Lockheart Indigo
Lockheart Indigo is a 2020 independent adventure game developed by Fangsoft (originally credited Harmless Games), using the RPG Maker MV engine. It follows Beatris Summers, a young private detective hired to solve the murder of the business owner, Evan Volkov. She must attempt to interrogate one of them, especially the Volkov Family and its workers, who commit the crime behind the wealthy robotics tycoon in the mansion.

The game itself inspires both tech-noir and mystery thriller film genres that visually styled after 8-bit video game consoles such as those on the Game Boy Color, using minimal colors with a pixel art aesthetic.

The game was released commercially on July 31, 2020 on Steam and itch.io. It was made available as freeware on December 21, 2020.

Gameplay 
Lockheart Indigo is a top-down adventure game where the player traverses levels and navigate obstacles similar to the 2D installments of The Legend of Zelda as well as other 8-bit games from Game Boy Color, seeking out keys and opening locked doors. Potential culprits are interrogated in a conversation system that uses facts, evidence, and special abilities to get closer to the killer and progress the game.

Plot 

Beatris, a young and cynical private detective has arrived at the wealthy mansion under the owner of the Volkov siblings, Nasha and Ivan. In the mansion, she meets Aya Ishida, Evan's devoted husband and widow who was the only person to hire the detective and allow her to investigate one of them who murdered her husband. Aya permitted her for entering every room to meet and interrogate them.

After she interrogated four of them, Beatris meet Margeret, believes she was the murderer of Evan, and Margeret calls on the robots to kill her, but Aya destroys them and helps Beatris to escape from danger. Eventually, most of the workers were killed by the corrupted robots, only the remains survived in the dining room: Beatris, Aya, Yvon, and his son Lloyd. Beatris removes every painting that belongs to the deaths and victims, except two of them, Nasha and Ivan, who are the most beloved siblings who caused mayhem in the mansion. Aya believed that the robots must only deactivate the satellite from the rooftop. After approaching the rooftop, Beatris interrogates them about all the evidence she handed. Enraged, Nasha kills him and attempts to kill Beatris, but Aya kills Nasha to save Beatris.

Beatris leaves the mansion as the police arrive. She was invited by Aya, for Evan's burial. During the burial, she takes off her glasses, Aya believes that she was young for her face as Yvon told her, but she leaves gracefully without asking her age.

1919 
In an optional side-quest, you will find and ask a ghostly figure painter, Lawrence, in eight different locations to get the charmer and collect two testaments, find the garden outside the mansion to meet a mysterious person, Jared.

In the post-credit scene after the Lawrence's side-quest, a young girl named Vika explores in the basement, where she meets her obscurely-injured mother, but she was murdered by Lawrence, visibly coated in some blood.

Development 
Development started in 2017, where they creating the prototype and itch.io exclusive Machines That Bleed, a tech-noir game with similar features and themes that would later serve as the basis for Lockheart Indigo.

In contrast from the prototype; Some characters who differently appeared in Lockheart Indigo such as Jared and Margeret, the former once as a mysterious person while the latter is a corrupted female robot once as a supervisor to Volkov Family, were returned from Machines That Bleed. However, Buster from Machines That Bleed and Beatris Summers from Lockheart Indigo, were the same as young and cynical private-eye detectives, as the former was gradually changed into a female version of the game for the alpha version and onwards of Lockheart Indigo.

Release 
Prior to the game's full release on Steam, it was available for free as a beta version throughout its development on itch.io.

References

External links 
 Official website

2020 video games
Mystery adventure games
RPG Maker games
Detective video games
Video games featuring female protagonists
Neo-noir video games
Video games about artificial intelligence
Windows-only games
Windows games