When a tragic calamity strikes the United Kingdom, a young law student, Storm Sente, is called to the bar as a barrister, to protect the innocent in court. But a growing threat is intertwined with Storm's cases as a ruthless cult threatens to change the future of law and order.



Call to the Turnabout™ (working title) was born from inspiration from Capcom's Ace Attorney series and is in many ways a homage. Alternating between the investigation of criminal cases at the crime scene and the defence of clients in heated courtroom trials, it inherits its basic mechanics from the classic visual novel series, while taking and running with those core concepts.

Featuring a distinctive style, innovative gameplay mechanics and an epic story with a colourful cast of characters to match, Call to the Turnabout is comprised of five episodes, each longer and more challenging than the last, following the story of Storm Sente as he is thrown into a world of crime and justice while trying to discover the truth behind the terrorist attack which claimed his friends, education and very nearly his own life.

This law-drama adventure game will be available for PC and Mac, planned for release on Steam Greenlight.

The GUI and artwork shown in the screenshots/video is essentially in a prototype stage. Based on critical feedback received, these will be greatly improved and perfected with the funding. The screenshots are an initial mock-up to present the proof-of-concept and general idea.

-- PLOT OVERVIEW --

By the grace of God, Storm Sente finds himself an only survivor to a colossal explosion which obliterated his law school on the morning of 15th March, 2019. As such, he is forced the litigate in court as the only barrister available for miles around, defending a young man, Richard Kingsley, of a murder which occurred the very same morning.

Is Richard really innocent or guilty? Is the evidence all that it seems to be? Could this crime be related to the explosion in some way? These are some of the questions Storm must answer along with the counsel for the prosecution, Sebastian Donovan, as he is forced the mature and enter the harsh world of law and crime years early, desperate for the truth behind the event which claimed his friends, education and - very nearly - his life.

-- MAIN CHARACTERS --

Storm Sente
The player character. A 20-year-old British law student. When his life is turned upside-down on the morrow of 15th March, 2019, he has no choice but to be called to the bar in order to pursue the truth and justice he seeks.



Richard Kingsley
A polar opposite to the intellectual Storm, Richard is a school drop-out working at a fast food restaurant... but his life suddenly becomes much more interesting when he jumps into the world of law and order.



DCI Lizzy Harrison
Despite being only 26, Detective Chief Inspector Harrison holds a high rank within the CID thanks to her natural abilities and assertion in crime-solving, in addition to a high rank in the eyes of Storm.



Sebastian Donovan
Sophisticated and authoritative, Donovan is a crown prosecutor whom Storm faces in his very first case. A good man who cares for the truth just as much as Storm, he completes his trio of allies.

-- CREDITS --

The project's production, writing and programming is handled in-house by Procella Games. Here's a list of all the amazingly talented and gracious people working on the various assets (with links where appropriate):
• Composer | Caleb Cuzner
• Concept artist | Nicole Aniceto
• Prototype character artist | Karl Rillera
• Prototype Background/animation artist | Alexis Rillera
• Prototype GUI designer | Angel Wareman
• GUI designer | Juan Mojica
• Voice talent | Austin Lee Matthews · David J. Dixon · Kira Buckland · Corey Holland · Joshua Tomar · Kristyn Mass

-- MUSIC --

The whole original soundtrack has been composed and finalised by Caleb Cuzner. Consisting of 33 tracks, here's some selected samples:
Overture of the Courtroom
Storm Sente - In Pursuit of Justice
Remand - Lament of Innocence
There's also some more music samples in the project video above!

-- SCREENSHOTS --

Here's some prototype screenshots from the Trial sections of the game.










Last edited by sjgriffiths on Thu Apr 29, 2021 4:49 pm, edited 10 times in total.

Concept seems cool but I really hope those screenshots are not what the final product is like, looks cheap and amateurish as hell. Wouldn't it be better to create it with PyWright and release it on there, and for it to actually look good? On Steam there'd be chances of copyright disputes as well...

Well... they can't be copyrighted for gameplay similarities, if they don't use ANY assets or characters from Phoenix Wright, it's allowed to be sold for money

Well, the majority of the funding is for artwork and animation. That being said, if you don't mind me asking, what makes it so hellish in your opinion? That's the first I've heard that kind of criticism.

I've never had any intention of making it using a casemaker or the like, it's an independent indie game I thought I'd share on here simply for the relevant audience. There definitely would be drastic copyright issues if I had used some kind of casemaker.


Yep, at a push it'd be classed a clone game/homage; I've outlined a full disclaimer on the campaign page.

