





🌟 Special thanks to our amazing supporters:
✨ $10 Tier: [Geeks Love Detail]
🌈 $5 Tier: [Arch Toasty][Benedikt][David Martínez Martí]
7 years after the release of the original game released, there is finally more Burden of Proof content for everyone to play... and it's completely FREE! In this special preview demo, you'll be able to try out the first chapter of the sequel game Burden of Truth ahead of release later this year in the Steam Next Fest 2025! So feel free to head directly to the Steam page to try out the game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2923050/Burden_of_Truth/
It's been a long time in the making and this project has taken thousands of hours of work to put together, so I hope you'll all enjoy the love and care I've put into this new adventure! The demo should be rewarding for longtime BOP fans but is also completely accessible to newcomers, which means you don't have to have played the original story to enjoy it!
If you'd like to hear more about how I got here and what you can expect from the demo in video form, feel free to check out this brand new devlog-style explanation that I uploaded on my YouTube channel:
[previewyoutube=o51Qu1VwQ1w;full][/previewyoutube]
During the demo, you'll get to play the first chapter of the game, which challenges you to solve the mystery of a seemingly impossible murder in a robotics lab. As prosecutor Conrad Cross, your goal is to find the defendant guilty using evidence and logic. You'll be tasked with presenting your case to the court, objecting to false statements, and finding contradictions within witness testimony. Your opponent, Kate Flocking, will do anything to get an acquittal, so it's up to you to cut through the lies and find the truth.
If you have any questions about the demo, please refer to this Q&A:
Q: Will I need to play Burden of Proof before playing this new chapter?
A: Nope! This demo works perfectly fine as an introduction to the world and characters. In fact, you can complete the Prologue Demo first and then go back to play Burden of Proof without worry. The only thing this demo gives away is some events from Burden of Proof Chapter 1, which is the very start of the game.
Q: Wait, is Conrad a prosecutor again? I thought he became a defense attorney!
A: As mentioned in the original announcement, Burden of Truth covers the missing Chapter 3 that was left out of the original game. This Prologue Chapter takes place before the true Chapter 3 begins, at which point Conrad becomes a defense attorney to help his friend Sarah.
Q: Okay, now I'm confused. Where does this fit chronologically?
A: First we have BOP Chapter 1, then the Prologue Chapter a year later followed by the full Chapter 3 where Cross becomes a defense attorney, then a year after that we have chapters 2, 4, and 5 from BOP. Confusing? A little. How did we get here? The order was decided in BOP to lay out information as it became relevant and explain changes in characters, but when Chapter 3 became part of its own experience, it only made sense to expand it further and build up to it. Actually, you will be able to find a big reference to the Prologue Chapter if you play the original "abridged" Chapter 3 in BOP :)
Q: How long is the demo? What's included in the demo?
A: Roughly speaking, you should get 3-4 hours worth of play out of it depending on how fast you solve puzzles, which is more than I expected to include for this! This chapter throws you straight into a trial to explain the fundamentals, so there's no investigation sequence and only a little bit of free roam exploration. But the quality of the puzzles, graphics, and music should demonstrate all of the improvements that have been made for this sequel and should clearly show what you can expect in the full game!
Q: Should I skip the demo and just wait to play the full game?
A: I'm not quite sure how I'll be handling demo saves for the full release, so you may need to replay the first sections of the game when the complete story is released. This is partially intentional because I want players to have the first chapter fresh in their minds (it will be relevant for the rest of the game), but I also don't want to waste anyone's time. So if this sounds tedious, feel free to just wait until the full game drops! That said, there will be surely improvements made over the coming months that might make the experience a bit more fresh when played a second time.
