Prison of Lies
A downloadable visual novel for Windows, macOS, and Linux
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Four prisoners on death row are cleared of all charges. But the prison has a quota to meet. The four are put in a room and asked to decide among themselves over the course of an hour... who will be the one to die?
Prison of Lies is a psychological visual novel about lies, trust, and empathy. There are four chapters, each of which get progressively shorter. It's mostly linear, with a twist (that'll make sense when you play it).
While playing the game, you uncover more about each prisoner.
- Original soundtrack
- Unique mini-games
- Non-linear storytelling
It takes approximately half an hour to play.
Download the OST for free here: https://lockedon.itch.io/prison-of-lies-ost
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars (80 total ratings) |
Author | LockedOn |
Genre | Visual Novel, Puzzle |
Made with | Logic Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Ren'Py |
Tags | minigames, Mystery, prison, psychological, Ren'Py, suspense, Thriller, twists |
Asset license | Creative Commons Attribution v4.0 International |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Links | Twitter/X |
Download
Download NowName your own price
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Prison of Lies NaNoRenO 2019 Edition 153 MB
Prison of Lies Enhanced Edition 284 MB
Development log
- Enhanced Edition Release55 days ago
- Quick Update on The Update80 days ago
- Prison of Lies Upcoming UpdateJul 14, 2024
- Soundtrack Released on itch.ioAug 11, 2019
- How to Reach The Secret True Ending (No Spoilers)Jun 16, 2019
- Prison of Lies: PortmortemApr 13, 2019
- Tiny UpdateMar 28, 2019
- Minigame Update + Other ImprovementsMar 27, 2019
Comments
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Hi,like people below me I'm stuck at the end of the game, is the secret going back to select another half- truth?
btw the game is super awesome, I really like how each character is a whole world, and the writing spectacular
Thanks! Glad you like it! :)
After you reach the point where you select between three different endings, select one — it doesn't matter which one — and wait until you see the "Back to Menu" button. Click the button, then replay the game. You can use the skip button, (or hold down Control), to make it go a bit faster if you want.
Enjoy the true ending!
How do you find the guilty one? I have played through it multiple times and am unable to see another option between the prisioners(for true ending).
Nevermind, I figured it out. That's so dark(but sooo good).
Hello! The submit button will become noticeably clickable once you've selected the correct half-truths. Here's a hint: You don't necessarily need to select one from each category. The first puzzle in the game requires only submitting one half-truth. I made this for a very quick game jam so admittedly the UI design is a little confusing. Sorry about that!
Oh! I get it now, thank you!
Sure thing!
I figured out who the guilty one was, but it definitely seemed like there was corruption in the system. Is there an ending path where I can take down the warden?
Unfortunately that's the (rather bleak) true ending! Taking down the warden would be what the sequel would be about — if I ever get around to it. :)
This kicked so much ass. The four character's personalities are so strong, and you established them so quickly. The tension was delicious, it was really enjoyable to see four people frantically slinging doubt and suspicion at each other
Wow thanks so much! Glad you liked it!! :)
This was a spectacular little game. I enjoyed reading the postmortem. To think that this game was only made in 13 days; that's astonishing! you have a really solid presentation here, especially the sound design.
I thought the lie detector mechanic was a bit gimmicky at first but you made clever use of it towards the end. I could honestly see the concept being fleshed out for a longer, detective-type game.
As an aspiring game dev, I was really inspired by this game! I'm glad I stumbled upon it, and you should definitely be proud of the finished product :)
Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear you liked it! Good luck with your own projects. :)
This was awesome. Great work.
Thank you so much! That means a lot to me! I'm looking forward to playing Thief's Roulette on PS4! :)
wow, that was great! i really didn't expect that, and i was on my toes the entire time. just imagine my shock when the twist came !!! all in all, cool game! i enjoyed it a lot, thanks for bringing some fun into my monday evening :D
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it!! :)
I loved this game so much! The mechanics are super interesting, the concept is super fun, and I played through it over and over until I'd seen everything. Thank you so much for this game, I'd love to see more like this, or a longer game with these mechanics!