Backgrounds, fonts, the character sprites - just the overall design of the game. They all look cheap and like something made in Flash. Not trying to sound mean, but that's just the impression I get when looking at those screenshots. And being honest and not sugar-coating things is the way to go IMO

But yeah otherwise the game sounds cool and it looks like it has real potential and of course it's your game so if you choose to go with this style that's totally up to you.

This won't cost though will it?

Well, the artwork and GUI is the primary concern of the Kickstarter funding, so the final product will probably end up looking more streamlined than the alpha versions shown here.

It'll most likely be free - certainly early preview releases will be, anyway. Depending on the way Steam goes, the full release will either be published Free-to-Play or at a low indie-game cost.

The cheap comment is, I think, in reference to the GUI. Bevelled buttons are extremely old-school and I don't think they're done right in those screenshots because the bevelling isn't consistent (I would expect all other floating things to be bevelled) and it clashes with the smooth style of the art. The text box is too short and small. All of the elements are at the very corners of the screen, which causes a lot of focus to be lost - the eye ends up hovering around the one-third marks where there is nothing of interest. Currently the trends are (very very generally) flat or skeumorphic designs*, perhaps incorporating semi-transparency, and I also recommend the GUI designer to look up some basics of composition.
* disclaimer: I actually study web UX/UI design as a hobby. These are web design trends. They're still kind of applicable to games though... take it how you will. But composition is universal.

The font choices are... interesting. They're alright, though the choice of the logo font and the pop-up font are kind of not very harmonic. (I think the typography in the logo is a bit weird too.) The logo is also... not very distinctive. It's generic to the point of being easily forgettable. This far in the reply I couldn't tell you the name of the game without checking again, or describe the flow of the logo. (For example... Ace Attorney? That's the game with the pointing lawyer.)

The art is impressive. It's not AA-perfect composition but I don't know if you want it to be. The perspective on the judge doesn't frame him imposingly though. Something to consider.

Hopefully this helps? Good luck.

---

Well, this looks interesting! If it is accurately based on the British Crown Court's workings, it'd be a great game to try out, as that'd vary it from AA's Modified Japanese court rules, and so it gives room for innovation (That and I'm a stickler for good games that actually teach you something). I have to say, it's coming along greatly, and I hope your kickstarter works out to make this become a more professional game!

I'm no expert on coding etc, but I do have some comments for the art. First off, it's amazing! I love Lizzy's design! And I love the promo art of each character!

In terms of poses, Donovan's pose at the bench is kinda off anatomically. Unless his head is intentionally being retracted inward, it looks like there's no real distinction between the throat and chin.
Richard is missing the bridge of his nose in that co-council pose also. (I picture him as Voldemort in that pose ) Other than that, character's like Storm and Lizzy look perfect as is!

The textboxs are also a little bland, and if there's text appearing in tandem with an animation such as a breakdown, you'll either have your eyes focused on that bottom segment of the screen, and miss the animation, or have your eyes focused on the animation and miss the text. Maybe drag it up higher, and increase the font size. You may need to experiment to find a way it's both visible and not covering the screen too much. Also, the blue box where the names appear to tell you who's speaking should have a nicer design, and maybe not be blue, as it does look a lot like AA's textbox, and the spin off games of other series that have mimicked it (Such as Suzumiya Haruhi no Gyakuten).

Other than that, I wish you guys best of luck with the Kickstarter! I'd love to play this when it's finished!

---

Yo, really like your character designs (when i mean by that, I really mean the outfits they wear. Don't really care for the anime-look to the character faces though.)

The GUI could use a lot of revamp. As another poster said, the bevels are really old-school/out of-style, and is really unappealing to the eyes. For PC-resolution, they can even be a big distraction. You should create some new GUI iterations (it would work REALLY nice to use flat-style design, including more icon-based buttons rather than simply font buttons). Also, the black text on the blue profile buttons (like "Judge", "Stone") does not complement the dark blue profile button. You should always contrast that with say a white font color instead. If it had been a bright blue color, then a black font color would be appropiate instead.

I feel like the GUI is the main thing throwing the entire screenshots off, at least for me personally.

While I understand the UI placement being the way it is, maybe you could get creative with how the GUI elements work. You're not limited to the DS screens after all.

The backgrounds look like there's some final layers of shading missing...I dunno, something is off with them, and they really feel flat rather than 3d (meaning perspective-wise I can't tell if the characters are actually at a distance from a door, or they're just laying on top of something...if that makes sense haha).

Also, I would suggest a better font to use that doesn't look like one of the default MS Windows fonts. Depending on their quality/scalability of various PC monitors, they can cause much strain on the eyes and indirectly hamper the quality of your work. Try something a little more close to a pixel-based font, or at least use a retina-ready font that you would find on an iOS/Mac device.

