Detective Michael Stone enters the small town of Pineview to assist the local police force with a seemingly simple case - A couple is found dead in their kitchen.

The locals believe it to be a case of murder-suicide, their speculation fueled by rumors of the turbulent nature of the couple's relationship. Is it just idle gossip, or is there some truth to the rumors?

Help Detective Stone, assisted by the driven and empathetic Officer Blunt, discover the truth behind Chris and Diane's story. But be warned: the further he pursues the case, the more his own past shall come back to haunt him.

And the closer his own sanity will be pushed to the edge.

Featuring:

• A story-first approach for a dramatic and sublime experience made to linger in your mind years after you've played the game.

• Simple yet surreal 2D art combined with a cinematic approach to storytelling.

• A town full of characters with deep backstories, distinct personalities and a whole lot of opinions.

• An Immersive game world that will pull you in and drench you with its atmosphere and never ending rain.​

As Detective Stone, explore the beautiful town of Pineview, talk to the many locals, interview suspects, dig through the victims' pasts and try to piece together the story of how and why Chris and Diane's lives ended in such a brutal manner.

You will observe and investigate suspicious looking objects, solve a few puzzles, get to know your co-workers and settle into the daily rhythm of a small town murder investigation even as your past does its best to throw everything off the rails - and it will if you let it. 

But the past is not just a story to be witnessed.

You will also play as Chris and experience his story with Diane - joining them in key moments of their lives together as they meet for the first time, get to know each other and fall in love.

Beautiful, surreal art style

Your stay in Pineview will be divided into multiple days of investigating various leads, solving a few puzzles and dealing with nightmares, alongside the only co-operative local police officer Blunt.

Plan your next move

Take notes. Feel like the old man's got motive? Think the local mechanic seems jumpy? Immerse yourself in the investigation and jot down your thoughts in the in-game journal so you can keep a track of all clues!

Pay attention, and maybe you could put the pieces together before the story ends. 

Experience both sides of the case. Not only do you play as the Detective, but you also get to experience the victims' side of the story first hand as you play through flashback sections.

This way, you get to live through the last few months of their life, take part in their story and develop an emotional connection to the characters whose deaths you are trying to make sense of.

Discover different locations.

Start your day with a coffee in Mark's cafe before setting off on Market street that connects all of Pineview's major locations you'll be visiting during the investigation.

Home to the renowned Pineview festival and often described as 'charming' and 'vibrant', Market street teems with the lives of young and old vendors, shoppers and a chilly breeze.

Atmosphere. Not all of Pineview is equally vibrant though, as the rain continues to take its toll on buildings abandoned to the neglect of insufficient public funding. 

Water seepage has made the interrogation room inaccessible, Algae covers the hospital walls, all of which adds to the atmosphere and immersion of living in the game world of Pineview.

A damp store room temporarily being used for interrogations

CHRISTOPHER GREEN, DIANE MILLER

The game is as much about Chris and Diane's lives as it is about their mysterious deaths. Newly moved into town, planning to start a life together in the peaceful neighborhood of Pineview, what could have gone wrong?

The police might appear nonchalant and the townsfolk might have much to assume with regards to their reputation, but what really lies beneath is for you to discover.

DETECTIVE MICHAEL STONE

As a student, Michael was brilliant at everything that he did. An endless thirst for knowledge, a persistent interest in crime fiction and an obsession with the mysteries of the human psyche led him down the Detective route.

Despite being a bit brooding, self absorbed and often out of touch with his emotions, Michael is professional, thorough, and the best at what he does. Except, he's not been himself lately.

Something's been bothering, even haunting him. In fact, if he gives in, it may stop him from solving the case altogether.

OFFICER BLUNT

Warm, empathetic and ambitious, local officer Blunt is eager to prove herself as a professional of Pineview's finest. She's also known for fearlessly speaking her mind and her loyalty to the ones she loves.

With Detective Stone's sporadic hallucinations and a murder-suicide to deal with however, she might just have more on her hands than bargained for.

THE TOWNSFOLK

"It was just a matter of time."

"They never really got out much, you know?"

"They cut themselves off from the community."

"They would argue ALL the time, the things that I've heard..."

The people of Pineview are a source of information, stories and gossip. Not all of it is relevant to the case, and much of it is inaccurate. Their version of events might just be the one they'd rather believe - but does that make them wrong?

Rainswept's visual style prioritizes a cinematic experience through the use of closeups and smooth camera movements, which work together with the simple art style to create a unique look during cutscenes.

Another aspect that helps the style of the game is the lighting. A simple shift in colors through layers of gradients helps to create different conditions - from misty hills to valleys bathed in the glow of the setting sun.

Adding parallax to this gives an almost dynamic look to the lighting, and adds depth to the game world.

Fundamental to the experience, Rainswept's soundtrack has been designed to aid the game in achieving its goal - to move and impact the player emotionally.

Just like the game, the music covers an expanse of emotions, and is dripping with atmosphere. It's also pretty good to put on and listen to by itself!

