer distances, and this even extends to the "completely culled" state. I didn't catch this originally because I test too often on the higher settings. A similar system culls out skinned meshes (i.e. rigged characters) when they are not on screen; the problem is that the bounds used for this calculation are based on best-guess since rigged characters can technically have parts of themselves far away from the origin. In Unity, the solution is to update those bounds every frame to account for the animation using a special flag, and I had missed setting it for a few clothing items on characters; mainly for hair and bows, etc. This is kind of hard to spot but it meant that in extreme situations with certain camera angles, the clothing items would be culled. In version 1.0.2 this is now corrected, and it's always possible that I missed a few more of these but in a game with so many static front-facing angles it's not often that it actually causes an issue. Finally, I did indeed crash a car into the Investigation Club Room level, but you'll have to work hard to find it. Expert players who have played my previous games should know what to do here :)

Soundtrack Release

If you enjoyed the music in Shinogi Chess Club 2, you'll be glad to hear that the official soundtrack is releasing in just 1 week on Steam! Be sure to check it out here: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2634490/Shinogi_Chess_Club_2__Soundtrack/] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2634490/Shinogi_Chess_Club_2__Soundtrack/

What's Next

The past few months I've had some time to relax, research new topics and technologies, and catch up on stuff that I brushed aside previously due to the intense work involved with building Shinogi Chess Club. I've also been beginning to research and explore ideas for my next main game, but I'll hold on to that secret for now :) Those of you who have completed the game will know that more Shinogi Chess Club is coming, but for several reasons it might take a bit before I return to produce that extra content. For one, interest/sales for both Shinogi Chess Club games have not been as high as I would've liked and I can't realistically support myself in the future if I'm investing too much in ideas that aren't taking off. Also, I definitely need a break from this storyline and gameplay concept; programming chess AI can get quite tedious and overwhelming :') Finally, the whole fiasco involving Unity's policy change has shifted a lot of my focus into other technologies and the series may move onto another engine for its next entry. This would entail a huge effort porting the existing logic and assets, so it would make more sense to do this only after I've gotten some experience creating something new in said new engine. So what IS next if not that? To start, the RobProductions official website will be getting a huge overhaul sometime soon. I've been very hard at work making it match my style preferences a lot more and building it to become much more scalable and stable for the long term. The main change is the fact that I'm hand-coding myself in Typescript/React as opposed to using Wix. If you know anything about web development you would understand that this a huge undertaking and has eaten up a lot of my time the past few weeks, but it will hopefully be well worth it once complete. The new site will be something I'm actually proud of and represents me much more than the old one, and will also be easier to edit and cheaper to maintain. Alongside that and the recent rebranding I've undergone, I'll be aiming to create more YouTube videos and posts on social media explaining my development process and ideas. I also have a TikTok now! Additionally, it seems like for now my game projects will remain on Unity (unfortunately) due to workflow differences that are too steep to adjust to for the types of games I tend to make. To explain more specifically, the engine I would like to use (Godot) has been progressing slowly in the areas that would make it easier for me to develop my projects, and I don't think it will have the full feature set I need to make content as quickly/cleanly as I could in Unity. Those of you that know me personally know that I aim to create a wide variety of games with plenty of playtime in each entry, so the extra time learning/recreating my workflow for a new engine is a high price to pay for me specifically. I anticipate that in the next year or so, this might very well change as Godot improves and my understanding of it increases. At that point, if the engine has added cleaner ways for me to develop extension packages I could see myself having enough resources to shift my projects there. This is a vast oversimplification of the considerations I've had and I apologize for the long and boring rant, but that's where things stand right now. With that out of the way, you might be able to assume that my next big game:

• Will be on Unity :( but will arrive sooner because of it
• Will be a VN-hybrid game since I mentioned needing to create similar projects to Shinogi Chess Club
• Will probably arrive at least one year from now, i.e. 2025

And you would be right in assuming that! But fear not, there are other amazing things I would love to do along the way which may or may not arrive before that, including:

• A free preview demo of said big project
• A tech demo focusing on high quality visuals and animation
• Smaller scale game stories that I've been tinkering with
• Video content showcasing behind-the-scenes looks at my games with developer commentary

So while there's plenty for me to do in 2024, I hope that this will be a period of great change which will elevate RobProductions into becoming a more established studio on the market. Be rest assured that I'm not going anywhere and I plan to keep releasing games and stories for as long a time as I'm able to. The best way to help my journey is to spread the word of my games, give them a try for yourself, and send in positive comments that lend support whenever possible <3 While I'm a long ways off from being able to do so, with enough financial support I may eventually be able to devote more of my time to projects which would be a huge blessing for me. For now, every little bit helps. As always, you can catch the latest news on Twitter @RobProductions and once again... Thanks for playing! - Matt

Hey everyone, that didn't take long! Today I'd like to share a few minor changes that were made to the game which focus on polishing up the presentation and clarity.

