Murders & Mistresses · published
Edit: Had some technical issues publishing this but here's the progress update for June for those who haven't seen it already, July to follow this evening! Hey everyone,
It's near the end of June, and Murders & Mistresses is starting to look incredible. Earlier this month I officially started playtesting the game, and with nearly two-thirds of all the renders and animations now finished, there's a lot of game to actually play through.
When I first drafted M&M back in early 2025, I wrote it directly in code. But there's a huge amount of work between that early version and the polished full game you guys will be playing soon.
Outside of creating the artwork, coding the mechanics, building the UI, and sourcing the music — all of which we've been doing throughout production — my job now is mainly to put it all together and make sure every line, every image, and every transition is exactly what I want it to be.
Since I first wrote M&M I've written a lot more, and my instinct for dialogue and pacing has sharpened. So I'm reworking individual lines and whole sections, and I think it's making the game feel much tighter.
One of my goals is for M&M to feel like a prestige TV show — I want it to read like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, or The Mentalist. Every line of dialogue should feel intentional and sharp, with not a single word of filler. And with every day of playtesting and re-editing, I think I'm getting closer.
Dialogue isn't the only thing that needs work, though. Most scenes have dozens of images — often 50+ — and because the game is full of loaded situations where characters feel several things at once, I often end up choosing a different expression once I see the final renders.
Our artists get a list of render descriptions for each scene — for example, "Morgan sitting on the couch as you come into the room, smiling gently, mouth closed, mc first person perspective camera." But once I'm actually playing the scene — sometimes after changing a few lines of dialogue — I might decide Morgan's flirtatious expression fits better than the gentle smile. So I change it.
Across tens of thousands of lines of dialogue, that adds up to a lot of work, especially since I want to be the one choosing every image, every line, and every UI mechanic. But it's also the most satisfying work I've ever done in my life. Watching a world you've built come alive — especially at the quality M&M has climbed to — is truly magical, at least for me.
One of the most fun parts is figuring out the UI for new gameplay mechanics. The game shifts a lot narratively, and those shifts sometimes call for new UI. Yesterday, for example, I got to build the cruise ship brochure screen. Late in the game you go on a weeklong all-inclusive cruise organized by your loving wife, and you essentially choose which activities to do, and in which order, straight from the brochure. It's sort of a free roam, but the ship is huge — and after the headaches we had making free roam navigation on ship feel intuitive in College Kings, a brochure felt both more fitting thematically and a lot nicer to actually use.
One thing I've added is an optional "Surprise Me" button that picks your next cruise scene at random. It might seem a little silly for a dark prestige detective game, but the cruise is the let-loose breather, so it fits. Plus it's exciting to play — you don't know what you're gonna get. And obviously the cruise is packed with awesome, very sexy scenes.
That brings me to the last piece: the sex scenes. Playtesting these is by far the hardest part of the job. Some are very long, and because they pair dialogue with a ton of movement across the images, you have to be careful about exactly which image goes where. But the biggest difficulty? My own arousal. This sounds like a joke, but I'm not joking — all the M&M love interests are gorgeous, and reading and watching their scenes is very hot. Focusing on the exact wording of a line and the perfect matching expression while you're fully turned on is the hardest part of my job right now. Figuratively and literally. Especially since nearly a quarter of all the scenes in the game are sex scenes.
But having to watch beautiful naked women have sex all day is a sacrifice I'm willing to make for you guys — no matter how little blood is left in my brain.
In summary: it's going great, I'm loving what the game is becoming, and I can't wait for you guys to see it later this Summer!
Much love,
Steve