Bohemian Killing Preview – Will the courtroom adventure game taking place in 19th-century Paris set new standards in the genre?

"It is better that a crime is left unpunished than that an innocent man is punished", says the trailer of Bohemian Killing quoting the Corpus Iuris Civilis (also known as the Code of Justinian after the Byzantine Emperor). Don't let this sentence fool you though: the new game from The Moonwalls, a developer studio consisting solely of Marcin Makaj, is about anything BUT serving justice and delivering just punishment where it is due. We'll be entering the world of false testimonies, questionable credibility, and suspicious alibis. Only one thing is certain: our character committed a murder. And so it's time to roll up our sleeves and convince everybody that someone else did it.

Courtroom adventure games haven't been exactly known to grow on trees recently (or ever, for that matter), and finding a solid, mature production of this genre is a praise-worthy feat. The creator of this game apparently has an idea on how to satisfy not only those who are dying for a decent legal drama in interactive entertainment, but also those who are skeptical of hearing out testimonies and reviewing piles of evidence in general. Bohemian Killing will not require detailed knowledge of law and legislation: all you need to know is the general idea of a typical courtroom hearing. " If you’ve seen just one episode of Judge Judy, you will certainly manage", jokes the developer.

This is Marcin Makaj’s first attempt at using Unity engine on PC. So far, so good!

Bohemian Killing is set in 19th-century Paris and features numerous steampunk elements. From today’s point of view, some of them may sound quite bizarre (pipes delivering food directly to households?) but their inspiration lies in actual pictures, showing how the people of that age imagined everyday life in 100 years. They can be easily found on the internet if you’re interested.

But let's start from the beginning, shall we? In contrast to the Ace Attorney series , which was the main inspiration for Bohemian Killing, our task is not to defend the accused, for we ourselves assume the role of the person in need of a good line of defense. As inventor Alfred Ethon we have to convince the court that we are not the ones responsible for the mysterious murder. Where's the catch? “The fact that the main character had committed the crime is beyond doubt”, says the developer. It depends on us whether we lie through our teeth, framing subsequent people and compromising the credibility of the witnesses, or perhaps meekly surrender to the punishment, thus admitting that we are in fact a cold-blooded criminal. Each hearing will last about six hours and lead us to one of eight different endings.

Our time, however, is not spent only in the courtroom. After a short conversation with our lawyer, allowing us to choose whether we want to hear his advice (gameplay hints) during the game, we get access to the evidence menu, where we can review summarized witness testimonies and evidence. Then we will be asked questions about where we were on the day the murder was committed, and proceed to the 19th-century Montmartre in Paris, filled with steampunk inventions. And from then on, Bohemian Killing will be letting us do whatever we please.

Numerous amazing movies took place in the courtroom. Do games have a similar potential?

Previously, Marcin Makaj tried to get Bohemian Killing funded via Indiegogo, but the campaign, carried out at the turn of 2014 and 2015, was a complete failure, collecting only 417 of the intended $13,000. According to the developer, the main cause of the fiasco was that he asked for too much money. But despite the defeat, the campaign allowed him to draw some international media attention, and gain support of the Polish gaming industry: Makaj teamed up with IQ Publishing, which will publish the game.

The creator defines his work as a combination of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Gone Home – and it is perhaps the latter title that is better suited to describe the gamemplay. Once we are finally given a free hand, we can freely move around the game's world; small, but nevertheless brimming with content. We will get to visit streets, a café, a hotel, and a tenement, which can be explored in any order. The vast majority of objects and items will be interactive, and using or even watching them can greatly affect the further course of the game. However, one should pay attention to the ticking clock: if any of the witnesses testified that at the given time he had seen us at the hotel room door, our clothes covered in blood, it would be wise to avoid that particular time and place. The time in-game passes the same as in the real world, so it is possible for us to be, for example, late for an appointment.

It’s best to have a good head on your shoulders during the hearing. Otherwise you may lose it.

Our every action must be well-thought-out and contribute to the coherent puzzle that will let us slip through the fingers of the prosecutor. The judge, however, will be vigilantly watching our actions, never hesitating to "enter" the crime scene, and to ask additional questions; the character will answer them automatically (we cannot choose our own dialogue options). If we take the stairs to get to the fifth floor, he will ask: "Why didn't you take the lift?". If we testify that we suddenly felt like shaving in the middle of the night, it will strike him as a rather suspicious thing to do. On the other hand, if we behave normally, efficiently manipulate the evidence, and manage to undermine each and every witness testimony, he'll have absolutely no reason to send us to the gallows. Heck, it is possible to complete the game in less than fifteen minutes while framing completely innocent people!

Here’s one unlucky fellow who might find himself missing a head thanks to our testimony. Serves him right for holding a glass of white wine like that.

One of the most interesting – albeit rather abstract – ideas featured in Bohemian Killing was to make use of all kinds of watches and chest belts that can measure the player's pulse. The data from those additional instruments would directly affect the course of the trial. The idea was abandoned, however, because the devices did not work as the developer wished them to.

This non-linearity is to be Bohemian Killing's biggest asset. Makaj admits that this is what he felt was lacking in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: "It's a great game, but what I found really disappointing was the fact that we were obliged to play it in a certain way; precisely how the developers planned it". Here, our every action will prompt a certain reaction. Should we "unintentionally" cut ourselves while shaving, we will be able to convince the judge that the blood on our shirt was ours, and not the victim’s. We skip an appointment, and we ruin our chances of procuring a convincing alibi. The ability to connect facts and memorize details is equally important: if we testify something that blatantly contradicts the case files, we will be put on death row in no time.

The world moved on, steampunk came to Paris, but the writings on the wall haven’t changed a bit since the French Revolution.

And we deal with all of the above while avoiding the conceited impact of moral choices. Of course, our character is a murderer and deserves to be punished, but the developer does not emphasize that particular element. The main draw of Bohemian Killing will be the chance to scheme, lie, and pull wool over the eyes of others to the point where the judge himself starts to doubt his own innocence.

It's an extremely ambitious project, but at this point it is largely completed – in the near future we should be able to see it in Steam Greenlight. It will be difficult not to keep our fingers crossed for its success, because despite the fact that the game is the work of just one person (with some help from his sister), the promises made by Makaj sound really promising. The coming months will show if they were true.

We don’t see steampunk elements on every corner, and Paris has kept its elegant style.