- Visual Novel Fest, 10th Anniversary, & Mystery Gamedev - 10 August 2023
Hello, Detectives! This week, both Detective Butler games are taking part in Steam's Visual Novel Fest! Yes, that's right -- in case you missed our previous announcement, the sequel titled Detective Butler and the King of Hearts now has a store page and a 1-2 hour demo containing the first chapter! Please add it to your wishlist if you want to see what happens next in the Detective Butler storyline! But that's not our only announcement! Ten years ago today -- on August 10th, 2013 -- we released Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder for the first time. The Steam release didn't happen until a few years later. So in short, this week is ALSO Detective Butler's 10-year anniversary! I recently replayed the game for the first time in years, and realized many themes and ideas are just as important to me now as they were back then. While I do think I've become much better at writing, I also bel…
- Wishlist "Detective Butler and the King of Hearts" on Steam! - 15 March 2023
Hello, Detectives! At long last, we have a Steam page for the sequel, Detective Butler and the King of Hearts! On the store page, please click the "Add to Wishlist" button to be notified when the game releases. Also click the "Follow" button to receive exclusive updates regarding the game that won't be posted in the news feed for Maiden Voyage Murder. Although we're still a long way out from a release date, development has been going smoothly and we're making fast progress. We are also on track to release an hour-long demo featuring the first chapter sometime in April. Please look forward to it! Thank you for your support, and have a great rest of your day! - Goldbar Games
- Mystery Fest 2023 & Sequel Update - 21 February 2023
Hello, detectives! Mystery Fest 2023 Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder is part of the Steam Mystery Fest! As such, we've discounted the DLC to 33% off for the next week, so if you haven't picked it up yet, now would be a good time! Also, we've noticed that among all the free detective visual novels on Mystery Fest, we're sitting at the highest spot! Thank you all for playing the game and supporting us all this time! It's truly an honor! Sequel Update You've been waiting a long time for this one, we know. Many factors beyond our control forced us to pause development of the sequel. However, those factors are now resolved and we can focus our full attention on the game, and the state of the project has never been better than right now. Despite rewriting it from scratch this year (for the third time), we're already beyond 25,000 words, which is more than half of the original game's wo…
- Engine Upgrade, Mac & Linux Releases - 19 December 2020
Hello, detectives! We have two major announcements today. Mac & Linux Releases At long last, we've released versions for Mac and Linux systems. If you encounter any issues, please let us know. You can post on the discussion forums here, but we'll be faster to respond on our Discord server. We achieved this by making a significant upgrade to the game's engine. Hopefully you shouldn't notice much of a difference, although you may notice things should run smoother and faster than before. So this upgrade may also help those who had previously posted issues on the discussion boards, and we hope it resolves those problems and allows them to experience the game properly. Save Data For Windows users, if you update your game to the latest version, your save data will not work anymore. It uses a completely different system now, and has no way to read the old system. (Don't worry though, because i…
- Choices DLC Now Available! - 29 April 2020
At long last, the Choices DLC is available for purchase! This additional content adds choices and branching paths to the game, which ultimately reveal the answers to several mysteries that the original story left unresolved. We have also posted a discussion thread and walkthrough guide. We know it has been a long time waiting, so we hope you enjoy it! The DLC contains roughly the same wordcount as the original game, so it should take a few hours to get through. Especially because a number of endings are spread out across different routes, you might need to go back and try picking different choices in order to see all of them, including the "true" ending. Ultimately, it was a lot of fun revisiting this game, and we could have taken the story in so many different directions. It's likely we will add even more choices in future updates, as a way to continue to delivering fresh content for M…
- Choices DLC Store Page - 28 December 2019
Hello Detectives, We've been quietly working on the DLC during 2019, and it's almost done, but it will need to be delayed to early next year. We've decided on a deadline of April 3, 2020. But we didn't want to end the year without anything to show for it, so you can view the Steam store page here. Additionally, we've been streaming the DLC's development on our Twitch channel. Starting in January, the streams will be split between working on the DLC and programming the game engine that will be used for the next Detective Butler game (and others). Feel free to stop by and check in on our progress. So, what exactly will be included in the DLC? There were several loose ends that we were going to include in the next game, but ultimately were too disconnected to fit into a different story. So one of our priorities is resolving those questions in the DLC. At first, we considered writing short…
