Chinatown Detective Agency: featuring patented Real World Research™

Last edited by Tafdolphin on Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes this is another vanity thread. Or not. I dunno. Anyway, this is the second reasonably-big indie title I've worked on (the last one being, OF COURSE, Night Call) but this time I've gone from copy-editor and "contributing" writer to full writer and narrative designer.

The Game

Based on the Carmen Sandiego games of old, as well as taking inspiration from modern detective games like Her Story and Paradise Killer, CDA is an adventure game with a wee twist: you are the detective. Every puzzle in the game asks you to perform real-world research to progress, from google image searching classic art to delving into the history of Thai temple-cities.

The Setup

You play as Amira Darma, a former INTERPOL agent setting up shop on her own for the first time in Singapore. Before she's taken the plastic sheeting off her chair, an old acquaintance walks through her door with an interesting proposition...

The Trailer

The World

I mean, just look at this stuff

Our art director is master pixel artist Ricardo Juchem, and we're also working with Ivan Ulyanov who's doing our amazing character portraits(whose art features in games like Unavowed and the Blackwall series).

We've also got a team of composers, animators, programmers and, yes, writers, making sure the story and themes are as appealing as the graphics.

The Demo

Our prologue, basically an extended demo, released on Steam at the end of last year and we've had some great feedback. You can pick it up for nout here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1401 ... y_Day_One/

The Press

We were lucky enough to get featured in a bunch of Most Anticipated lists from some pretty big outlets:

Gamespot: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/50-in ... 0-6485722/
Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2021/1/1 ... 21-preview
GameCrate: https://gamecrate.com/10-most-anticipat ... 2021/26456

And we've had a few mentions from PC Gamer and Eurogamer

Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020 ... k-sleuther
PC Gamer: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/chinatown-de ... -on-steam/

The Release

Sometime in 2021. That's it.

So yeah. Yay! I'll keep this thread updated as we go on but yeah I'm excited.

Tafdolphin wrote:Based on the Carmen Sandiego games of old, as well as taking inspiration from modern detective games like Her Story and Paradise Killer, CDA is an adventure game with a wee twist: you are the detective. Every puzzle in the game asks you to perform real-world research to progress, from google image searching classic art to delving into the history of Thai temple-cities.

This could be a genius idea if it's well implemented. I mean will it prompt the player? how much will it hint? is there any hand holding to lead to these things? All things I'm sure you're exploring...

What happens when google switches their servers off

This sounds excellent and I can't wait for it to release.

I think this looks and sounds fantastic.

Only fear for me is similar to what Photek has highlighted, the real world research aspect could be fantastic if handled well. But I wonder how easy it will be to protect against the likelihood that search terms will get quickly linked to the game and therefore it will feel less like "being a real detective scouring the web for clues" and more "type in X to be told the answer as 100's of wiki's, blogs, FAQs and guides now exist about the game and its puzzles".

Photek wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:Based on the Carmen Sandiego games of old, as well as taking inspiration from modern detective games like Her Story and Paradise Killer, CDA is an adventure game with a wee twist: you are the detective. Every puzzle in the game asks you to perform real-world research to progress, from google image searching classic art to delving into the history of Thai temple-cities.

This could be a genius idea if it's well implemented. I mean will it prompt the player? how much will it hint? is there any hand holding to lead to these things? All things I'm sure you're exploring...

If only there was a free demo you download to see how we've implemented it....

jk lol. We're still creating so this is something we're thinking very hard about. Also, there's an inbuilt hint system (you become mates with a very knowledgeable librarian) so if you need help you can get a clue. Or if you just want to play the story you can have the game solve puzzles for you...for a price.

Jenuall wrote:how easy it will be to protect against the likelihood that search terms will get quickly linked to the game and therefore it will feel less like "being a real detective scouring the web for clues" and more "type in X to be told the answer as 100's of wiki's, blogs, FAQs and guides now exist about the game and its puzzles".

