I'm really starting to make nice progress with Berathen: Spirit Detective. For those of you who don't already know: This game is a top-down, adventure RPG. Usually detective games are presented as point and click adventure games. I personally have never been a fan of point and clicks, I usually get frustrated by the system.
In point and clicks I always mistake objects I can interact with for objects that are just art in the background. I find this incredibly aggravating and usually find myself clicking all over the screen. So of course when I decided to make a detective game I chose to do away with the point and click controls you usually see in this type of game. It makes much more sense in my eyes to present this kind of game from a top-down RPG perspective. It is quite usual for adventurers to explore every tunnel in a cave and examine all the pots in a town.

In case my explanation is confusing I've provided a link to a screenshot of my game in development.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /Detective01-1.png

Again don't let me confuse you when I call this game a RPG. I mean it in the same vein that Harvest Moon is a RPG. There won't be any random battles with monsters or anything. The focus of this game is to solve a crime. Not grind experience and gold for hours. Though that sounds like a great idea for a sequel.

The story for this game, thankfully, has been completely written up. I've outlined everything and have estimates for how long I think all the events will take me to program. According to my estimates the game should take about twenty-one hours to complete. I'm a rather lazy guy so I'll only be programming so much in a day. Though I will try to do a lot tomorrow. Despite the fact I have rather comfortable cushions in my estimated times, I wouldn't want to stumble across an obstacle and not be able to get this game out on time.

The release date for this game is May 19th. The reason I am so adamant about releasing this game by this date is that it will help me focus and finish this project. I have been playing around with the idea for a long time and programmed all the ground work. But I have been very slow when it comes to actually getting much done. If I can manage to get this game out on time it will be the first of many games I plan on getting out in short bursts of time. No worries though. I have plenty of testers and will be making sure it's as polished as I can make it within a reasonable amount of time.

When the game comes out I hope you all enjoy it!