The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2 – Developer Diary #1

Hello Gamezebo readers,

My name is Ryan Modjeski, designer and producer extraordinaire at Legacy Interactive and I am writing to give you all a peek at my latest project, The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes Vol. 2.

I would have written to you sooner, but three weeks ago, production really started to fall off the rails. We were short on manpower as my artists and programmers were being poached for other projects in the office.  In an act of desperation, I had this wired to 221b Baker St, looking for some advice –

Needless to say, Sherlock Holmes never showed up. But things have settled down and we here at Legacy Interactive have been able to persevere.  In fact, after falling behind schedule for a while, we hired three new artists and since then the production of the sequel to the popular Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes has become a strangely smooth journey. Famous last words, I’m sure. We’ll see how I feel as we enter the Beta phase of production in a couple months.

But right now, our teams are focused on fleshing out the game, adding new cases, designing dozens of dastardly puzzles, painting exceptional characters and backgrounds, and our programmers are working feverishly to implement everything our writers and artists can throw at them. My job mainly consists of writing goofy telegrams to fictional characters and approving everyone’s brilliant work.

Buzz for our humble little game is building, and I have heard that a movie version of Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. is coincidentally slated to release at the same time as our game. Now, I don’t want to say that the new Sherlock Holmes movie is following our lead, but I would like to point out that our first title launched around the time of their pre-production and it is no coincidence that our office in Downtown LA is a ten minute drive from Warner Bros. headquarters.  Even Mr. Holmes himself would be hard pressed to find a hole in my logic.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not associated with the movie at all, but personally, I like how they are reimagining the license. We are doing our part here to liberate Sherlock from the stuffy confines of Victorian England.  I’m particularly interested in getting things a little dirty and pushing our art style towards a fresher, early 20^th century Art Nouveau style. And since all of you are just looking for screenshots anyway, this seems like a good time to share –

This particular scene comes from a case involving time machines, steampunk inspired inventions and Mr. H.G. Wells.

And below, of course is Sherlock himself. A little older than the depiction in our last version, but I like to think of it as ‘dignified’. I should note that his friend there is a member of the Baskerville clan. Apparently, in The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes Vol. 2, we learn about some new troubles up that way.

Speaking of our stories, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve been blessed with 16 all-new adventures, for the upcoming Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2. I don’t really know how these stories keep getting lost, but I’m just glad that our exceptional writers have been able to dig them up for us. Each adventure is a short stand-alone story with totally unique locations, puzzles and characters. We’ve conceived of over 60 locations around England, and 100 new suspects that for crimes that range from fixed boxing matches to piracy to (of course) murder. And everything in between. We even make Sherlock delve into his little known hobby of watch repair. Don’t believe me?

See, it says it right there. "Assemble the watch."

Speaking of watches, I think it’s about tea time around here. Leading the production of this game has helped refine my tastes. I now require tea and scones at 4 o’clock every day or else I won’t approve a thing. And I wear a suit. Even on the hottest, smoggiest Los Angeles afternoon. Now if I can only find my old violin…

Have feedback for the developers? Chat about The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2 in our forum.