Jenny LeClue looks like a very interesting adventure game featuring a metanarrative where your choices affect Jenny (the protagonist) and the author’s story.

Funded on Kickstarter, thanks to the help of nearly four thousand backers in 2014 it's easy to forget about games still to be released. They've been keeping people nicely informed though, with updates practically every single month. Sounds like development is going well, as they expect to be content-complete for everything but the sound design within the next couple of months. Sounds like when the sound design is done, they will share a limited beta.

Our contributor flesk covered the demo release back in 2015, but it seems we missed the new trailer release this year. Feast your eyes:

It will feature:

Beautiful handmade Art Style - Sleek and gorgeous hand drawn style with vintage midcentury aesthetics.

A Living World - The goal is for everything to be interactive, to reward players who poke and prod at every last item and object with insight, secrets, and humor.

Choosiness On A Massive Scale - Players will make choices in their individual game, and some of those choices will be tallied to permanently influence subsequent chapters, essentially "writing" the story collaboratively. The choice players make about the cliffhanger ending of episode one determines the beginning of episode two.

Female Protagonist - Jenny is a brilliant young detective, sharp eyed, intuitive and a ruthless pursuer of the truth.

Dialogue With A Twist - Jenny is able to move the camera around during dialogue scenes and observe the subject for visible clues that might reveal their guilt or innocence that would otherwise go undetected.

Story Within A story - Jenny LeClue weaves a rich metanarrative. The "author" of Jenny's adventures, Arthur K Finklestein, acts as narrator and guide, but his presence also allows you to change the way Jenny's story is written. Players choices will also affect Finklestein’s own story.

Not Just For Kids - Complex relationships will be explored with themes of family, loss, and identity influenced by horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres.

A Diverse Cast Of Characters & Locations - Explore Arthurton’s expansive world including the abandoned mines, the forgotten graveyard, the misty mountains, the old observatory, the police station, the shops and eateries on Main Street, and Gumboldt University's Library. You will meet many intriguing and suspicious characters, in a town whose population is representative of the US Census demographics.

I don't personally remember reading it when flesk covered it previously, which is a shame as it looks incredible. That is some seriously lush artwork that's gone into the game, honestly can't wait to give it a go. The whole idea behind the game is incredibly intriguing.

It will release on Steam sometime this year. There's an older playable teaser available on itch.io, although it might not represent how far it's been developed since then.

Hat tip to razing for the reminder.