Hello, Detectives! This week, both Detective Butler games are taking part in Steam's Visual Novel Fest! Yes, that's right -- in case you missed our previous announcement, the sequel titled Detective Butler and the King of Hearts now has a store page and a 1-2 hour demo containing the first chapter! Please add it to your wishlist if you want to see what happens next in the Detective Butler storyline! But that's not our only announcement! Ten years ago today -- on August 10th, 2013 -- we released Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder for the first time. The Steam release didn't happen until a few years later. So in short, this week is ALSO Detective Butler's 10-year anniversary! I recently replayed the game for the first time in years, and realized many themes and ideas are just as important to me now as they were back then. While I do think I've become much better at writing, I also believe that the story of Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder continues to hold up well over time. It's incredible to know there are thousands of people who've enjoyed this game. I was young and inexperienced when I created it, but so many people still love it, and there are always new fans every day. And even though it's a free game, I feel like I've been paid back in ways that money can't provide. So it's also incredibly fitting that, upon the 10th anniversary, I have exciting news to share with you. During the past two months, we've been working with other mystery game developers to form a community where we can learn and grow together. We call this community Mystery Gamedev!
We're just getting started, but we already have 15+ developers of popular mystery games, with hundreds of positive reviews and thousands of players each. We'd like to invite all who enjoy mystery games -- fans, developers, and content creators -- to join! Mystery games span many genres, and include highly popular games such as Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, Zero Escape, and many more! If you'd like to discover new and upcoming mystery games from indie devs, or learn how to create your own, then come and join our Discord server! Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/GUe3KYWufA Learn More: https://mysterygamedev.com As always, thank you for your support! I truly hope that I can give back by creating this community and helping others make friends, grow alongside each other, and achieve success! - Kinjo Goldbar (Goldbar Games)

[ 2023-08-10 13:05:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Detectives! At long last, we have a Steam page for the sequel, Detective Butler and the King of Hearts! On the store page, please click the "Add to Wishlist" button to be notified when the game releases. Also click the "Follow" button to receive exclusive updates regarding the game that won't be posted in the news feed for Maiden Voyage Murder. Although we're still a long way out from a release date, development has been going smoothly and we're making fast progress. We are also on track to release an hour-long demo featuring the first chapter sometime in April. Please look forward to it! Thank you for your support, and have a great rest of your day! - Goldbar Games

[ 2023-03-15 00:09:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, detectives!

Mystery Fest 2023

Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder is part of the Steam Mystery Fest! As such, we've discounted the DLC to 33% off for the next week, so if you haven't picked it up yet, now would be a good time! Also, we've noticed that among all the free detective visual novels on Mystery Fest, we're sitting at the highest spot! Thank you all for playing the game and supporting us all this time! It's truly an honor!

Sequel Update

You've been waiting a long time for this one, we know. Many factors beyond our control forced us to pause development of the sequel. However, those factors are now resolved and we can focus our full attention on the game, and the state of the project has never been better than right now. Despite rewriting it from scratch this year (for the third time), we're already beyond 25,000 words, which is more than half of the original game's wordcount. The final game will likely be around 200,000 words long, so we've still got a ways to go, but we're making excellent time. Also, we've decided to draw all artwork in-house rather than commission it, cutting down on costs while also enabling us to draw whatever assets we need in order to make the best possible game. We've been pleasantly surprised by the positive reactions to our unique art style, an unintentional cross between Hotel Dusk and Paper Mario:
Please visit detectivebutler.com to read all about the game and sign up to our mailing list. We'll send updates on the game directly to your e-mail, specifically to let you know when there's a release of a demo you can play (and then eventually the full game). We will still post updates on Steam, but this list will help us know exactly how many people are excited about the next installment of Detective Butler, across all of our platforms, and how we can best focus our efforts to gain more fans. Our goal is to have an hour-long demo for you to play by April, which you'll be able to access from the sequel's Steam page. The demo itself is almost done (it contains just the first chapter) but we'll need time to polish and refine what's there for an ideal experience (and set up the Steam page too). We really want this thing to knock your socks off, so please look forward to exciting stuff coming soon! - Goldbar Games

[ 2023-02-21 02:56:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, detectives! We have two major announcements today.

Mac & Linux Releases

At long last, we've released versions for Mac and Linux systems. If you encounter any issues, please let us know. You can post on the discussion forums here, but we'll be faster to respond on our Discord server. We achieved this by making a significant upgrade to the game's engine. Hopefully you shouldn't notice much of a difference, although you may notice things should run smoother and faster than before. So this upgrade may also help those who had previously posted issues on the discussion boards, and we hope it resolves those problems and allows them to experience the game properly.