Some of the things I listed are probably contributing to why another poster is saying that the quality of the screens looks like its "cheap"/"amateurish". I understand the intentions of the kickstarter and that these screens are more showing the proof-of-concept/prototype of the product. That being said, you need to make it REALLY clear in your post that the elements in your screenshots are exactly what they are: a prototype. That way you can justify even better why your kickstarter needs the funding so that you can invest more in revamping these areas to be as polished/high-quality as possible.

After all, a visual novel relies on the visuals for a reason, and though Ace Attorney is a lot more "gamey", the visuals still need to be decent/friendly to the eye.

Besides these criticisms, I actually think you got the right idea to go about this OP. I'd support it. I also not sure if the project name is appropiate (because I kept thinking this was another AA fancase...I hope that name is only temporary :P))

Yo, really like your character designs (when i mean by that, I really mean the outfits they wear. Don't really care for the anime-look to the character faces though.)

The GUI could use a lot of revamp. As another poster said, the bevels are really old-school/out of-style, and is really unappealing to the eyes. For PC-resolution, they can even be a big distraction. You should create some new GUI iterations (it would work REALLY nice to use flat-style design, including more icon-based buttons rather than simply font buttons). Also, the black text on the blue profile buttons (like "Judge", "Stone") does not complement the dark blue profile button. You should always contrast that with say a white font color instead. If it had been a bright blue color, then a black font color would be appropiate instead.

I feel like the GUI is the main thing throwing the entire screenshots off, at least for me personally.

While I understand the UI placement being the way it is, maybe you could get creative with how the GUI elements work. You're not limited to the DS screens after all.

The backgrounds look like there's some final layers of shading missing...I dunno, something is off with them, and they really feel flat rather than 3d (meaning perspective-wise I can't tell if the characters are actually at a distance from a door, or they're just laying on top of something...if that makes sense haha).

Also, I would suggest a better font to use that doesn't look like one of the default MS Windows fonts. Depending on their quality/scalability of various PC monitors, they can cause much strain on the eyes and indirectly hamper the quality of your work. Try something a little more close to a pixel-based font, or at least use a retina-ready font that you would find on an iOS/Mac device.

Some of the things I listed are probably contributing to why another poster is saying that the quality of the screens looks like its "cheap"/"amateurish". I understand the intentions of the kickstarter and that these screens are more showing the proof-of-concept/prototype of the product. That being said, you need to make it REALLY clear in your post that the elements in your screenshots are exactly what they are: a prototype. That way you can justify even better why your kickstarter needs the funding so that you can invest more in revamping these areas to be as polished/high-quality as possible.

After all, a visual novel relies on the visuals for a reason, and though Ace Attorney is a lot more "gamey", the visuals still need to be decent/friendly to the eye.

Besides these criticisms, I actually think you got the right idea to go about this OP. I'd support it. I also not sure if the project name is appropiate (because I kept thinking this was another AA fancase...I hope that name is only temporary :P))

Thanks so much for all your detailed and helpful feedback!

Since I've launched I've taken a really self-critical look over the project based on the kind of feedback of which yours is exemplary. The GUI is definitely the primary concern here and I fully understand that, as sadly that was something I underestimated initially in favour of the 'main' artwork. As it stands, it's a mixture of both placeholder bits thrown together by me and elements done very graciously upon short notice by someone else.

The entire logo and GUI design scheme will be overhauled (in tandem with the project's title) as a priority and - thanks to the constructive feedback - I've got a strong plan for it. Secondly, background/character artwork will also be re-evaluated and polished up.

Of course, the catch-22 here is that I need the funding in order to work on all of this...


Yes, that's something I'm planning to revise right away! I was adamant to emphasise the Ace Attorney-inspiration in order to maximise target audience appeal, but a significant part of feedback thus far has been that it should be more independent in terms of naming etc. after all.

Keep at it OP, none of these things are free/cheap, its completely understandable why youd need funding to revmp/polish some o this stuff. Making vid games, even visual novels are hard.

My only other suggestion is to see how other folks tried o drum up support for their kickstarter projects...try seeing if you can incorporate anything from this guy's project:

http://www.forums.court-records.net/vie ... 36&t=27816


I would also suggest advertising at places like reddit. Maybe try another funding site like indiegogo. CR is really niche audience you know? Youre gonna need a bigger exposure :P

Yep, CR's just one of the relevant forums I've posted to. I've submitted to a number of subreddits but I'll be continuing to spread it as much as possible. I spotted that Exogenesis project a while back but I'll take a closer look like you suggested!

Depending on the success of the Kickstarter I'll open it out to donations and more IRL funding before taking a more effective shot at Indiegogo/Kickstarter if necessary.

Apologies if I did seem a bit rude earlier, didn't mean to come across as such.

