Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing News

Hello everyone,

Our old demo was gone for a moment - and now it's back: From today it's called “The Ebbing - Prologue” and is available again as a free, polished mini-game with three hours of playtime!

Wanna give it a go? This way, please!

[h2]What has changed?[/h2]

The game now has exactly the name that best describes it: The plot is actually the prologue to the events that take place in the main game in tranquil Havstedt. From the moment Valentin leaves the ship, the story continues in The Ebbing. This means you can get in the mood for our release on April 7th by playing the prologue!

You can also leave us reviews for the prologue now. We'd love to hear your feedback so that we can take it into account when developing the main game.

[h2]What's the storyline of the prologue?[/h2]

Accompany Valentin on his well-deserved vacation from the Bavarian civil service to the North Sea. Right at the beginning, this is overshadowed by a drama: The captain of the steamer taking Valentin and the other passengers to an idyllic North Sea island collapses out of the blue at lunch and is fighting for his life.

Was the captain poisoned? Or was it the alcohol or the opium that was his undoing? Valentin's job is to find out what happened - and in doing so, he comes across a web of relationships, dependencies and motives among the ship's crew and passengers that must be penetrated in order to find the real culprit.

Get the prologue here!

[h2]Have you already secured your NPC character booklet "The residents of Havstedt"?[/h2]

No? Then it's high time you did! If you sign up using the link below, you'll receive a whole boatload of information:

The Inhabitants of Havstedt: A free PDF handbook with space for your notes to help you keep track of the characters' complex relationships and motives.

Historical background information: Learn more about the NPCs and their lives in the 19th century. Perfect for delving deeper into the history of northern Germany.

Personality test: Find out which of the three NPC archetypes you correspond to - General, Scholar or Juggler?

Get the booklet!

Our demo is now two weeks old - now the developers are playing in the livestream themselves. We'd love you to join us! Bring snacks, a thirst for puzzles and all your questions.

When: 27.02.2024, 6:30 pm
Where: On our Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing store page and on Discord

This way to the official watch party on Discord.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Active Fungus Team

Hello everyone!

Our demo has now been out for a week and has been played by several streamers! We’d like to say thank you – your support helps Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing reach more people.

We joined several streams live in the chat and had a great time with the communities, especially when unexpected bugs led to some hilarious moments. Here’s a list of all the Twitch streams that have played The Ebbing so far.

In the meantime, we’ve fixed a lot of bugs that were reported to us via Steam, Discord, and the Twitch community. If you’ve been waiting for a smoother gameplay experience, next week is a great time to check out the Ebbing demo.


[h2]From February 24th to March 3rd, Steam Next Fest is happening – and we’re part of it![/h2]

Why is this important?

During Next Fest, Steam showcases demos of unreleased games to a large audience. The more people support us during this time by adding us to their wishlist or leaving reviews, the more likely Steam’s algorithm will notice us –and boost our visibility even further.

So if you play our demo soon and enjoy it, we’d be thrilled if you added it to your wishlist and left a review!

On February 27th, we’ll be streaming live on Steam as we play our demo. We’d love to have viewers join us! At the same time, we’re hosting a watch party on Discord – you’re warmly invited to join, chat with us, and help solve the quest.

If you’re planning to stream the demo yourself in the next few weeks, let us know! We’ll try to be present in as many stream chats as possible.



[h3]By the way: Have you already gotten your character booklet 'The residents of Havstedt?' [/h3]

It's a free PDF introducing the NPCs from Inspector Schmidt – The Ebbing, giving you an overview of their quirks, motives and preferences. We also included space for personal notes, very handy if you play The Ebbing in Detective Mode with reduced hints in the quest log. Quite a few people did this in past streams with A Bavarian Tale!

Get the character booklet here!

Yours,
The Active Fungus Team

Moin!

Some things always remain exciting as an indie studio: We're finally announcing the release date for Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing AND publishing a completely new demo today! With two hours of playtime you can play the first quest of the main game and get to know (almost) all gameplay mechanics - and of course the story.

We would be very happy if you played it and left us a review. We can fix and improve everything you report until the release on April 7, 2025. Thank you!

Tonight, Flom and Corviskiddo will be playing the demo on Twitch. We will watch the streams together on our Discord server from around 18:00 CET and mingle in the stream chat - you are very welcome to join us!


[h2]What's new in The Ebbing?[/h2]

In the tradition of other detective games, you will now find exciting number, picture, search and combination puzzles to crack in The Ebbing. The first puzzles can already be played in the demo.

The first part, A Bavarian Tale, was already mysterious, dark and sometimes bloody. In The Ebbing, a whole mystery storyline awaits the main character Valentin Schmidt, complete with creepy moor and nameless horror. We have completely overhauled the stealth mechanics for this.

Apart from that, we've kept the tried and tested features from its predecessor: Exciting dialog, weird and funny situations with quirky NPCs, a branching, complex plot with different endings, a voice and text output in (Northern) German and English as well as a strong historical reference to the 19th century, which significantly influences the setting of the plot.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

Explore the open world: Move freely around a coastal town in 1870 and search for clues.

Lead exciting dialogues: Use the dialogue mechanic to question the residents, gather compelling information and find out who is hiding something.

Start a confrontation: Question the suspects and catch the perpetrators

Search for clues: Use your detective sense to find hidden evidence.

Crack exciting puzzles: Use hidden clues and, above all, your wits to find important information.

Evade detection: Slip into forbidden areas and survive the dangers of the moor – getting caught is not an option!

Pass the skill checks: Use your abilities in classic pen and paper skill checks (dice rolls).

Level up: Develop your character and decide which skills you want to improve.

Craft useful items: Gather resources and build items and consumables to improve your skills.

Make difficult decisions: Your actions affect the course of the story. Decide for yourself how you want to succeed: Through charisma, diplomacy, ... the mission is clear: crack the case!

[h2]Story[/h2]

In detective-RPG Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing, you untangle a thick web of intrigues, lies, and secrets that surround a mysterious death. Find the origin of eerie telegraph signals, question the villagers, decipher the strange symbols that are suddenly appearing all over town - and hide from the danger lurking in the moor.

The sudden death of Bente Hansen shakes the picturesque seaside town of Havstedt. The townspeople are in turmoil: Who murdered him? What is the story behind the mysterious symbols in the town and - is there really a brutal beast lurking in the moor?

Uncover the truth behind the sea of lies and reveal the dark secrets of the inhabitants of Havstedt - without being targeted yourself.

Moin moin, you landlubbers!

Happy New Year - off to a good start, because we've landed a shipload of presents for you! If you sign up for our regular bottle mail at this link, you'll receive three treasures from Havstedt:

Free character handbook - With space for all your secret notes! So you can keep track of even the craziest Havstedt intrigues.

Historical facts - We take you into the exciting world of the 19th century and give you historical context to the fates of our NPCs.

Extremely accurate personality test - Find out which of the three NPC archetypes you correspond to. Are you an overly-correct general, a completely over-educated scholar or a clueless juggler?

... what are you waiting for, sailors? Subscribe, but quickly!

Your Active Fungus crew