About this project
Jenny LeClue - A Handmade Adventure Game
$105,797
3,969
NEARLY 4,000 BACKERS, 162%+ FUNDED, & GREENLIT ON STEAM! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
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You can now support us through Paypal & Amazon Payments thanks to our friends at Humble Bundle!
STRETCH GOALS
24 + 48 Hour Challenges Smashed!
$15+ tiers will receive the OST and official Arthur K. Finklestein stationery!
$45+ tiers receive Steam Early Access Beta!
$200+ tiers upgrade from Beta Buddies to Alpha buddies! Alpha buddies receive an earlier and more exclusiver peak at the game! Applies to everyone at the $200+ tiers!
Beautiful Handmade Art Style - Sleek and gorgeous hand drawn style with vintage midcentury aesthetics.
A Living World - The goal is for everything to be interactive, to reward players who poke and prod at every last item and object with insight, secrets, and humor.
Choosiness On A Massive Scale - Players will make choices in their individual game, and some of those choices will be tallied to permanently influence subsequent chapters, essentially "writing" the story collaboratively. The choice players make about the cliffhanger ending of episode one determines the beginning of episode two.
Female Protagonist - Jenny is a brilliant young detective, sharp eyed, intuitive and a ruthless pursuer of the truth.
Dialogue With A Twist - Jenny is able to move the camera around during dialogue scenes and observe the subject for visible clues that might reveal their guilt or innocence that would otherwise go undetected.
Story Within A Story - Jenny LeClue weaves a rich metanarrative. The "author" of Jenny's adventures, Arthur K Finklestein, acts as narrator and guide, but his presence also allows you to change the way Jenny's story is written. Players choices will also affect Finklestein’s own story.
Not Just For Kids - Complex relationships will be explored with themes of family, loss, and identity influenced by horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres.
A Diverse Cast Of Characters & Locations - Explore Arthurton’s expansive world including the abandoned mines, the forgotten graveyard, the misty mountains, the old observatory, the police station, the shops and eateries on Main Street, and Gumboldt University's Library. You will meet many intriguing and suspicious characters, in a town whose population is representative of the US Census demographics.
This campaign hopes to fund the first episode of the envisioned trilogy with stretch goals fueling the other two episodes. If we only fund the first episode, it will be a self-encapsulated story and will not leave players hanging. We plan on completing episode one by winter 2015, but have set the delivery date for winter 2016 in the case that we are able to deliver more than one episode. Any pledges over our goal will go towards making the experience richer and creating episodes two and three.
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This coming-of-age narrative follows Jenny LeClue, a young detective, living in the idyllic college town of Arthurton. Jenny takes on the case of her life when her mother is accused of murdering the beloved Dean Strausberry. She soon discovers that nothing is what it seems…
Jenny is a brilliant young detective, sharp eyed, intuitive and a ruthless pursuer of the truth. But nothing exciting ever happens in Arthurton, and Jenny has grown bored of the gumshoe cases she usually solves. She longs for adventure and a real case to crack.
Jenny gets more than she bargains for when the Dean of Gumboldt University is found dead, and all the evidence points to her own mother. Jenny will have to use all her skills of deduction and reasoning to uncover the truth and clear her family name. In the process she will discover that Arthurton is not such a quiet town after all. Arthurton is filled with dark secrets, and there are people who will stop at nothing to keep Jenny from the truth.
Who can she trust? How will she outwit the ever watchful Sheriff? Why has the lake started glowing at night? And why does everyone keep treating her like a kid?
Jenny LeClue is a coming of age tale. Sometimes funny, sometimes scary, always mysterious; it’s a story about finding our strengths, accepting our weaknesses, and the blurred lines between what is right and wrong.
We've been crafting Jenny LeClue over the last few years, and envision it as an episodic trilogy that rewards exploration and curiosity at every turn. This campaign hopes to fund the first episode.
This is a game about your choices and how they permanently affect the story. We want to deliver a rich narrative experience about relationships with delightful surprises and interactions. The story also deals with mature themes, complex characters, and an epic tangled mystery. We want you to help guide the direction of Jenny's journey, within the game itself.
Jenny LeClue is a handmade, 2D, exploration based, adventure game with a focus on story, character, and mystery. The game will initially support PC / Mac / Linux. We plan to add more platforms, especially iOS, after the desktop version is released. We are also looking into the possibility of Steam and Console support.
Everything is interactive!
Experience Arthurton, an expansive world with dark corners to explore, secrets to uncover, intriguing and suspicious characters, and mysterious cases to crack!
Tap, swipe, run, jump, and bike your way around Arthurton as you reveal secrets with your flashlight and unravel the mysteries of this deceptively dark town.
Every moment is a chance to interact in new and refreshing ways. Dialogue scenes become a chance to explore and discover clues on a character’s person and reveal whether they are a witness or a suspect. Curiosity is rewarded with captivating animations and goodies, making for a richer experience and a living world. It’s not just pretty, it’s alive!
As you solve mini-mysteries, and put the pieces of Dean Strausberry's murder together, you start to unravel a much bigger mystery…
Explore the abandoned mines, the forgotten graveyard, the misty mountains. Sneak into the police station evidence room. Wander the shops on Main Street and chat up the baristas at the coffee shop. Dig through the archives of Gumboldt University's Library.
Jenny LeClue, a young detective, brilliant, spunky, irreverent, with a fierce sense of independence.
