It follows a young detective named Amira Darma as she starts up her agency to solve cases.
Thats a huge difference between the actual game versus what it was two years ago.
While Chinatown Detective Agency steadily improved over the several years of development, not everything made the final cut.
Although the mechanic sounded great on paper, it ended up just bogging down the entire game experience.
So we decided to focus more on the core gameplay and mechanics.
In Chinatown Detective Agency that core revolves around solving puzzles with factual trivia.
For example, in one of the early chapters Amira has to find out a stamps country of origin.
He knew, however, that most players would eventually hit a wall anyway.
Thats part of the reason why Mei Ting the librarian exists.
But doing so costs Amira some money - and perhaps the players sense of accomplishment.
Fillon also notes that emphasising search engines was done out of accessibility and approachability.
He explains that search engines are incredibly powerful technological tools that many people take for granted.
The Carmen Sandiego games came with an actual almanac!
These days, your smartphone will do.
One of the strongest aspects of Chinatown Detective Agency is its cultural authenticity.
A player noticed that the developers snuck in ahypothetical future regarding Australias electionsin a characters email.
What makes the game so believable and grounded are its characters.
I love characters with that kind of ambiguity," says Fillon.
But she flips these stereotypes on their head and uses people’s preconceptions to keep control of a situation.
Getting actors and actresses from the actual countries of the characters in the game was non-negotiable, Fillon explains.
Getting the right people to bring these characters to life is important.
One of the biggest themes of Chinatown Detective Agency is family and where to belong.
Sometimes, these histories are filled with long periods of humiliation and subordination.
Chinatown Detective Agency is a potentially very polarising game.
We certainly dont aim to kindly everyone, he says.