Although there is a likelihood that some forums/GameFAQ places might get linked when you search for answers, unless you're prefacing every search with "Chinatown Detective Agency" I can't see this being an issue. The things we're asking you to research aren't going to be specific enough, and are largely based around real world locations/history/art etc.

If you are typing in Chinatown Detective Agency before every search then that's totally fine, but you'll be missing out on a key part of the game. Cheating, basically. Which again, is fine, but a little counter-intuitive.

Seriously, have a go at the prologue. There's a lot of this stuff in there.

BID0 wrote:What happens when google switches their servers off

The world of the game becomes reality.

Or, you know, Bing.

I'll have to give the demo another proper crack, as it was something that just didn't click with me during the flurry of trying out a bunch of indie previews before they disappeared during the last Steam festival.

I've been low level following the progress of this so had either forgotten or never realised that there was a demo, so I'll definitely check that out.

Website · Last edited by Venom on Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:13 am, edited 2 times in total.

Tafdolphin wrote:Yes this is another vanity thread. Or not. I dunno. Anyway, this is the second reasonably-big indie title I've worked on (the last one being, OF COURSE, Night Call) but this time I've gone from copy-editor and "contributing" writer and to full writer and narrative designer.
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Sometime in 2021. That's it.

So yeah. Yay! I'll keep this thread updated as we go on but yeah I'm excited.

That's a fantastic move up! To be the person telling the story.
LucasArts point and click adventures used to be one of my favourite genres and with this setting and story it looks like CDA is something for me. If my creaking computer can handle it I will try the day one demo.
Oh, and nothing wrong with sharing a project you've help to make that will be of interest to others.

I watched the promo stream you were in on this Taf! I think you mentioned it yourself but the train map transition is very cool as an immersive, diegetic element.

OrangeRKN wrote:I watched the promo stream you were in on this Taf! I think you mentioned it yourself but the train map transition is very cool as an immersive, diegetic element.

It's legit my fav animation in the game so far. But yeah, thanks for tuning in Orange!

And yeah, we actually recorded way more than we could put up during that event, so we'll be releasing a full let's play of the prologue some point soon, one where I look even more awkward and talk even more gooseberry fool.

Really enjoyed the demo of this when I played it a couple of months back. The feel of the game world is great, really captures the future noire feeling in the right way, for me at least. I really like the idea of hopping out of the game to go do real world research, tabbing back and forth from the game to Wikipedia to go and learn some stuff. I'm sure this used to be a thing in some other games a while back, late 90s or early 00s era PC titles, but can't remember any specific examples.

Looking forward to the full release.

I keep meaning to play Night Call so I’ve got it downloading as its on Game Pass, will probably play it after I’ve finished off The Medium.

This is looking really good too!

Robbo-92 wrote:I keep meaning to play Night Call so I’ve got it downloading as its on Game Pass, will probably play it after I’ve finished off The Medium.

This is looking really good too!

Night Call is a very Game Pass game imo. The writing and art is top strawberry floating notch (I mean, the writing in general, not necessarily my own) but the central detective mechanic is...somewhat lacking I think. But it's 100% worth experiencing. And thanks!

In new news, we got a wee mench in this month's Edge!

twitter.com/Tafdolphin/status/1355434446477021184

Last edited by Tafdolphin on Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

Oh hey, our new trailer came out!

Looking really good, Taf. I'm excited to play it, definitely most excited to experience your writing though :msgreen:

Thanks!

None of the dialogue in the trailer is mine, but I have heard some voice over work using my stuff and let me tell you: it gave me proper shivers.

I'll bet, must've been a huge rush. I'm expecting you to deliver :datass:

Game Pass on day one!

This looks really good. I really love that art, it sends my brain to its happy place straight away.

Fake edit - Xbox Game Pass? or just PC?

Chinatown Detective Agency: featuring patented Real World Research™

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