This is a killing game.

If you're writing a fangame without murders, WHAT ARE YOU WRITING?!? MURDER IS WHAT MAKES DANGANRONPA DANGANRONPA! IT'S WHAT-

*clears throat*

My apologies. You're not writing a fangame if there is no murder. I don't care if the characters are your babies-kill them. Eventually you won't feel the pain. (That's a lie by the way. You never get used to it. I've written 31+ fangames and still cry when I kill someone off.)

Murders have three stages:

1. Motive Reveal

2. Body Discovery

3. Investigation

You can make these stages longer or shorter if you want, but make sure you make them count.

Motives

Please please please spend some time coming up with good motives.

Motives I would avoid would be money, memories, or any of the canon motives. If you manage to make it unique then that's a different story.

Personally some of my favorite motives involve loved ones in peril. Run with it however you'd like.

If you've planned your game out, you probably know which side character will crack. You can take this character's hopes, dreams, fears, whatever, and twist a motive into existence. Just remember to make it apply to everyone.
Remember to make it tempt everyone, not just the planned blackened.

All of them may end up wanting to murder, but at least one character has to snap. And that's when we get a

Body Discovery

Here's one of the fun parts of Danganronpa. You get to create a ton of who, where, and what scenarios!

(If needed watch Clue and other murder mystery movies for inspiration. Real life killers can give inspiration as well. As morbid as it sounds, knowing how real people have actually killed can be a lot of help if you're in a slump and don't know what to use as a cause of death. You can also use myths and legends to get some interesting deaths.)

First, know where your characters are trapped. Is it a mall, school, island, or underground bunker?

Next, know the culprit's skill. Did they hang the person, use their brute strength to beat them to death, or simply stabbed them? Your choice.

Example of a body discovery:

Reina Arai, the ultimate event planner, was shoot in front of everyone by an unknown person when Fudo Mino passed the microphone to her instead of himself. She died almost instantly. The gunshot caused confusion and a little bit of chaos after Reina died (I'm pretty sure at least one person puked).

Not all deaths happen behind closed doors-or under tables. Use the crowd to add a level of confusion and you got a good chapter.

Now you have a crime scene, a motive, and of course, a dead classmate. What next?

Investigation Time

Now you need to find out whodunnit. The first thing you might want to do is create alibis for all of your characters. Make them as simple or as complex as you want. Your protagonist will have to see the cracks in all of them.

Next, figure out a murder weapon. If it was strangulation with a hand there will be fingerprint-like bruises on the corpse's neck. Make sure to add some red herrings so the case isn't solved too quickly. For example, in Danganronpa Goodbye Despair, the students thought that the knife found next to Twogami was the murder weapon. Mikan's autopsy proved otherwise.

Next, create a list of possible suspects. Decide, logically, who people would assume did it. Was it person A because the body was found in their room? Was it person B because they were the first to find it? You get the idea.

Finally, make a ton of various clues. Make the case as complex or as simple as you want. Not all characters have Celestia's level of manipulation of course.

Here is an example of a MOTIVE, BODY DISCOVERY, and INVESTIGATION:

In Dr8, chapter three, the surviving students each received a wristband with a forbidden action. Some couldn't eat with other people, some couldn't be seen by other people, and some people couldn't walk. Aika Fujiwara, Perseus Fideli, Laila Goya, and Theseus Hirano could not be seen by anyone besides those with the same forbidden action, so they hung out in the gym.

A week later, Laila was found in the auditorium, a rope around her neck. She was bleeding from deep cuts on her arms and legs, which had wires running through and around them, forcing the body to stand in a dancing position. Moments later, Theseus was found behind the bleachers, bleeding from a head wound. A king's chess piece was found in his hand.

Aika was found sleeping in her sleeping bag. She claimed to have no idea what had happened. Perseus was also found relaxing in the gym, and was surprised to hear about the deaths.

During the investigation, the students found a cloth with traces of chloroform, along with a discarded bottle of chloroform. One student said that they had noticed something was missing from the bunker's pharmacy. They quickly found out what had happened to the girls-now for the boys.

Apparently, Theseus and Perseus were playing a game in the gym. They first assumed that Theseus had been struck by a bat as there was a significant amount of blood on the bats on the rack. Leo Noraraki found the true weapon after he tripped through a floorboard-a bloodied discus. They found out that Theseus and Perseus had shared a love of The Count Of Monty Cristo, making the king's chess piece a significant clue.

Can you guess who the culprit was?

(Hint: I've named them.)

Don't forget to comment suggestions and questions.

See y'all in the next update!