From impractically dreaming of becoming a game developer to giving up on that dream a decade ago in favor of architecture, film making and eventually returning to video games, I've been looking for the right medium to express and share beauty with the world.

To convey the indescribable in a form that, if not understood, can at least be felt. Thanks to the way the indie game development scene has developed over the past decade, the original dream is finally within reach!

It has become my life's purpose to create art that moves people; hopefully Rainswept is the first step in achieving that dream.

Besides being involved in the founding of brother Rem Michalski's Polish independent games studio Harvester Games himself, Michal alias micAmic has also served as the chief music composer to all of its major titles.

This being of course the trilogy of The Cat Lady, Downfall - A Horror Adventure Game and the highly anticipated Lorelai.

Rainswept is scheduled for a January 2019 PC, Mac and Linux release on Steam, Itch and Gamejolt. The game is complete in terms of its gameplay and story, and is playable from start to end.

Now however it’s time for me to plug in the holes by:

• Completing missing scenes, levels, dialogues and other accessories to make the game world feel even more alive,

• Polishing various aspects of writing, animations, graphics, user interface,

• Testing for quality assurance.

While other localization oriented tasks will follow.

This guarantees that the project will be completed and released as per the following schedule, while also allowing for me to ensure maximum quality.

The demo released in January 2018 was positively received and hopefully, something similar awaits a full year later.

FOLLOW ALONG

Originally planned for August 2018, the release date was pushed back so that I could really make sure the entire experience was great and not just playable.

Funding from Indiegogo, with your help, gives me the time to continue working on the game for this period by helping with rent, food and general costs of living, and will also enable the purchase of necessary sound and visual assets.

DESCRIPTION

MAKING OF RAINSWEPT DIGITAL ART BOOK (TIER $25 AND ABOVE)

The Art Book provides insight into the development of Rainswept's cinematic scenes, characters and locations by describing my thought processes, motivations and inspirations behind each. 

A mock-up of the art book - the final thing will look cooler!

CHARACTER WITH YOUR NAME, APPEARANCE AND PERSONALITY (TIER $400)

Your chance to be a Pineview resident!

I'll design an NPC, or a non-playable character with your name, physical appearance and personality that can also be interacted with while exploring the town! Not just that, but your character will also have dialogues scripted for each in-game day.

Whether you'll aid the detective or confuse players will completely depend on you, as your character will be based on personality tests, discussions with you and a survey with questions regarding how you'd react to different situations in the game!

So what led me from Architecture to developing a video game?

I've been trying to understand beauty ever since I caught glimpse of a few mist covered mountains during a railway journey.

Those mountains left an impression. I was 15, and I realized I wanted to give my life to seeking, creating and understanding beauty. Over time I came to realize that making art was essential to this search of mine, but turning it into a career path was something I still had to figure out.

I ended up in Architecture school despite not wanting to be an architect and completed my education regardless, all the while mulling over what I really wanted to do.

Any childhood dreams of entering the game industry had been long abandoned; financial issues and the lack of local industry presence made the idea impractical.

During architecture school, I discovered and fell in love with films. But as I entered the film industry upon graduation and started working on a few projects, I learnt that while I loved film making as a medium of storytelling -- I hated the process.

I realized that I was happiest working indoors, on a desk, in front of a screen, preferably with a small team or even alone. Somewhere I could sit and think in silence. I still wanted to tell stories and move people emotionally, but the medium wasn't right - I had to look again.

I took a year off from this search and landed myself a nine-to-five job in Architecture as I attempted to re-calibrate. The job was temporary, intended to give me time to stabilize myself as I tried to plan out my next move. 

This was when a friend of mine suggested game development; where I'd have normally dismissed the idea as I had done in the past, things were different now.

Game development had grown accessible to the world as barriers to entry had dropped. Besides turning out to be the perfect medium of self expression for me, I now had a background in film and architecture to exploit.

Just through the process of working on Rainswept, I feel I have already achieved a part of my dream. Now it's time to share it with the world.

REFERENCES

Early concept art for Rainswept

While Twin Peaks and other TV shows of the Police Procedural and Nordic Noir genres act as obvious inspirations, Rainswept primarily derives from South Korean crime thrillers in its overall mood and emotion. 

This isn't just a murder mystery - but a story about life, love, beauty, suffering and meaning.  It's about how other people impact our lives, and whether we have any control over who we become once they're gone.

My aim with Rainswept is to create something that affects players, moves them emotionally  and hopefully, stays with them years later. Something cathartic.

That is what the best games, movies, books and music have done for me, and that's what I've always wanted to do for others.

The main challenge is that I'm working on Rainswept relatively alone and a delay in release is always likely.

That said, living frugally in a place with a low cost of living has helped avert a lot of the financial risks, while a successful demo release has made me aware of the game development and publishing process.

Also as mentioned previously, most of the game has already been developed apart from addressing minor issues, additional content and polish. An unsuccessful campaign may hamper progress, but Rainswept will be released regardless.

It's been more than a year that I've been working full-time on Rainswept -- This is now my career and my life.