I'll leave the rest up to you to figure out for yourself when you try out the demo! There's a ton of easter eggs, references, and content to chew into in this first chapter, so I'm excited to seeing everyone's reaction and theories! That's all for now, so if you'd like to hear about news as soon as it happens, be sure to follow me on Bluesky, Twitter, or join the Discord server! It's been an extremely challenging year developing this game and it would mean a lot if you could support the project by wishlisting, sharing it with your friends, or playing the demo yourself and letting me know what you thought of it!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2923050/Burden_of_Truth/
Huge thank you to everyone that made this vertical slice possible, including my friends, voice actors (shoutouts to the incredibly talented Skip G!), and fans of BOP who expressed their desire for a sequel! I'm very excited to see what you all think of it! That's it for now, so please enjoy the Next Fest, play a lot of demos from indie game developers, and as always... thanks for playing!
-Matt
On February 17th, 2025, you'll get to play the first chapter of Burden of Truth for FREE on Steam! This is the first time that I've worked on an early preview for one of my games, so it's definitely been a challenge to create this vertical slice, but I'm glad that you'll all get to play something tangible while the rest of the game is built! The Prologue Demo will introduce the story, gameplay mechanics, and characters as just a taste of the full game, so if that sounds interesting, please wishlist the game here to be notified on release:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2923050/Burden_of_Truth/
This first case challenges you to solve the mystery of a seemingly impossible murder in a robotics lab. As prosecutor Conrad Cross, your goal is to find the defendant guilty using evidence and logic. You'll be tasked with presenting your case to the court, objecting to false statements, and finding contradictions within witness testimony. Your opponent, Kate Flocking, will do anything to get an acquittal, so it's up to you to cut through the lies and find the truth.
Watch this brand new trailer to see the prologue chapter in action:
[previewyoutube=U7fSqx7npJk;full][/previewyoutube]
I don't want to say too much about the story itself so that you aren't spoiled, but I do want to answer some potential questions about the demo!
Q: Will I need to play Burden of Proof before playing this new chapter?
A: Nope! This demo works perfectly fine as an introduction to the world and characters. In fact, you can complete the Prologue Demo first and then go back to play Burden of Proof without worry. The only thing this demo gives away is some events from Burden of Proof Chapter 1, which is the very start of the game.
Q: Wait, is Conrad a prosecutor again? I thought he became a defense attorney!
A: As mentioned in the original announcement, Burden of Truth covers the missing Chapter 3 that was left out of the original game. This Prologue Chapter takes place before the true Chapter 3 begins, at which point Conrad becomes a defense attorney to help his friend Sarah.
Q: Okay, now I'm confused. Where does this fit chronologically?
A: First we have BOP Chapter 1, then the Prologue Chapter a year later followed by the full Chapter 3 where Cross becomes a defense attorney, then a year after that we have chapters 2, 4, and 5 from BOP. Confusing? A little. How did we get here? The order was decided in BOP to lay out information as it became relevant and explain changes in characters, but when Chapter 3 became part of its own experience, it only made sense to expand it further and build up to it. Actually, you will be able to find a big reference to the Prologue Chapter if you play the original "abridged" Chapter 3 in BOP :)
Q: How long is the demo? What's included in the demo?
A: Roughly speaking, you should get 3-4 hours worth of play out of it depending on how fast you solve puzzles, which is more than I expected to include for this! This chapter throws you straight into a trial to explain the fundamentals, so there's no investigation sequence and only a little bit of free roam exploration. But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much more advanced/thought out the puzzles and flow of the trial are compared to the first game, and there will be plenty of references to the original Chapter 1 in true "it's like poetry, it rhymes" fashion!
I'll be posting more details about the demo over the next month, so keep an eye out on my Twitter, Bluesky, and Discord server to learn more! I highly encourage you to check out the Steam page as it really helps a ton:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2923050/Burden_of_Truth/
The last thing I want to mention is that the game will be participating in the Steam Next Fest on February 24th, which will be a huge day for promoting the project! If you know anyone looking to play demos during the fest, please recommend Burden of Truth as I could use every little bit of exposure I can manage :'D Thank you so much for all the support and well wishes, and thanks for playing!
-Matt
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! It's real, it's happening, and it will showcase all of the improvements I've made as a developer with completely new music, artwork, environment and character modeling, and an original story that follows up on threads left behind from the first game. 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 Additionally, Burden of Proof is now 60% off for the next week to celebrate this announcement! Now, on to the fun stuff...