My only complaint, a couple of months down the line now, is that I'd love to play the whole thing over again without the "New Game Plus" in-game realizations that comes after you've found the other stuff! I want to be able to clear my saves and start the story entirely fresh, because I loved unlocking the rest of the story content over subsequent playthroughs, but I haven't found any options anywhere for doing it - uninstalling and reinstalling the game didn't help, nor did uninstalling from the Itch platform and downloading the game directly, and I'd love if anyone has a solution for this or if you'd add an option to start a new-new game entirely!
Thank you so much! :)
The game is supposed to reset after the credits roll and it jumps back to the main menu — but I just uploaded a build that has an option to reset it manually if that isn't working. Hope that works!
If you want to delete your saves, you can go to "game/saves" and delete the file there. Save files also reside in "%APPDATA%/RenPy/game_directory" on Windows, "~/Library/RenPy/game_directory" on Mac, and "~/.renpy/game_directory" on Linux.
Thank you so much for the incredibly quick fix!! I know what I'm going to be doing for the evening (again and definitely not for the last time)! <3
umm, I'm not sure about this game. Art is cool, a reference to Mike Mignola.
But the dialogs disappointed me from the very beginning. Are you kidding? Where can I find a prisoner who says that? This is unbelievable.
And that’s all I can say during the whole game - no, no, no, she can't say that.
And I prefer more options. I feel that everything was predicted, really.
So visually this game is very cool, but I don’t like the script at all.
Thanks for playing! And yes I love Mike Mignola's artwork. I was inspired by various psychological thrillers and wrote it like that. The story is about an unrealistic, fantastical scenario, and the dialogue is written to enhance melodrama rather than portray realism. But I understand if it was so over the top that it took you out of the story, and that's something I will have to work on for my more serious games. :)
I glad that you react so polite to my comment and I will be glad to see your other games. Wish you all the best :)
This was a very interesting, well-crafted game. <3 The plot was very engaging and the atmosphere was great, though I also found J to be a hilarious and refreshing character considering the kind of game this was. Some of her comments almost made me laugh out loud and I would love to know more about her, haha. Good job! This was impressive and even more so considering you had such a short span of time to make it :D
Thank you so much! J appreciates your comment ;)
Thanks for playing! I liked the voices. Hope your back feels better soon!
Thank you love . .
This game is such a blessing to me, a horror- and thriller- and mystery-obsessed girl. <3 The character designs and art style are quirky, unique, and somewhat surreal/uncanny (all plus points for me). The music and sound design are unsettling, and honestly just might be my favorite aspects of this game??? (But I love literally everything about this game, so. . . .) The backgrounds and color choice and the chilling/creepy atmosphere are all amazing. <3 I also love the lie detector so much -- it made my heart pound at various points!!!
The writing, oh the writing! I absolutely live for the concept and the choice mechanic, and you executed them so excellently! And that twistiest of twists!!! I am a law student, with complex feelings about the justice system, and oh my, this twist speaks to me in so many ways. <3 You've selected a great idea and limited yourself to a sensible scope for a month-long jam. Kudos to you for creating E V E R Y T H I N G in this game. Everything is awesome here, seriously. <3
I do have a single suggestion for improvement, though. I wish there are more fail states so that the player feels a sense of accomplishment upon selecting the right choices. I can understand not wanting to give the player a hard time . . . but at the same time, a certain amount of difficulty enhances the gaming experience, in my humble opinion.
Thank you for sharing this game with us. Keep creating, keep inspiring. <3
Thank you so much!! I was wondering what a law student would think of this, I'm glad it doesn't fall completely flat for you in that regard. I hear you about difficulty. I'm still trying to find the right balance so that it doesn't get frustrating, since it does require some trial and error to figure out... Maybe a system where you get a certain number of chances to solve it before you get a fail state would be the best of both worlds? Ace Attorney does it that way, but at the same time you're like, "Yeah, yeah, wish I didn't have to sit through this 'Guilty' screen again!" It will require some thought, but that's definitely an area I need to improve on.
