Murders & Mistresses May Dev Update: The Long Road to Release
Hey everyone, May has been another steady production month for Murders & Mistresses.
Full notes
Full Murders & Mistresses update
Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.
Repeated intro
Hey everyone,
What changed
0 fixes4 additions1 change1 removal
Maps
UI and audio
Gameplay
addedAt this stage of development, a lot of the work is less about announcing brand-new features and more about pushing the game closer to completion scene by scene, image by image, and track by track. That can be a bit of a slog, but it also means we’re genuinely moving toward the finish line.
changedThis month, we continued the render grind and completed more artwork across several parts of the game, including the vacation storyline, the second case, and late-game map content. We don’t always produce the game in chronological order, so some of the scenes being worked on now are from sections much closer to the end of the game, which makes them even harder to talk about without spoiling anything!
addedWe’ve also been doing a new music pass across the game, adding and adjusting tracks to better support the atmosphere of each scene. I’ve found that sometimes choosing a track that isn’t the obvious musical fit can help elevate the precise tension between excitement, seriousness, and melancholy that the game thrives on, so I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the soundtrack once the full game is out!
addedUI-wise, we’re still trying to find the best way forward. Some players struggled with parts of the deduction and conclusion system, while many others really enjoyed the uncertainty and freedom it created, so we don’t want to take away what makes that system interesting, while still making it easier to understand for new players.
removedIf you have any suggestions for how we might improve the user experience of the deduction and case theory UI without removing the immersive core, please let me know in the comments!
addedSteam post image Thank you all for your patience and support. We’ll keep sharing monthly updates with new teaser images as we get closer to release.
Murders & Mistresses changes
addedAt this stage of development, a lot of the work is less about announcing brand-new features and more about pushing the game closer to completion scene by scene, image by image, and track by track. That can be a bit of a slog, but it also means we’re genuinely moving toward the finish line.
changedThis month, we continued the render grind and completed more artwork across several parts of the game, including the vacation storyline, the second case, and late-game map content. We don’t always produce the game in chronological order, so some of the scenes being worked on now are from sections much closer to the end of the game, which makes them even harder to talk about without spoiling anything!
addedWe’ve also been doing a new music pass across the game, adding and adjusting tracks to better support the atmosphere of each scene. I’ve found that sometimes choosing a track that isn’t the obvious musical fit can help elevate the precise tension between excitement, seriousness, and melancholy that the game thrives on, so I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the soundtrack once the full game is out!
addedUI-wise, we’re still trying to find the best way forward. Some players struggled with parts of the deduction and conclusion system, while many others really enjoyed the uncertainty and freedom it created, so we don’t want to take away what makes that system interesting, while still making it easier to understand for new players.
removedIf you have any suggestions for how we might improve the user experience of the deduction and case theory UI without removing the immersive core, please let me know in the comments!
May has been another steady production month for Murders & Mistresses.
At this stage of development, a lot of the work is less about announcing brand-new features and more about pushing the game closer to completion scene by scene, image by image, and track by track. That can be a bit of a slog, but it also means we’re genuinely moving toward the finish line.
This month, we continued the render grind and completed more artwork across several parts of the game, including the vacation storyline, the second case, and late-game map content. We don’t always produce the game in chronological order, so some of the scenes being worked on now are from sections much closer to the end of the game, which makes them even harder to talk about without spoiling anything!
We’ve also been doing a new music pass across the game, adding and adjusting tracks to better support the atmosphere of each scene. I’ve found that sometimes choosing a track that isn’t the obvious musical fit can help elevate the precise tension between excitement, seriousness, and melancholy that the game thrives on, so I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the soundtrack once the full game is out!
UI-wise, we’re still trying to find the best way forward. Some players struggled with parts of the deduction and conclusion system, while many others really enjoyed the uncertainty and freedom it created, so we don’t want to take away what makes that system interesting, while still making it easier to understand for new players.
For now, we’re starting with a very small change: renaming “Conclusions” to “Case Theories” to make it clearer what they actually represent.
If you have any suggestions for how we might improve the user experience of the deduction and case theory UI without removing the immersive core, please let me know in the comments!
Steam post image We know these monthly updates can only show a small slice of what’s happening behind the scenes, especially when we’re trying not to spoil major cases, twists, relationships, or endings. But the game is very much alive, and we’re continuing to move through the remaining production work.
Steam post image Thank you all for your patience and support. We’ll keep sharing monthly updates with new teaser images as we get closer to release.