Save Data

For Windows users, if you update your game to the latest version, your save data will not work anymore. It uses a completely different system now, and has no way to read the old system. (Don't worry though, because it does not affect your Steam achievements.) If you are concerned about this, you have two options: 1. You can hold down CTRL to quickly skip through the game (should take ~15 minutes). 2. You can choose to switch back to the old engine. Your saves didn't actually go away, so the old engine can still read them. You'll need to right click on the game in your Library, go to Properties, and on the Betas tab enter "old-engine" without quotes, and click "check code". Then select it from the drop-down menu. You can switch between the two engines at any time.

Why Make a New Engine?

So, you might be wondering why we took the time to remake the entire engine. The game was originally made with ONscripter, which had been used for many popular Japanese visual novels in the 2000s. However, over time it became difficult for us to maintain the engine and integrate it into more modern technology. For a long time we'd been planning on using Unity for the next game, and after a few years of learning it and trying to get things to work, ultimately decided that it just didn't make sense for this kind of game. So last year, we started development on our own game engine. After releasing the DLC, we realized that those who own Mac and Linux still couldn't experience the game. However, because we were already in the process of making our own game engine, we had two choices: either struggle through the abandoned and complicated build process of the old engine, or just remake the game using the new engine and get everything working once and for all. We chose the second option. In order to get this out before Christmas, we had to prioritize which features to include, and we're happy to say that we met all of our goals. But we'll probably push some minor updates over the next few months to make small improvements.

What's Next

Our plan is to use this engine for the next Detective Butler game, and now that we've successfully ported over the first game to it, we can feel confident that the next game will be just as great. Thank you all again for your patience, and we're happy so many people enjoyed the DLC! Until next time, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! - Goldbar Games

[ 2020-12-19 17:26:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

At long last, the Choices DLC is available for purchase! This additional content adds choices and branching paths to the game, which ultimately reveal the answers to several mysteries that the original story left unresolved. We have also posted a discussion thread and walkthrough guide. We know it has been a long time waiting, so we hope you enjoy it! The DLC contains roughly the same wordcount as the original game, so it should take a few hours to get through. Especially because a number of endings are spread out across different routes, you might need to go back and try picking different choices in order to see all of them, including the "true" ending. Ultimately, it was a lot of fun revisiting this game, and we could have taken the story in so many different directions. It's likely we will add even more choices in future updates, as a way to continue to delivering fresh content for Maiden Voyage Murder. But at this point our time would probably be better spent focusing on the next game. For Detective Butler 2, we'll be introducing lots of new characters in a brand-new setting with new mysteries to solve. We also have some unique gameplay ideas never before seen in detective games that we'd like to try out. Our development process will include more frequent updates and playable demos early on. We want to keep people involved and excited about our future games. Thank you all for your support, and we hope to have more news soon! -Goldbar Games

[ 2020-04-29 20:40:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Detectives, We've been quietly working on the DLC during 2019, and it's almost done, but it will need to be delayed to early next year. We've decided on a deadline of April 3, 2020. But we didn't want to end the year without anything to show for it, so you can view the Steam store page here. Additionally, we've been streaming the DLC's development on our Twitch channel. Starting in January, the streams will be split between working on the DLC and programming the game engine that will be used for the next Detective Butler game (and others). Feel free to stop by and check in on our progress. So, what exactly will be included in the DLC? There were several loose ends that we were going to include in the next game, but ultimately were too disconnected to fit into a different story. So one of our priorities is resolving those questions in the DLC. At first, we considered writing short stories following different characters' perspectives in order to answer those questions, but trying to connect them into the main game's story proved to be difficult as well. Many people have said that they were hoping the game would be more interactive, so it made sense for us to instead convey these answers through alternate routes and endings. Therefore, this DLC will include choices that you can make during the main story. You will need to replay the game and make different choices in order to achieve these endings. Upon release, we will provide a guide for players who simply want to reach the new content, but we recommend re-reading the main story in preparation for future adventures. Lastly, we do want to be upfront that the DLC will need to be purchased for a small price. Our main writer/programmer has had to spend time on outside work for most of the year, which is the main reason for the delay. But we realize there is a lot of love out there for the Detective Butler series, and we want to continue to provide high-quality content as soon as we can. Thank you, and please look forward to it! - Goldbar Games

