Frequently Asked Questions

Q - What is a Mango Factory, anyways?

A - We are! Mango Factory LLC. is an independent studio creating adventure games, established in 2019 and based in Indonesia! 

Our goal is to become a team synonymous with high quality storytelling and distinctive presentation among the indie visual novel scene, starting with a loving tribute to 1980's Japan via Kumitantei.

Q - Who exactly is on your team?

A - Our team consists of 12 brilliant and talented developers, mostly split between Southeast Asia and North America. Prior to our indie dev journey, we were all regulars in modding and fanfiction communities, and even created projects like the popular 'Fanganronpa' anime webseries Heaven of Despair!

You can find more information about us here!

Q - Are you auditioning voice actors?

A - We're working with a casting director and established talent for Kumitantei's VO needs, so auditions won't be opened to the public. Thank you for your interest!

Q - Is there anything I can do to help?

A - At this time we're not actively hiring for any positions, but please feel free to shoot us an email if you're interested in contributing! Any/All future positions are open to adults only.

Otherwise, the best way to help KT:OSS succeed is to just spread the word! Please tell your friends, have your friends tell their friends, have your friends' friends' moms tell their friends!

If you're really adamant about supporting us though, our team has an official Ko-fi page that accepts both one-time donations and ongoing tiered monthly Memberships!

Q - What is Kumitantei?

A - Kumitantei™: Old-School Slaughter is a tribute to retro anime and pop culture of 1980's Japan, underlined with a dark twist of horror and conspiracy!

Primarily inspired by Rumiko Takahashi and the classic Japanese adventure game genre, blended seamlessly with intricate deck-building and tense mystery solving akin to modern classics!

Enter into an engaging world of murder, mystery, and alternate history where solving complex cases is the key to unravelling the winding narrative. The core gameplay revolves around cards, representing your evidence, talents, bonds, arguments, and more. 

Bond with fellow participants to earn their Trust, investigate grisly crime scenes to find your Evidence, and then leverage both in Clinical Trials to uncover the Truth!

Q - What does Kumitantei mean, and how is it pronounced?

A - Kumitantei (くみたんてい), roughly translates to "Deck Detective"! "Kumi" has a few meanings, including a deck of cards or a class of students, making it particularly fitting for our game!

As for pronunciation, it's "koo-mii-tahn-tay". 

Q - What engine are you developing in, and for what platforms?

A - We're using Godot, and developing Kumitantei for a release on PC via Steam (which you can wishlist right now) and Nintendo Switch! We would like to bring the game to other platforms in the future, but these two are the most accessible to us within our current constraints.

Q - When will the game release, and in what form?

A - Our plan is to release Kumitantei into Early Access and add the story episodically, with an aim of releasing two complete Episodes per year, and then transitioning to full release once the narrative has been completed. Our estimated release window of the full game, therefore, is late 2027!

Q - Why are you making this game?

A - Put simply, we're massive nerds. We adore this era of media and want to create a loving tribute to all it has to offer, underlined with a dark twist of horror and conspiracy! Most of us are passionate lifelong fans of retro gaming and the works of Ms. Takahashi, particularly Urusei Yatsura, which is where the majority of inspiration for Kumitantei's look and tone originate from. 

With how much our world has changed in the last years, an offbeat anemoic story with colourful characters solving mysteries seems like the kind of thing a lot of us could use.

Q - Is this a fascist dogwhistle game?

A - It's depressing that this even needs to be said, but no, this game and our team are actively anti-fascist. More importantly, usage of Imperial Japanese iconography and depiction of wartime atrocities are done for the sake of exploring these subjects critically and understanding the rationale that led to them not only happening, but also going unpunished and allowing these ideologies to fester long after the war. 

The overwhelming majority of Mango Factory's staff are transgender people who carry no respect for hateful ideologies or their sycophants. Trans rights are human rights. Free Palestine.

Q - Why does the cat have two faces?

A - Why don't you have two faces? 

...In seriousness, Nyanus is based on a Janus cat! These real cats have a rare deformity that causes their double faces, and they get their name from the Roman god of duality. While they do look a bit uncanny at first glance, many Janus cats that survive infancy live normal, happy, and healthy lives.

Janus cat... Janus Institute... hmm...

Q - Why did you use Kickstarter?

A - With this being our first commerical project and it also very intrinsically niche, we've had a rough time finding a publisher willing to take a risk on our vision. We turned to Kickstarter both as a method of getting some funds to keep our lights on and to lay bare that there's a paying audience for the game we're making.

Kumitantei is a labour of love for us and the realization of many years in planning, we want to ensure that our vision can be realised unimpeded.

Q - What about the Episodes and Stretch Goals that weren't funded?

A - We'll complete them anyways! Not having them funded up-front naturally means they'll take longer, but our team is committed to finishing the full narrative and as much of our plans as is feasible out-of-pocket. 

We care about this game, we worked for five years on it purely out of love and belief in what we're making, if worst comes to worst we'll finish it the same way.

Q - After the campaign, will there be another way to support you?

A - Yes! We have an official Ko-fi page for Mango Factory, it accepts both one-time donations and ongoing tiered monthly Memberships! Supporting us through Memberships grant perks and rewards based on the selected tier, with each having a unique role on our Discord server!

Q - What's in the Kumitantei demo?

A - The demo includes the complete playable Story Prologue, a fully customizable Card Battle Debate with 10 Skill Cards and 3 opponents to face, and an endless mode of the retro minigame "Merlite"!

Q - What platforms will the demo be available on?

A - The demo will be solely released on Steam in 2024, but may come to Nintendo Switch at some point in the future!