Sherlock Holmes The Awakened – The 2006 opus gets a crowdfunding remake – Nintendo Switch

What is this game about?

The remake of Awakened sees a young Sherlock tackle his first big business alongside his newly-acquainted sidekick John Watson. What appears to be a simple missing person case soon turns into a web of conspiracies led by a nefarious cult that worships the eldritch god Cthulhu and is trying to fulfill an ancient prophecy. The game will take the detective duo through 4 locations – Victorian London, a Swiss psychiatric hospital, the bayous of New Orleans and the Scottish Highlands – as they attempt to separate reality from the supernatural while trying to put a end to these madmen.

Why are we doing this game now?

The idea of ​​using the disturbing and horrific events of The Awakened to continue the arc of young Sherlock has been floating around the studio for some time. The supernatural, all-consuming cosmic horror setting and gameplay works extremely well as a monumental and heartbreaking moment in Sherlock’s formative years. Something that surpasses what we’ve already done in Sherlock Holmes Chapter 1 and allows us to continue our creative vision of what Sherlock may have gone through to become such a broken and haunted genius. The story is also well put together and provides a great opportunity to give our perspective on how the deep bond between Holmes and Watson was able to be cemented. It’s a subject we intentionally didn’t touch on in the first chapter of Sherlock Holmes, but it’s a part of Holmes’s story that we knew we’d like to touch on one day. A deep and haunting experience that essentially brings them together. “

“So we always wanted to do this game again at some point, but the war forced us to do it now. Working on a title that has most of the content, scope and narrative locked down after just a few weeks , we’re giving ourselves a much more predictable and structured development cycle. And stability and predictability is exactly what we need right now, when the rest of our days remain so uncertain.” – Denys Chebotarov, producer, Frogwares

What is redone?

“No assets or code from the original game are reused. We are rebuilding the entire game from scratch to run Unreal Engine 4, using any new assets or those we can skillfully rework from Sherlock Holmes Chapter One which was released only a few months ago.We are also adding entirely new game mechanics while reworking the original mechanics to expand the methods of solving cases.The changes to the story and timeline involve recording entirely new voices. We’re also reworking the camera to be closer to modern third-person games, redoing all of the UI, animations, and cutscenes. The list goes on. essentially acts as an entirely new game, with only the underlying case story remaining more or less intact” – Jaroslav Martyniuk, Feature Designers Team Lead, Frog wares

Here is a list of the major changes to The Awakened:

• All new graphics and assets made in Unreal Engine 4
• New and redone animations
• Complete overhaul of the cutscenes
• Additional investigation game mechanics
• Rewriting the story to connect the case of The Awakened to a younger Sherlock.
• Amplification of the story that explains how Watson and Holmes became so close.
• Minor business history rewrites
• Additional side quests
• New English voiceover recordings and translations into multiple languages.
• Redesign of the user interface
• Switch to a contemporary third-person camera
• Additional quality of life features

What is being rewritten?

“The first Sherlock Holmes The Awakened was a stand-alone story in which Holmes and Watson, now adults, deal with a case that seemed like a simple kidnapping but turned into something much more supernatural and sinister. We are extremely proud of the original writing of The Awakened which, over the years, seems to hold its own, as many fans and critics have told us they consider it one of the best Cthulhu-inspired gaming stories.”

“So we’re taking that base and keeping a lot of the horror and Cthulhu story intact, but rewriting it to be a direct continuation of our young Sherlock’s story. for Sherlock to reunite a few years after the events that unfolded in Cordona. Watson is by his side but they are only acquaintances at this point and this is their first big deal together. Most of the interactions and lines of the characters are rewritten to reflect this. We’re making some changes to the stories in the cases as well as entirely new side quests. The story of how the bond between Holmes and Watson might have formed is amplified in the writing now, as well as the changes at the end to line up with all of this and the psychological impact the events would have on both of them.” – Antonina Melnykova, Lead Narrative Designer, Frogwares

Why do we crowdfund?

“Under normal circumstances, we would have funded our next game ourselves through the sales of our previous titles. But this war continually throws new challenges at us that force us to stop, regroup and adapting. It takes time, effort and, in some cases, money that would normally be scored to fund the production of a game.”

“We have the bulk of the content, new features, and storyline all mapped out and locked. But we’ve rewritten the original story for the most part and plan to use new voice actors. As we plan to launch the game on five platforms, we will also need a lot of time and resources for QA. And finally, the team has additional features and ideas for improvement that we would like to consider adding if we had additional resources. “

“Through crowdfunding, we can secure all of these needs and also safeguard the overall funding of the game, knowing full well that we now have a guaranteed way to complete the game and deal with any obstacles we may encounter as we go along. the evolution of this war. This safety net will allow us to put the needs and safety of our team first as we further adapt without derailing all development and funding.”

“And finally, we also know that we have a dedicated group of fans who appreciate and support our games and want to help us as best they can at this time. Through Kickstarter, we are able to offer these fans the opportunity to purchase our next game now and to be rightfully credited for their support in the game itself while helping to determine some of the game’s final content and giving them some additional rewards and bonuses.” – Sergey Oganesyan, Communications Manager, Frogwares