State of the Game

Greetings Counselors,

Today we would like to give you a quick update on what we have been up to since our last post and what is up next on our agenda. But before we start, a quick reminder and a link to our discord server.

Not every aspect of game development is newsworthy and fits a Steam Announcement, so If you’re interested in more frequent updates or want to have a chat, feel free to click on the banner below to join the server.

As you might know we split the development in phases according to the flow of the game. We started with all the prerequisites like the core mechanics and the GUI. Once that was done we moved along the flow and started with the Pre-Trial Phase. If you missed our last update here’s a link. Up next was the Trial Phase and we’re happy to report that its development is coming to an end.

Just like last time, we can’t explain every mechanic and system in detail without going beyond the scope of this post. We’ll do that in due time but if you have questions, feel free to leave a reply on this post, use the Steam boards or have a chat with us over on discord. So without further ado, here’s an overview of what has been added to the game and is fully utilizable in the Case Editor:

schedule the trial dates and alternative dates if the case gets delayed
create custom intros and outros for each trial day
create optional conversations between the judge and both parties before the jury enters the courtroom (e.g. if a certain piece of evidence should be brought in front of the jury) for each trial day
determine when a witness is heard and which side starts the interrogation
manipulate the schedule through events created by the case creator (summon, uninvite, disappear and dismiss from case)
manipulate the schedule by the player by filing a motion (summon and dismiss from case)
put your client on the stand
If a trial day is fully booked a new one is created automatically. After the last trial day a grace period starts in which both parties are able to summon witnesses. This period restarts each time a new trial date is created. When both parties are satisfied the hearing of evidence ends
create dialog for the questioning of witnesses, experts, plaintiff and defendant for both parties
dismiss jurors from the case by filing a motion or through events. A substitute will be chosen either from the jury pool or if it’s depleted a new juror will be created
dismiss evidence through filing a motion
dismiss or let evidence disappear / reappear through events
fully customizable objections. the case creator determines the possibility, the reasons for the player to choose from, their chance modificator and if successful an alternative question for the npc opponent moving the dialogue into a different branch
additional courtrooms and scenes

We hope that his overview gives you an idea of what Jury Trial is going to offer. We couldn’t put every change or last detail into the list. But in case you asked yourself “What if the player simply objects to every question?” or “What if an NPC is summoned to court that has no visible dialogue because a certain piece of evidence wasn’t discovered yet?”. Don’t worry we got it covered:

For each unsuccessful objection the player gains a strike from the judge. The case creator determines a range how many the player may receive before he’s locked out of objecting for the rest of the day in court
“Empty” trial days won’t be a thing, because the system checks if there’s dialogue before an NPC is put in the schedule. If there isn’t, events will be skipped and the motion of the player will be denied by the judge

Finding answers to questions like this is also what we have been working on for the past weeks. We’re at a point where a lot of systems are fused together and we have to make sure that there are solutions and safety nets for all kinds of use cases. And since we’re pushing the versatility of the game pretty much to the limit, we had quite a few of them.

So what’s next for Jury Trial? We’ll be dealing with the last few remaining tickets of the trial phase. Most prominent on that list are the opening and closing arguments. Once that’s done we will transition to the verdict phase. There are no updates in terms of a possible release window yet. As you know, we’re a team of two who are creating this game as a passion project without a budget in our free time. So we have to tackle one subject after the other and once we’re sure about a release date, we’ll let you know right away.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support!

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