Arthur K Finkelstein, The Author, acts as narrator and will guide you if you lose your way. You also have the opportunity to help him and Jenny change the story, permanently, as it evolves. This doesn’t just occur in your own playthrough, but will also affect the way future episodes are written and crafted for everyone. This is choosiness on a massive scale. You choose, together.
Henry LeClue, Jenny’s dad and the police medical examiner. He is a kind and caring man, but has separated from Jenny and her mom. He has not been seen or heard from in several months for reasons that are still a mystery.
Julie LeClue, Jenny’s mom and a former CSI who now teaches criminology at Gumboldt University. She’s the only witness and number one suspect to Dean Strausberry’s shocking murder.
Sheriff LeClue, Jenny’s grandfather, is a stoic old-school kind of guy.
Dean Strausberry is the soon-to-retire head of Gumboldt University. He’s a jolly gentlemen often seen shaking hands and kissing babies around town.
Cool Keith, your best friend, usually found around Mr Beans, the coffee shop on Main Street. He will patiently listen to your ridiculous theories about what's really going on in Arthurton. He also has a really cute dog!
Suzie Glatz, your cousin, frenemy, and secret nerd genius. If you need a newfangled gadget beyond your wits and handy notebook, she's your best bet.
Mr Glatz, a prominent business man in town, and Jenny’s uncle. He’s definitely charismatic but something about him doesn’t sit right with Jenny.
JJ - Stock up on supplies and other thingamabobs in his overfilled junkyard. As JJ always tells Jenny "One man's junk is another mans detective kit!" If you want to upgrade your flashlight, he’s got you covered. Bring him something weird and he might even give you a special reward.
These are just a few of the main characters, but there are even more curious citizens of Arthurton to interact with and investigate!
Delve into a metanarrative and the story layers between The Author, Jenny, and you. Themes include family, loss, identity, redemption, and authorship. This is a story about a young girl, who is confident and in control of part of her life, but insecure in her personal relationships.
The story is influenced by my love for Mystery, Horror, and Sci-Fi. Some of my favorite inspirations ( in no particular order ): Twin Peaks, Professor Layton, Broken Age, Resident Evil, Veronica Mars, Ghost Trick, Limbo, Hot Fuzz, Encyclopedia Brown, Clue, Sherlock, Blue Velvet, Are You Afraid Of The Dark, The Silent Age, Kentucky Route Zero, CSI.
So why Kickstarter? Because I can’t do it alone…I need you! I need the help of a larger community in order to realize the dream of producing episode one of the Jenny LeClue Trilogy. Storytelling is my passion, and the wonderful Kickstarter community offers the possibility of creating a broader and deeper story than I have the resources to craft on my own.
I have designed the environments and characters, outlined the story, and the game is ready to be brought to life.
This is the story I want to tell as an artist. This is the game I've always wanted to play as a gamer. This is the project I've been excited about making for years, and now we are ready to make that dream a reality. But we can’t do it without your help!
These reward images are conceptual renderings.
The plan is to have episode one scripted and the game in alpha by Spring '15. This would allow us to time to create final art, animation, sound, music, polish the game, and possibly add voice acting for a launch in Winter '15. If there is enough support for episode two or three, these will follow after.
The game requires continued writing, storyboarding, design, game design, illustration, coding, modeling of sets, character rigging, character animation, sound design, music composition, and with the stretch goals, voice talent. All these things are needed to complete the game and this requires focus and time, critical luxuries as a freelancer. The initial goal will afford me these two opportunities. The higher stretch goals will open the doors to a fully realized version with all the bells and whistles and potentially the completion of all three episodes.
Paying Skilled and Passionate Artists - This is a passion project for me, but other friends and professionals need to be compensated for their tremendous talents. Having a developer, illustrator, as well as an animator on Jenny LeClue would lighten the workload considerably and allow me to concentrate on the overall storytelling and design of the game.
Company and Operating Costs - Operating a business, Licensing, Equipment, Living Costs and Bills require a fair chunk of money and time.
Testing, Refining, and Polishing - Beta testing, integrating Feedback from the Community, and using everything that I have to produce a game I've been dreaming of for years.
These talented people have all contributed to the project in various ways.
Risks and challenges
Jenny LeClue is a big idea with a lot of moving pieces. A project of this scope is indeed a challenge, but I live for challenges. It's a big mountain to climb, but we have the tools, and with your support we can make it happen.
My 10 years of experience as a motion designer, director, and developer has allowed me to hone and polish my skills as a writer, programmer, animator, designer, illustrator and visual storyteller. Every project and every day presents a new problem-solving challenge.
I also previously Kickstarted FATHOMS, a very long short film. I did everything on the project including writing, directing, modeling, animating, editing, sound design and compositing.
I have also developed several iOS apps, including Anatomy In Motion, a top selling educational app and Facebook community with over 180,000 followers. I have also successfully designed and developed iOS apps, games, web, and mobile experiences using javascript for private clients and personal projects. Other team contributors have experience developing flash games, and iOS apps and games using Obj-C.
We are building the game using Unity, and have a few prototypes in production. I’ve previously done all the development work myself, but the hope is with enough support we could bring on a dedicated Unity developer. This will allow me more time to focus specifically on the core game, art, and story experience.
The biggest benefits of using Unity are a trusted engine with a lot of 1st & 3rd-party support. More importantly, Unity is very flexible, and will make it much easier to support other platforms in the future including: iOS, Android, PS4, Vita.
I'm super excited to go on this adventure together and climb that mountain!
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- (29 days)