Yeah, I think if you fix up the GUI you have a solid project on your hands, and I really like the actual character designs and the idea of it using a British inspired court system.

We've shared a couple more tracks from the original soundtrack which you can sample on YouTube here and here!

We're currently starting work on overhauling the branding and artwork so please keep watching and sharing this space! The feedback we've gotten from Kickstarter has been enlightening and I'm gathering more IRL funding in order to make the changes and improvements for a more complete and successful campaign.

Yo sig, just wanted to post up a dirty mockup of some of the feedback i provided awhile back in an earlier post:
ORIGINAL:


Edit:


To recap:
-The text color for the character's name in the namebox should be a white/bright colored text (because bright colors contrast the dark background (the blue background in this case) very well.
The "Lizzy" black text is hard to read and isn't pleasing to the eye.
In my mockup, I didn't want to completely rid the black text (else I mess the button bg up), as it could serve as a nice dropshadow effect

-Font type. The font used for dialogue/profile could be better. You see this with the random font I used for the profile name. The quality b/e the character's name vs. the dialogue is significant, dropshadow effect aside.

-Creativeness with the UI in conveying information. Because you have PC-resolutions to work with, you can still get pretty creative with how to convey information to players with UI on what the buttons serve.
Due to limitations with working off a screenshot, I stuck to having just icons convey the same meanings as "Present", "Consult", "Press", as best as possible. This is also working off the icons that was covered by the text in the original screenshot. Granted, the "Present" one makes no sense at all, I would have tried to use a finger-point as an icon to represent that, but I don't have enough design skills to create that :P
The bevel button still looks out-of-place though...I would suggest making these buttons somewhat transparent at least.
I would love to see how this game would look with a skeuomorphic-inspired UI !

--------------------------------------------
More feedback/comments:
-The Objection graphic is simple, but NICELY done. Hopefully the animation looks just as great! The Examination-in-Chief looks great too, but looks really futuristic/aesthically unappealing due to the color clash(?). The thing about UX (User-Experience) is that there should be some consistency in the style of certain graphics. In Ace-Attorney, Witness Testimony/Cross-Examination graphics havve a consistent style to them; the only difference is the word, the color, and how they animate. But style-wise they're done exactly the same with the bold white outline to them. I'll reserve this comment though because I'd need more screenshots to know how the other title graphics looks.

-Is it me, or is there not enough shadows in the background? Everything seems awfully brightly lit...from the characters to the room themselves haha. I think I'm thrown off because most courtrooms in real life in the West are of darker woody color/mahagony color...unless the British do it differently than the US?

-For the screenshot edit, I wasn't sure what was going on with the arrows (as in the color changes, I assume you have these animated or something, but basically it might look nicer being smaller). Ignore the colors though.

-AA is guilty of this, but I like how the cast is lacking in diversity of shades of skin color in the characters you've shown so far LOL
------------


I'd be down with doing some more revamping (such as the buttons) but I'd have to snag a screenshot without the current GUI present :P

Hope it helps convey some of the things that I think could help make this visual novel stand out more.

"Solicitors vs. crown prosecutors" sounds like a pretty neat concept to me. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you've had much luck securing backing so far. I hope you'll somehow manage to secure funding for the project, since it would be a shame if this ended up being unrealised.

Thanks a lot for your detailed feedback! We're starting work on a revamped brand/GUI as of now and all your ideas and criticism will come in really handy.

This GUI prototype was heavily based of AA's, but - as you said - a single-screen HD resolution gives rise to a lot more possibilities. The game artwork itself is going to be totally revamped too, so thanks to you (and others), I've some strong ideas for a more efficient and appealing layout.

The Kickstarter campaign's approaching its end! As expected, we're way off the target; however, we've gained the crucial feedback we were after! We're working hard on totally revamping the project based on critique, currently working on the branding and GUI, with brand new background and character artwork next on the agenda.

Thanks to anyone who supported the campaign! Please feel free to donate via PayPal while we continue work on the revamped project based on all your useful critique on the prototype version - every little counts!

We'll be eager to release updates on the revamped project. Keep watching this space - thanks for your continued support!

Dont get discouraged yo, im sure once you rebrand everything and display a new prototype out should show people your dedication. keep it up :)

Yo, hows it going with this...?

Hey, there! The revamp is actually coming along really well. The bulk of the GUI has been finished along with the majority of the backgrounds for the demo, which will be the entire first episode of the full game. Work on the character sprites has begun, too, and they're off to a strong start.

It shouldn't be too long at all until we're ready to update and overhaul the project branding with all the new material.

I'm glad to hear it. A while has past since there was any real update for this. I was worried after the Kickstarter didn't do so well. I am quite interested in this project.

We've officially launched our utterly new, revamped project! Check out Acquittal: Induction!