[ 2019-12-28 04:14:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Detectives, We know that so many of you are looking forward to a second game, but as the saying goes, "between truth and happiness, we can't have both." Unfortunately, progress has been a lot slower than expected. Currently we have been funding development out of pocket, and will continue to do so. But for that reason, we're going have to put the project on hold. It's hard to say how long, but it will likely be six months to a year before any meaningful progress is made. In the meantime, we'd like to release some DLC for Maiden Voyage Murder next summer. We probably should have done so this year, but nonetheless we hope you all will enjoy it. Also, Snowball Saves Summer and its soundtrack are 50% off for the Winter Sale. All funds will go straight to commissioning artwork and music, so it's a very easy way to support Detective Butler 2 and get a fun game in the process! Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year! - Goldbar Games

[ 2018-12-21 23:34:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Detectives!
For any fans of the platformer genre, today marks the release of our latest game: Snowball Saves Summer! The revenue from this game, which we've worked on all summer, will go toward commissioning assets for Detective Butler 2 (such as the sprites mentioned in our last update). So if Snowball looks like a game you might enjoy, click the image above and give it a try! Also, a while back Steam announced "developer pages", so we made one for ourselves. You can subscribe to the group and get updates on all future and current releases. Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/goldbargames We'll be commissioning more artwork and music during the final months of 2018, so we'll be back with another update around the start of the new year. In the meantime we'll work on more small games to fund those commissions. See you then! --Goldbar Games

[ 2018-09-26 19:19:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Detectives! As it has been nearly one year since the game released, it's about time for a proper update on the sequel. Fortunately, we have some good news to share. We'll keep it brief here, but you can read the full blog post on our website. While the writing and coding are mostly done, the biggest obstacle will be commissioning the art and music. So as we mentioned in our previous update, we are doing everything we can to raise funds for them. We appreciate your patience, as this will take some time. Since you are probably wondering what the final artwork will look like, here is a preview of one sprite, a character you might recognize:
Patrons will be the first to see any other new sprites as they become available, including their full range of expressions, poses, and at full resolution. As you can see, we're keeping the cel-shaded look from the first game, since you all said you liked it so much. We'll also look into using cel-shaders for the backgrounds since many of you disliked the blurry filters. Thank you for your support. We look forward to sharing more updates with you soon! -- Goldbar Games

[ 2018-05-16 16:51:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Detectives! It has been one year since our Steam Greenlight campaign ended in success, and we were finally able to launch Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder on Steam. Thank you so much for your support and very positive reviews of the game! We are taking all comments and criticism into consideration, to make our future games more entertaining experiences. We wanted to let you know of our plans for the rest of 2018 regarding our future projects, especially Detective Butler 2. We are going to need to raise funds to commission the art and music for Detective Butler 2. So we will be working on some small side projects. You can watch our development progress on our Twitch channel every Monday through Friday from 8 PM to 10 PM CST. These projects will be completed in a short timeframe (1-3 months each) and released on Steam, until we gather the funds sufficient to finish Detective Butler 2. Feel free to stop by and say hello if you have the time. If you would like to support development, we have a Patreon account as well as a merchandise store. Both sites offer fun rewards at reasonable prices. If you have any suggestions for the Patreon or the store, please let us know as well. Thank you all for your patience and continued support. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. And remember to have fun! --Goldbar Games

[ 2018-03-23 23:09:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, Detectives! It has been one year since our Steam Greenlight campaign ended in success, and we were finally able to launch Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder on Steam. Thank you so much for your support and very positive reviews of the game! We are taking all comments and criticism into consideration, to make our future games more entertaining experiences. We wanted to let you know of our plans for the rest of 2018 regarding our future projects, especially Detective Butler 2. We are going to need to raise funds to commission the art and music for Detective Butler 2. So we will be working on some small side projects. You can watch our development progress on our Twitch channel every Monday through Friday from 8 PM to 10 PM CST. These projects will be completed in a short timeframe (1-3 months each) and released on Steam, until we gather the funds sufficient to finish Detective Butler 2. Feel free to stop by and say hello if you have the time. If you would like to support development, we have a Patreon account as well as a merchandise store. Both sites offer fun rewards at reasonable prices. If you have any suggestions for the Patreon or the store, please let us know as well. Thank you all for your patience and continued support. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. And remember to have fun! --Goldbar Games

[ 2018-03-23 23:09:40 CET ] [ Original post ]