Update Details

Patch Notes (1.0.1)

• Tweaked music volume & timing for several tracks
• Fixed description for the Yoshino High School glossary item
• Fixed missing text effects for Chapter 2 scenes
• Adjusted database text styling for readability
• Fixed pause event occurring when using Escape to exit datapad

Let's start with the datapad, or "tab menu" as it's sometimes referred to. Here I tried to adjust the text styling of "categories" within the glossary menus in order for them to be more readable at a glance. I think this is how they were in the first game actually, but I must've tried something different at some point to change things up. In hindsight, it didn't look as nice in fullscreen :) Shinogi Chess Club 2 now has "escape exits datapad" set to ON by default since I noticed a lot of people try to use escape to leave any menu that pops up. I'm not a huge fan of that scheme since I tend to consider pausing its own system that can be accessed any time, but it's hard to fight against convention. Unfortunately, a difference in script execution order caused built versions of the game to still pause when you exit the datapad leading to an unintended inconvenience. That bug is now fixed, so the option should work as expected to freely exit the datapad when it's open! Beyond that, I made a few tweaks to music and added in some text effects for certain scenes in Chapter 2. Hopefully this should keep things a bit more consistent across the board, but there could be more minor music adjustments in the future if I find tracks that stand out too much. With over 8 hours of music to parse through, it can be tough to manage all the varying volumes and fade transitions!

Thank You

That's all for now, but I wanted to again thank everybody for your continued support. I hope that you're all enjoying the game, and feel free to let me know if you encounter any issues or have questions! As always, you can contact me on Twitter or make a post here on Steam if you'd like to report anything. Thanks for playing! <3 - Matt

After an 18 month wait, the sequel to Shinogi Chess Club has finally arrived! You can get Shinogi Chess Club 2 here!

Synopsis

In the wake of the Typhoon Initiative's collapse, a new threat has risen to challenge the city's obsession with Shinogi Chess, a board game variant which has taken hold of countless schools across Japan. With the Spring Championships behind her, Himiko Masaki continues the search for her mother, and will stop at nothing to acquire power in pursuit of this goal. As she investigates new leads and unravels a sinister conspiracy, Himiko is driven down a path of vengeance, and discovers just how far she's willing to go for the truth.
Meanwhile, Yoshino High School has finally recovered from last semester's shocking events. The Shinogi Chess Club struggles to stay afloat when new arrivals, including aspiring poet Kenshi Okawa, shake the group to their core. As Himiko learns more about the other members, such as Kaito Sakuma, a brilliant student with suspicious connections, she realizes that more lies beneath the surface when it comes to her friends. Amidst these complications, rival clubs at Yoshino High have also caught wind of Himiko's activities, and seek involvement for the safety of the school.
In this next chapter of Himiko's journey, you'll uncover the truth behind the disappearance of Yuko Masaki and unveil new mysteries within the school! If you haven't yet, you can pick up the game here!

Support

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post a topic in the appropriate category here on the Steam forums. Please check this post for information on how to narrow down and report any bugs that you might encounter. I'm also happy to discuss story or feature requests so long as you use the correct discussion pages! Finally, I'd like to ask that you keep titles spoiler-free so as not to ruin the experience for other players. Thank you for understanding!

Conclusion

I'd like to personally thank everyone who has supported me and kept up with my projects. It's been a tough journey going this far with the games I create while also dealing with life stuff, but I hope that the effort is worthwhile and the story can be enjoyed by everyone who tries out the game. If you liked what you see and want to support me, I'd highly appreciate it if you left a review talking about your experience with the game!
So with that out of the way, you might wonder what comes next for me; and to that I'd say... I'm just getting started. Now that I've had time to flesh out the story I wanted to tell years ago, I'd like to hone in on projects which are less niche and possibly cater more to different crowds. I also envision this being a period of great change as I expand my brand, put out more content on YouTube and social media, and develop key tools which will come in handy for my games down the line. I'd also like to become a contributor for the Godot engine itself, which might be the home of my next projects, and develop packages/components which will aid in constructing Visual Novels like Shinogi Chess Club. That said, I do have a specific project in mind to slowly move towards, but I'll save the details of that for another time. All I'll mention in that regard is that fans of my previous projects will certainly appreciate the next story I'm aiming to tell :) That's all for now! I'd once again like to thank everyone for playing and as always you can catch up with the latest news about my projects on Twitter @RobProductions. Stay well, and I hope you enjoy the game! <3 - Matt