- Planned DLC for 2019 - 21 December 2018
Hi Detectives, We know that so many of you are looking forward to a second game, but as the saying goes, "between truth and happiness, we can't have both." Unfortunately, progress has been a lot slower than expected. Currently we have been funding development out of pocket, and will continue to do so. But for that reason, we're going have to put the project on hold. It's hard to say how long, but it will likely be six months to a year before any meaningful progress is made. In the meantime, we'd like to release some DLC for Maiden Voyage Murder next summer. We probably should have done so this year, but nonetheless we hope you all will enjoy it. Also, Snowball Saves Summer and its soundtrack are 50% off for the Winter Sale. All funds will go straight to commissioning artwork and music, so it's a very easy way to support Detective Butler 2 and get a fun game in the process! Merry Christm…
- Developer Page And New Game! - 26 September 2018
Hello, Detectives! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F28828574%2F8ad1583f9faa362650b2c8591d442bfb3d879428.png For any fans of the platformer genre, today marks the release of our latest game: Snowball Saves Summer! The revenue from this game, which we've worked on all summer, will go toward commissioning assets for Detective Butler 2 (such as the sprites mentioned in our last update). So if Snowball looks like a game you might enjoy, click the image above and give it a try! Also, a while back Steam announced "developer pages", so we made one for ourselves. You can subscribe to the group and get updates on all future and current releases. Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/goldbargames We'll be commissioning more artwork and music during the final months of 2018, so we'll be back with another update around the start of the new year.…
- Sequel Art Preview - 16 May 2018
Hello, Detectives! As it has been nearly one year since the game released, it's about time for a proper update on the sequel. Fortunately, we have some good news to share. We'll keep it brief here, but you can read the full blog post on our website. While the writing and coding are mostly done, the biggest obstacle will be commissioning the art and music. So as we mentioned in our previous update, we are doing everything we can to raise funds for them. We appreciate your patience, as this will take some time. Since you are probably wondering what the final artwork will look like, here is a preview of one sprite, a character you might recognize: https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F28828574%2F9a18c9caa820b5f9cf1f63dcd9f6fbdf21620b8a.png Patrons will be the first to see any other new sprites as they become available, including their full range of expressions, p…
- Our Future Projects - 23 March 2018
Hello, Detectives! It has been one year since our Steam Greenlight campaign ended in success, and we were finally able to launch Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder on Steam. Thank you so much for your support and very positive reviews of the game! We are taking all comments and criticism into consideration, to make our future games more entertaining experiences. We wanted to let you know of our plans for the rest of 2018 regarding our future projects, especially Detective Butler 2. We are going to need to raise funds to commission the art and music for Detective Butler 2. So we will be working on some small side projects. You can watch our development progress on our Twitch channel every Monday through Friday from 8 PM to 10 PM CST. These projects will be completed in a short timeframe (1-3 months each) and released on Steam, until we gather the funds sufficient to finish Detective…
- Our Future Projects - 23 March 2018
Hello, Detectives! It has been one year since our Steam Greenlight campaign ended in success, and we were finally able to launch Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder on Steam. Thank you so much for your support and very positive reviews of the game! We are taking all comments and criticism into consideration, to make our future games more entertaining experiences. We wanted to let you know of our plans for the rest of 2018 regarding our future projects, especially Detective Butler 2. We are going to need to raise funds to commission the art and music for Detective Butler 2. So we will be working on some small side projects. You can watch our development progress on our Twitch channel every Monday through Friday from 8 PM to 10 PM CST. These projects will be completed in a short timeframe (1-3 months each) and released on Steam, until we gather the funds sufficient to finish Detective…
