[Exclusive interview] Text-based puzzle game CaseCracker invites you all to unveil the mystery

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CaseCracker is a text-based mystery game first released on PC in 2022. Featuring immersive & creative gameplay, and a rigorous story design, CaseCracker has received a 94% positive review rate on Steam and is praised by many players as a high-quality honkaku mystery game.

And now, CaseCracker is officially coming to mobile exclusively on TapTap on April 17, and we are more than happy to have BlackRobe, the development team behind this game, for an interview to talk about some behind-the-scenes stories of the game.

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❓TapTap: The opening text in CaseCracker blurs the line between reality and fiction. Were there any real-world cases that you took inspiration from for mysteries in the game?

🙋Developer: Yes, I did read about quite a few real-life cases and news as a source of inspiration. Some references to real-life cases can also be spotted inside the game. For example, there’s a case using the pacemaker as a deadly weapon, which was inspired by the famous hacker Barnaby Jack revealing the "pacemaker flaw".

❓TapTap: Did you consult with real police departments or detectives about how they investigate crimes or how their computer systems work?

🙋Developer: I didn’t really get the opportunity to consult with real police departments or detectives. I mainly searched online to learn more about how police departments crack cases in real-life scenarios.

❓TapTap: How did you approach the challenge of making the game exciting even though the visuals are mostly just looking at a computer screen?

🙋Developer: I think for a game to be exciting, the key is to be immersive. The gameplay design of CaseCracker is able to bring an immersive experience to players who enjoy this game genre. When immersed in cracking the case, players are more likely to be emotionally pumped up by events that come out of the left field (like, the system gets hacked), the case design that defies the pre-set assumptions (multiple victims in a single case),  and unexpected plot twists.

In order to make players really feel “excited”, the game constantly gives out psychological cues, implying that the main character might be in danger, or that there’s a mole in the police department. With that tension building up, all those unexpected but plausible elements, including the plot twists, the designs that break the fourth wall, and the puzzles that extend to real life, would bring the tension to the climax.

❓TapTap: Since CaseCracker is split up into individual cases, it feels like it could easily have updates or DLC with new cases. Have you considered doing that or do you want to leave the game as it is?

🙋Developer: There will be a sequel, which is currently in development.

❓TapTap: When preparing to bring a story-heavy game like this to a wider global audience, were there any cultural elements that you felt may not make sense to an audience in a different region of the world that you had to change?

🙋Developer: Since I never lived abroad before, it’s hard for me to clearly know which parts may not make sense to global players. However, some changes were indeed made throughout the localization process, such as some puzzles that may involve some word plays in Chinese. The localization and publishing team has really done a good job on this.

❓TapTap: One of the most interesting things about CaseCracker is that it really doesn’t hold players’ hands at all and forces them to figure out everything on their own. As a game developer, did this approach ever make you worry that you may be making the game too difficult? Or do you find that the difficulty is worth it for players who can push through?

🙋Developer: This approach would reinforce the immersive gameplay, but is indeed a bit challenging. To avoid making the cases too difficult to solve, I simplified the first few cases, which are relatively easier to crack as long as you don’t neglect too many details. Throughout the whole process, players can also get hints from the communications with Jia Agatha and the hint system. Hope that these can help more players make it to the end.

Players can either follow the main storyline (normal difficulty) or discover the hidden stories and finish some side quests if they prefer to take the challenge.

It’s impossible for a game to satisfy the needs of all players. All I can do is bring a better gameplay experience to players who love games of this kind.

❓TapTap: Do you want to create more mystery games in the future, or would you like to try developing a different genre and style of game?

🙋Developer: We’re working on a CaseCracker sequel, but that is a decision made based on the general cost and budgets, and doesn’t necessarily mean that I only want to focus on producing more mystery games in the future. If possible, I will try making games of different styles and genres.

❓TapTap: What are your favorite mystery books, TV shows, or movies that you took inspiration from when creating CaseCracker?

🙋Developer: I didn’t only draw inspiration from mystery works, but from some other categories as well. Some of my favorites are Her Story (game), One Piece (manga, which contains tons of details and hidden stories), True Detective (TV series), and Amazing Detective Di Renjie (Chinese TV series).

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CaseCracker is coming to TapTap exclusively on April 17 for Android players. Join the official Discord server for this game and discuss the cases with all the case crackers out there!

Join the IndieArk Discord Server!

https://discord.gg/SGFKKM3fZr