From the moment that the original Shinogi Chess Club released, I've had concrete ideas to continue the story and dig deeper into all of the questions raised by the first game. After a brief experiment with a different genre, I returned to the shared world of Burden of Proof/Shinogi Chess Club to tell the true story that I really wanted to achieve when this series first started. 8 months later and after a whole lot of effort, Shinogi Chess Club 2: Resistance is finally nearing release!
If you're interested, you can check out the Shinogi Chess Club 2 Steam page using the link below! Wishlists really do help a lot and I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to support me!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2299430/Shinogi_Chess_Club_2_Resistance/
After 1 and a half years of development, Shinogi Chess Club is now available for everyone to download and play!
Get Shinogi Chess Club here!
Burden of Proof version 1.0.9 is now live! Like the 1.0.8 update, this patch is meant to fix up more lingering typos and incorrect descriptions across the latter half of the game. Additionally, some extra polish has been added to evidence icons to round out the game for the long term. This should hopefully be some of the last of the grammatical fixes needed since I was able to oversee a play-through on the lookout for those issues. As always, if you spot more bugs or issues feel free to report them over on the Bug Reports section of the Steam forums! Changelog:
Burden of Proof version 1.0.8 is now live! The main goal for this update was to polish up some grammar/spelling issues from Chapters 1-2 and fix a few lingering bugs that I missed in earlier releases. If your saved game is currently in these problematic sections then you may not see the changes right away. However, the issues should be fixed via natural progression through the story if you have yet to reach these scripts. Since these are mainly simple typos they should not impact the experience a ton if you've already cleared these sections. Changelog:
Burden of Proof version 1.0.7 has just been uploaded. This is a patch to solve a critical issue that would occur in Chapter 2 when loading a save that was made while talking to Chloe. Save files made at this point are now fully recoverable and no extra work is needed to continue playing as normal--version 1.0.7 will handle the error upon loading and correctly place characters as they should be. However, if you made a save while the game was in that glitched state (Chloe missing from the scene) then that will have saved the characters in their incorrect positions. Reach out to me if you encounter this, the issue is fully recoverable through console commands. Without further delay, here's the changelog:
For the past year or so, I've been mentioning my work and future plans for new releases, developing those ideas on my own before I'm confident enough to show it to the public. If you've been following my Twitter account, you'd know that I've been sharing screenshots of a new fantasy/sci-fi action game called Iron Reckoning. You may have also seen some early footage in an announcement trailer, or caught the process of my character modeling in a timelapse video on my channel. In my discussions here on the forums and around the internet, you'd probably know that the goal is to further continue my storytelling style from BOP while continuing to improve my artwork and programming way beyond what I could accomplish 2 years ago.
So with all of that practice in mind, all of those hints/vague discussions out there, I'm happy to announce that Iron Reckoning will be releasing in early November 2020, for PC, Mac, and Linux! You can check out the Steam page and wishlist it using the link below if you're interested :)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1281920/Iron_Reckoning/
I'd like to once again thank all of you for supporting me and playing Burden of Proof! It means everything to me that I was able to have an impact on your life and entertain by telling my stories. I'm confident that fans of BOP will find something to enjoy in Iron Reckoning, whether it be a story experience, character design, music--it's all evolved from the way I've liked to make games in the past. And I will continue to improve as I learn even more from this development and pursue more ideas down the road.
My approach to game design is somewhat counter-intuitive when compared to other indies. Other game makers at my scale will often tend to find unique tricks and workarounds to the resource problem. i.e. super unique game mechanics that challenge AAA ideas while offering a smaller production that entertains nonetheless. While I would say that Iron Reckoning (and most of my future ideas) have unique game mechanics/gameplay ideas to focus on, the core experience is meant to imitate that of a AAA title, even if a majority of the art/content is not able to match what a larger studio could accomplish. Why? Because I appreciate the AAA mentality; giving the player something expected (gameplay wise) without giving them a total repeat of what they've seen before. My angle is that I believe we can put a little more imagination into big blockbuster titles. That's why I aim to tell my own stories with my own unique gameplay ideas, while wrapping it in an easily accessible experience that anyone can get into.
