As mentioned in last week’s blog post, now that the extended GENBA no Kizuna demo is almost ready for its public release, I’m planning to get back into and mainly focus on writing again. My next major goal is to finish a first draft for the remaining chapters as soon as possible. Before I can get to that, however, some more research and preparation was in order!
The second chapter will be entirely dedicated to the first proper investigation phase of the game. Players will be able to finally go around looking for clues and evidence, examine the body of the victim, and question all the suspects and witnesses.
Up until this point, knowing the core mystery elements and having a general idea of the case was enough to work on the first chapter, which really just serves to introduce the characters and setting, as well as to provide a basic idea of what happened to the victim. Now, however, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty.
Because of that, I have spent the last week ironing out all the little details. There is a lot going on with this case, with many tiny mysteries to solve, before you can piece together the bigger picture. Some of those mysteries and their answers have been set in stone for a very long time now, while others have been up in the air until recently.
For example, for one particular aspect of the case, I would have three different solutions that could be used interchangeably, without really altering anything regarding the overall mystery. Of course, it’s kinda difficult to get into this without spoiling anything, but for one particular trick which the culprit uses, it doesn’t really matter if they’d choose a leather belt, a leather neck collar, or a leather wristwatch. The result is going to be the same.
However! When it comes to writing the investigation segments, this is kind of a big deal. Because, whichever method is used, Rei needs to find the corresponding evidence during her search. There needs to be something off with either a belt, a wristwatch or a collar, which is why I really had to sit down now and decide which option to go with. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to properly write the upcoming investigation scene.
I really wish I could say more and explain this in proper detail, but for now, I guess this is all I can really give away. One day, however, once GENBA is released, I’d really like to get into all the alternate ideas I’ve collected for the various tricks and mysteries.
Having more than just one solution is always a neat thing, I think. That way, if the method you choose ends up coming across as “ehhh??” to the testers, you still have alternatives to use, haha. Besides, I also think it’s a sign that the trick you’ve come up with is rather realistic to pull off. Now, if you think up something for which you can only find one very specific solution and that solution doesn’t even convince yourself… then that might be an indicator that you might want to rethink the whole idea.
But yeah, I’ve finally went through my planning document (which details the entire murder), filled in some gaps and decided which way to go with regarding all the remaining open mystery elements (that document is 14 Word pages long, by the way… despite it all being key notes lol).
My writing preparations were not just about making some final decisions, though. I also had to spend some more time on research, but that’s a whole different topic. One I go into detail about in our newest special blog post over on Patreon!
If you’d like to know how exactly I handle research, how far I go with it, and what kind of stuff I’ve done research on to write GENBA, be sure to check it out! The post even contains two of my research documents in PDF-format. One is about animatronics, the other about the guidelines of crime scene investigation. I’ve compiled a lot of useful information in them to help me write something that’s grounded in reality. From the way animatronics are built to the methodology of real life crime scene investigations.
Anyway, I’m certainly feeling ready and prepared now to tackle those investigation scenes and cannot wait to get started on them!
Now, before I wrap this up, there is one other thing I’d like to mention, or rather show. Here is the Higurashi no Naku koro ni-themed July artwork done entirely by Natsu:
As always, the image has been added to our gallery and patrons can download a hi-res version over here.
With that said, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3
