Jigsaw Detective
When Pogo.com contracted us to write six installments of Jigsaw Detective, their film-noir themed puzzle game, we saw an opportunity to provide a richer story experience than they had previously attempted. After discussing some new approaches with Pogo, we agreed to provide six individual cases that were all tied together by a larger story arc.
We drew inspiration from television shows such as The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, where each episode is a complete story arc that also advances the season’s overall plot. Taking into account that Pogo.com’s audience is largely comprised of women ages 35 to 55, wanted to produce stories that would inspire deeper emotional investment from this core audience. Without abandoning the traditional detective format, we began to give glimpses into the detective’s personal life and provided him with emotional connections to recurring characters.
Producing satisfying mysteries while adding emotional complexity and keeping the players clued into the ongoing plot lines is no small challenge, especially with the text constraints inherent to casual games like Jigsaw Detective. Our approach to storytelling has resulted in tight, compelling narratives with relevant themes and memorable characters. The audience feedback to the new cases has been fantastic, and we look forward to working on each new story.
The Escapist
Online gaming magazine The Escapist is a prime outlet for thoughtful videogame journalism. On September 12th, 2006, they published Screenshots and Boobies, an article written by Corvus on the disproportionately sexualized marketing of videogames. They have since gone on to publish All Play and No Work, a speculative fiction article about the impact of videogames on the workplace, , a piece about our experiences starting a videogame studio, The Mythology of You and Dawn of Games, which each examine the social impact of games from different perspectives.