But let's bring it back to the here and now: Iron Reckoning. This is a fantasy/sci-fi themed adventure that follows a warrior called Jaena as she attempts to reclaim lost territory from an army of machines. The gameplay experience revolves around a unique ability called Bladerush, which allows you to soar through the air towards a thrown weapon. This ability allows you to explore the levels vertically, rapidly reposition yourself in combat, and dodge projectiles and enemy attacks with a burst of speed.
Your main form of attack is wielding Jaena's broadsword--the Claymore V. Understanding the attack combo is key in taking down hordes of enemies and creating your own strategies during battle. You can also wield offensive magic, which costs mana resources. Managing this meter is important, as it also is affected by Bladerush and your ability to air-dodge.
In BOP, I told the story through a VN system. Here, I have opted for real-time cutscenes, all custom animated with keyframed camera motion, and fully voice-acted. It's a huge step up in quality from BOP, and a huge advancement in technology for me, as I had to consider quite a few mechanics in terms of programming and make a lot of content for cutscene animation. But the results are certainly worthwhile for a game like this.
The highlight of these cutscenes has to be the realization of the game's main antagonist, Nomad. An incredible performance by the skilled Thomas Cuba has really brought this character to life, and added a huge amount of depth to the story. It was a blast developing Nomad's design, his speech patterns, recording with Thomas, and crafting the way Nomad moves and responds to Jaena. By the way, you can hear a lovely sample of his performance in Iron Reckoning's new Story Trailer! Definitely look forward to the full game and performance, I'm certain you can appreciate the character and the hard work that went into crafting a believable villain.
That's all I'll say for now! The game is shaping up with development heading into "content-complete" territory for October. Most of what remains is polishing up what I have and fitting as many extra ideas into it as I can, while promoting the title and getting ready for release. I'm hoping that if you've played BOP you will check out Iron Reckoning and give it a shot! This is by far the biggest game I've ever worked on in terms of scope, and I'm hoping you can enjoy what I've put together for everyone to try out.
Once again, you can check out the new game here. Wishlisting really helps to gain visibility and keep everyone up to date on sales/release! So it would really mean a lot if you could help IR and bump up those numbers :) You can always follow my progress on Twitter, and shoot me a message if you have any questions. In October I'll be announcing a more exact release date, along with yet another new trailer, so keep your eyes open and look forward to the completion of this new project!
Thanks for playing my games and supporting my work!
-Matt
It's been a while, but the latest patch for Burden of Proof is finally live! Here's an update on the changes for version 1.0.6, as well as a news roundup for what I've been doing recently. You might be wondering, what happened to version 1.0.5? It was uploaded just a short while ago before I found a somewhat severe bug, which has just been fixed for 1.0.6.
This is a general update which addresses the final news reports for Burden of Proof and what I've been working on for the future.
I've just uploaded a new patch which has a few more fixes and adds some heavily requested accessibility features to the game. Changelog:
A couple of potentially severe bugs were fixed up in this patch, and another few small improvements were made. Changelog:
The goal of this patch was to fix a major bug that was discovered in Chapter 4. This is just a quick update to resolve the issue and a few other problems. Changelog:
Version 1.0.1 is now live! After my last minute testing and an early bug report on the discussion page, I've made a few minor changes that improve the stability of the game and overall quality. Changelog:
After a year and a half of development, Burden of Proof is finally available to play. This is a passion project that I've been working on by myself, and it's the second game I've released on Steam. I've learned a lot through development, and while it's far from perfect, I think fans of the courtroom genre will find a lot to enjoy in the world I've built. With that out of the way, I'd like to talk about controller support and where you can go for more information on running the game. There is a manual that you can read on the game's store page which will give some details on how to play the game (though it should be simple to figure out on your own). There's also a README file in the game's local files which has details on Graphics Settings, Keybindings, Controller Support, and the changelog for the latest updates. Right now the game currently supports these controllers:
[ 6084 ]
[ 1345 ]
[ 4067 ]