The (fictional) city of Erlanhafen is known for its numerous academies. The law academy has, arguably, the best reputation of any law school in Germany. Adrian Wahrheit, and his understudy Jeremy Muller, are tasked with getting their first courtroom experiences. Little do they know, they involve themselves in something much more sinister than just murder.
Hello! I am Kadakruss, the sole writer and developer of Adrian Wahrheit: Justice Will Prevail. This game, unlike my many other failed projects, will hopefully be finished. See below a synopsis of the first case, and screenshots of various frames which I am particularly proud of.
You play as a rookie defense attorney Adrian, still in school and trying to get some experience before he graduates. He takes on a relatively major case, and despite his seeming lack of experience, comes out on top. I hope you enjoy. (PS- all characters used in the first case are credited, as well as evidence and background used. There are also credits to my friends, who playtested.)
Rudolf Wagner, Chief Detective at the Erlanhafen Police Department has been murdered! The defendant, Leonardo Schmidt, a lowly patrol officer, was arrested because of three things. One, his fingerprints were on the murder weapon, two, the fur of his coat (which was confiscated by the police) was found in the victim's pocket, and three, he spoke with the victim just half an hour before his death. In court, however, Adrian manages to prove that Leonardo could not have committed the murder, due to his keycard not being in his possession at the time of the murder. The decisive witness, Greta Schneider, another detective who called the police after discovering the body, testifies. However, due to her not knowing that Leonardo had a keycard, she disproves evidence of a break-in. Continuing, her lack of knowledge leads her to testifying about her call to the police, in which it was discovered that she had no alibi as to after she called. Bluffs by Adrian lead to a shocking discovery; the coat fur isn't fur, but the hair of Ms. Schneider. After seeing no way out, she admits guilt.
EDIT: The second case's prologue has been completed, with Adrian himself arrested.
Last edited by Kadakruss on Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I played this on stream with a few people. Here are my thoughts.
Spoiler : My thoughts :
The case overall wasn't bad! Pacing-wise it's quick. There's not a lot of time spent establishing the characters, the mystery or the motivations of the killer/defendant.
On the whole, it's a polished case. You timed the popups well. I think the next step in presentation is being more animated with the text boxes. little things like adding pauses after commas and full-stops, adding flashes, shakes, sfx etc can really add to the engagement.
In terms of the logic of the trial, I do think the reveal of the killer was very quick and had no build up. I also think there were at least 2 moments (in the cross examinations, and in particular the prompt regarding the window for the Greta testimony) where the broken glass being found on the outside of the office indicates the window was used to break out of the office, not break in (as glass falls in the opposite direction to the side it's broken on. This is a re-used trope in mystery fiction, I know, but it's an expected one). An acknowledgement of this being possible, but not there being a better contradiction could be addded to make this clearer.
SuperAj3 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 3:14 pm
I played this on stream with a few people. Here are my thoughts.
Spoiler : My thoughts :
The case overall wasn't bad! Pacing-wise it's quick. There's not a lot of time spent establishing the characters, the mystery or the motivations of the killer/defendant.
On the whole, it's a polished case. You timed the popups well. I think the next step in presentation is being more animated with the text boxes. little things like adding pauses after commas and full-stops, adding flashes, shakes, sfx etc can really add to the engagement.
In terms of the logic of the trial, I do think the reveal of the killer was very quick and had no build up. I also think there were at least 2 moments (in the cross examinations, and in particular the prompt regarding the window for the Greta testimony) where the broken glass being found on the outside of the office indicates the window was used to break out of the office, not break in (as glass falls in the opposite direction to the side it's broken on. This is a re-used trope in mystery fiction, I know, but it's an expected one). An acknowledgement of this being possible, but not there being a better contradiction could be addded to make this clearer.
Helo, and thank you for the feedback!
Spoiler : Fixes :
I worked a little to resolve the window, and made a new testimony to reflect it. I have removed the beginning part where Greta is immediately shown to be the killer, and added more backstory to the courtroom lobby sections. Also, I agree with the presentation advice. I have added more sound effects, pauses after punctuation, and text box shakes..
I just played the first case, and in my opinion, this case is pretty alright! The logic is well thought out and the characters were good, not to mention there was a lot of dialogue that felt natural and very Ace Attorney-ish. My main problem with the case was that it was too fast-paced for me. I felt like you didn't want to waste a lot of frames, which is somewhat understandable, but there were times where it was hard to follow up on the story because it was that fast. Same goes with some dialogues, which could have been a bit longer and maybe help with the understanding of the plot. Something that helps is adding transitions, like fade-ins or fade-outs.
Other than that, this is a really good example of a first case and I will definitely come back for the rest of this series!
Alright everyone, it has been a while but I can confirm that I, once again, actively working on this again. My plan is as follows:
- further develop the first case, make the pace more Ace Attorney-ish
- restart second case (I started it immediately after the first case released and it is laughably bad at the moment)
- go from there
Alright! I have added nearly 100 frames to the first case, fixing typos and things like that, as well as expanding both the in-court and out-of-court dialogue. Next up is the second case, which I am considering simply restarting.