Hello! Really loved the game, the concept, story, characters, music! Just loved it all!
I made a little doodle of the main character haha, hope you don't mind I share it here
J - Prison of Lies
Keep up the good work!
That's so awesome! I love it ! So cool to see her in someone else's style. Thank you so much! :)
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS GAME!! The music and art send chills down my spine, and the story and game mechanic??? HELLA RADICAL.
I love the ending so so so much, this is an absolutely superb visual novel!!
But I'm kind of curious with what someone means when they say they represent as lawyer, <gwmw class="ginger-module-highlighter-mistake-type-1" id="gwmw-15555794807926634165066">sjhfewejl</gwmw> English is not my first language, so...
Thank you so much!! That's so nice of you :) As a defense lawyer, you're working to defend your client from a claim made by the plaintiff. Because the defense lawyer argues on behalf of their client, they are "representing" them by speaking for them. Does that clear it up? :)
please send help, the submit button is grayed out and i can't click it :(
Help is here!
All right, so - during the sections you're describing, you actually need to select one (or more) segments under each of the sentence fragments.
That would look like:
I am a poster.
You might select poster, and some dialogue would appear:
"A poster, as in I post on online forums..."
"A poster, as in I'm an object stuck on the wall."
You'd click the latter, and that might work enough as a half-truth to turn the submit button black, which means it can be used. It can take awhile to get used to, but just keep in mind the nature of J, and you'll be humming along in no time!
Since I spent around 20 minutes trying to figure this out and still couldn't even with this tip -
***You actually don't need to click one in every category.***
This was the part that bamboozled me and made me resort to a let's play, which I really didn't want to do :(
Hey, I'm sorry to hear it wasn't enough. I didn't want to give it away, but I'd hoped I'd left a useful tip... Sorry you had to consult an LP. :(
It's alright; I got the gist of what you're saying lol
Thanks for trying to help ^^
Hi! Cultist/fan/skeleton of many usernames, here.
... THAT ENDING THOUGH.
Also, one of the coolest use of persistent variables I've seen in a game, especially given it was put together NaNoRenO. I was gonna play this tomorrow, but, y'know; sometimes, you've just gotta try something. Really, really glad I did.
I love plots like this, and it's a scenario you don't often get to see from the prisoner's eyes. I guess that makes this... A prisoners' dilemma?
Knocked it out of the park - but I'm not surprised.
Hello again! Thanks so much! Haha, it is indeed a bit of a prisoners' dilemma, so glad you caught that!
This was wonderful! I love the concept and execution (lol) of this. The art is really unique as well; the artist has a fantastic style. The fact that you made this in a month is also amazing, I'd love to see what you could do with a longer deadline.
Haha good one xD Thanks so much! I have a much longer game, "Broken Minds" which you can find on my profile. :)
oh my cheez i'm s h o o k e t h
Amazing work! I absolutely love how the story was told and that ending left such an impact for me. Keep up the good work!
Wow, thank you so much!! I will!
You know, after playing through this again, I have to ask. Is her eyes being different from the others intentional?
It is! The point of the blank eyes look is to make each character hard to read (eyes are the windows to the soul or whatnot). So by giving Q faint pupils, I wanted to make her seem slightly more trustworthy. Thanks for playing it again, wow! Didn't expect anyone to do that. :)
I'm never gonna find the good ending lol
JUSTCAMH hinted at it a little in their comment ;)
Holy crap. That ending. Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks! Glad you liked it! ;)
Wow. The ending sent the craziest chills down my spine. Great job. The replay was also great.
Haha! Wow, that's so awesome!! Thanks so much!
Really interesting story. Disturbing and intriguing. Great work. :)
Thanks so much! Awesome Let's Play!! :)