Hatoful Boyfriend developers are working on a 1990s Hollywood murder mystery game

The developers of the bird dating simulator Hatoful Boyfriend have announced a new project called Murder By Numbers, a tale of mayhem and murder set in 1996 Hollywood. With the assistance of a reconnaissance robot she picked out of the garbage (which suggests to me that it's not an entirely true-to-life recreation of the '90s), TV detective Honor Mizrahi must turn her investigative talents to the real world when her boss is murdered—just minutes after he fired her from her hit show.

The robot, Scout, will help Mizrahi uncover clues and solve puzzles, but the big hook is the very '90s-looking array of supporting characters to converse with and interrogate, designed by Hatoful Boyfriend director Hato Moa. Along with some highly questionable fashion choices, developer Mediatonic also promises—and this is a quote—"Upbeat jams! Sass dialed up to 100! Questionable jokes! Drag queens! All that and more," whatever that could possibly be.

Hatoful Boyfriend is quite good, and Murder by Numbers hopefully addresses one of our chief complaints about the sexy bird game: that it takes a bit too much repetitive work to get to the really good stuff, which comes in its various endings.

Murder By Numbers is set to come out early next year.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.