Detective Kobayashi cover
Detective Kobayashi screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Indie

Detective Kobayashi

Happy Lunar New Year!
Take home your very own handsome detective! Detective Kobayashi is 50% off during the Lunar New Year Sale! Happy Lunar New Year!

Steam Achievements added
Good day, detectives!!

In our most recent update we've added Steam achievements to the game! Will your detective skills be enough to earn you all of them? We shall see!

Developer Interview
Good day, detectives! We talked to the CEO of Genuine Studio, the amazing developer of Detective Kobayashi, and had him answer some questions for all of you to give you a little insight into the work on this IP!

What inspired you to create this game?
It has been quite some time since I created the character Kobayashi - it was over 17 years ago. I used to write detective cases while I was in college and Kobayashi was always the detective in my stories.
I was planning to publish a novel 6 years ago with all the cases I had written until then, but that year I met an artist who suggested to make games based on my stories. That’s how I jumped into this field and started creating visual novels.

What were some challenges (in the development)?
It can be tough, since me and my business partner didn’t know anything about game development before then, so we started from scratch and there were a lot of technical difficulties to overcome. We needed to make compromises and often had different opinions on how to solve things and develop the series.

Who is your favorite character?
Matsuda! Of course I love Kobayashi, but Matsuda is the perfect assistant. She’s smart, agile, sexy and has a kind heart. This made writing the scenes between her and the detective a lot of fun.

What are your favorite games/genre in general?
Final Fantasy, The Witcher series, Tokimeki Memorial and some simulation games back in the PS1 genre. But I do play lots of visual novel games, Phoenix Wright is also one of my favorites.

Which features are you most proud of?
I think the light bulb system. In the beta version of this game, the light bulb system did not yet exist, and I was wondering what could be added to make the characters more alive. So this light bulb idea popped into my head and we spent an extra month developing this feature. Kobayashi’s thoughts really helped people understand and love this character more.
Apart from that the SMS system is also fun since players can discover different phone numbers throughout the game, adding contacts and trying to chit-chat with different characters. This sets the game apart from others of the genre.

What’s the best thing about being a game developer?
Aside from being a game developer, I’m also a storyteller and it’s great to see my stories being visualized. We all have good memories of our favorite games when we were kids, so the feeling of making games like that yourself is priceless.

We're live!
Welcome to Kobayashi's world, detectives! We call on you to join us in the fight against crime and band together to defeat the forces of evil that threaten the peace and quiet of Hong Kong! Kobayashi would much rather be playing games or meeting cute girls, but alas, duty calls! The first case has just come in and the police department is at a loss.....but never fear - our nerdy detective is here!

Two days until launch!
Howdy, detectives!

Our launch is only two days away! Matsuda for one can't wait to get on the next case. Which of our characters are you most excited to meet?

Three days until launch!
Hello detectives!

Are you ready? Detective Kobayashi is launching in three days! And we see Ryu's self-confidence is more pronounced than ever...let's see if you can't wipe that smirk off his face when you beat him in a one-on-one detective battle ^_^

The Community Hero has their back!

Any potential evidence is of utmost importance!

It's all in the name of research

Anybody seen Ryu?
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