Press kit

Fading Fortunes

Every morning at nine, Madame Verity, the pier's old fortune machine, prints two names. By midnight, the card comes true. A murder-mystery visual novel on a dying English pier.

Download everything (zip) Fact sheet (text)

Fact sheet

Genre
Murder-mystery visual novel with deduction and repair puzzles
Platforms
PC (Steam). iPhone, iPad and Android to follow.
Release date
To be announced
Price
To be announced
Languages
English (full voice and text)
Length
Five chapters, one for each day of the last week of the season
Controls
Mouse, keyboard, touch or controller
Rating
Mature: graphic violence and gore, dark themes
Website
fadingfortunes.com

About the game

Halcyon Pier is closing for good. The rides are rusting, the lights are failing, and you're the electrician hired to keep it running for one last week.

Then the fortune machine that hasn't worked in eleven months starts printing cards. Two names, a time and a place. The paper is warm. The ink fades in twenty minutes.

Photograph the card, record the room, or trust your memory. Question everyone. Catch the lie. And before midnight, put the night back together, minute by minute.

  • Cards that fade. Every card vanishes in twenty minutes, and you get one action: a photo, a recording, or nothing at all.
  • Your phone is the case file. Replay voice memos, reread your notes, see the week on one timeline, and present the line that proves someone is lying to their face.
  • Reconstruct the night. At the end of each day, walk back through the evidence and answer for every minute.
  • Hands-on repairs. Rewire a contactor, restore a tripped board by torchlight, crank a stalled generator in a gale.
  • Fully voiced. Every line is spoken, by a cast of pier regulars who all have something to hide. Play as Eli or Mia.
  • Plays your way. Save anywhere, rewind to any decision, skip text you've read, play with a controller, replay any scene, and choose how the most violent scenes are shown.

Trailer

Download the trailer (MP4, 1080p, 78 s, 22 MB)

Screenshots

Real 1920×1080 frames from the game, all from early in the story with nothing spoiled. Click one for the full size.

Madame Verity recites her rhymeMadame Verity's rhyme A fortune card printingThe card prints June in the arcadeJune in the arcade Presenting evidence against a statementCatch the lie Reconstructing the nightReconstruct the night The rewiring puzzleRewire the contactor The breaker board by torchlightThe breaker board Cranking the generatorThe generator Isolating a ride with a voltage testerIsolate the ride Wendell in his taffy shopAsh's Saltwater Taffy The carousel at nightThe carousel at night

Logo and art

Fading Fortunes logo on a transparent backgroundLogo, transparent PNG, 1280×720 Key art with logoKey art with logo, 1232×706 Header bannerHeader, 920×430 Wide key art without logoWide art, no logo, 3840×1240 Portrait key artPortrait art, 600×900 App icon: Madame Verity's lit eyesIcon, 1024×1024

How it's made

The story and design were written with AI assistance and directed by the creator. The character art, backgrounds, illustrated stills and cutscenes are made with generative AI image and video models from original designs, then curated. All voices are text-to-speech with preset synthetic voices; no real person's voice is imitated. Music and sound are synthesised in code. The Steam page carries Steam's AI-generated content notice.

Content warning. Fading Fortunes contains graphic violence and gore, and scenes some players may find disturbing. The game asks how you'd like the most violent scenes shown (in full, as a still image with a short description, or as a description only) and you can change it at any time.

Streaming and videos

You're welcome to stream Fading Fortunes and make videos of it, and to monetise them. The music and sound are made in code for the game, so there's no licensed music to trigger copyright claims.

Please warn your viewers about graphic content. If your platform needs it, Settings › Accessibility › Violent scenes shows a still image or a short description instead of the full scenes. And please keep the story's twists out of your titles and thumbnails.

Contact

For review keys, interviews, extra assets or anything else, email press@fadingfortunes.com.