Hello Game Jolt!
Hello Game Jolt, I’m Ben Wander, and I’m making A Case of Distrust, a narrative mystery from 1924 San Francisco!
In case you missed it, I’ve been running a devlog on my website for the last couple of years. Go there if you’d like to see the game’s evolution. Recently I met the Game Jolt folks — and they’re so nice and the community seems so loving that I had to start blogging here too. So, from now on, all devlog posts will be on Game Jolt as well! (In fact, Game Jolt will probably get more posts, since it seems people here like snappy updates!)
A Bit About The Team
I’m a former AAA dev, having worked on some cool franchises over the years at companies like BioWare and Visceral Games. I left for smaller development because I realized I was exclusively playing indie games — they seemed so novel, and I wanted to create new and unique experiences too! A Case of Distrust is my first title, and I couldn’t be happier with the reception it’s getting.
I create all the content in the game except for the audio, which is handled by my friend Mark “Marowi” Wilson, whom I met at BioWare. Virginia Woodall, a high-school friend(!), is using her contacts in the Toronto theatre to gather actors that she films and I rotoscope to make the character art.
IndieCade at E3 2017
A Case of Distrust was selected to be a part of IndieCade’s booth at E3 2017. This was my first time showing the game, and my knees were shaking before the show! Thankfully, people liked the game. A lot!
Attendees who played the demo left sticky notes about what they liked. The notes started taking over the booth:
The press seemed into it too. Some quotes from articles that have just come out:
Impressed me with its nuanced, careful construction of its milieu and characters, and the resonant comparisons it draws with the world of today
-Jen Glennon, Newsweek’s Player.One
It evokes its setting of 1924 San Francisco perfectly
The game’s writing [is] downright phenomenal
The art style and the manner in which this text unfolds…is totally evocative of the era
Super gumshoe… really cool animation and art style
Adventurous point-and-click gameplay
-Anthony Elio, Innovation & Tech Today
And the game even won some pretty big awards!
Overall IndieCade’s E3 booth was a smashing success for the game. It was exhausting, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. And now I’m looking to take the game to even more shows!
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