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Detective is another big game from Ignacy Trzewiczek. I spent countless hours on that game. I wish I had precise stats, I wish I could look it up and see the number. Would it be like 10k hours? 15K? It was an intense few months.
I wrote the fluff for most of the cards in cases 1, 2 and 3 and did a lot of additional writing for cases 4 and 5. I designed every case, and by saying that, it was me, who decided that card 103 has such a clue, and card 105 links to that evidence, and on the back of card 108 there is such a hint. I gamified the whole story and put all those clues in the right places for you to find. I designed almost the entire case 3 from scratch and redesigned and rebuilt every other case. I basically created the whole thing. Every card you will draw is my card.
Except it is not.
***
Kuba wrote initial version of almost every case in the game. He worked closely with Przemek converting his story into actual cards. Kuba also wrote most of the files you will find online. He put in order and created source files for all data. He kept the timeline of the whole plot intact. He found every inconsequence, he double checked every date, every number, every piece of data. He updated the cards after each test I run, and after every suggestion I made. He made the whole plot smooth and much better than the initial version, he found all those small, tiny rough corners, nailed them and made them work.
There is no Detective without Kuba. Every card you will draw is his card.
Except it is not.
***
Przemek wrote the whole story. The big plot that intersects the five cases connects suspects and all characters, the big case you will discover when you finish the game. The research he did is unbelievable. When I was reading it, and when I was discovering all the pieces of the story, I was – and I am serious here – stunned. All pieces of the story make perfect sense, everything clicks when you find a new pieces of information, you are in the middle of case, you find a clue, you look at it, and you silently whisper ‘Oh, shit’ because suddenly this is the missing piece that makes perfect sense if combined with the evidence you found two cases ago, when you played last week. The game has a ton of moments when you’ll get goosebumps because two or three things suddenly connect and reveal you a fragment of a bigger picture. Przemek created a plot that could easily make Netflix miniseries, with all the layers and clues revealed in each new episode.
There is no Detective without Przemek. Every card you will draw is here because he wrote the story.
***
I worked on games in team previously, we did games like Cry Havoc, or Witchcraft, or Pret-a-Porter where there was a couple of people involved in the project. Never before though I worked in such a team, a team with members having so different skillset and completing each other that perfectly.
I gave this project my entire talent and whole heart. I know Kuba did the same, all hours, and care, and writing he put in the game is gigantic. I know Przemek did the same. I super honestly and with my whole heart can say that Detective is great and I have full confidence that it is me who made it great. And I know that Kuba has the same belief. And Przemek too. Each of us made this game something exceptional, each of us completed the team with their talent and skills. And each of us will put the damn box on our shelf, look at it and proudly say: „I am proud of you.”
Originally posted on BTTS Blog on BGG Forum. Click here to read there!
