The Desperate Search
Knives, lies or kindness
What are you willing to do to get your son back?
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About The Desperate Search
An action-packed romp through Christiania (Oslo), Norway in the 1820’s – from a woman’s perspective. You play Anna, a single mother searching for her son, who has been taken by the town’s criminal queen. Your search takes you to the darkest corners to the brightest ballrooms. What are you willing to do to get your son back, and will you use knives, lies or kindness to succeed?
Story
The Desperate Search is a tribute to all the mothers, past and present, who do their very best for their children, even if it does not always work out. In this game the women are illustrated, while the men are silhouettes in the background. The only illustrated man is the one you kill in the first scene.
This is a narrative adventure game set in the lower, middling, and poorer parts of society in 1820´s Christiania (today Oslo, Norway). Your son has been taken by the town´s ruthless criminal queen Mrs Weismann, and to find him you´ll have to take on her criminal empire and make some tough decisions on the way. On your journey through Christiania you also meet, and befriend some of the towns hard-working women.
The game is inspired by historical processes and events. The weather, newspaper articles, and buildings are all based on sources. The characters you encounter are inspired by real people, and their life stories are gathered from court papers, census records, or newspapers. The challenges you face are plausible historical dilemmas, and how you solve them is up to you – whether you choose to use knives, lies, or kindness.
Inspiration
This is a Nordic noir game exploring the women’s history and labor history. It is deeply inspired by 18th and 19th century authors emphasizing social realism and women’s lives, of which international authors like Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft, Daniel Dafoe, and Charles Dickens as well as Norwegian authors like Conradine Dunker, Amalie Skram and Camilla Collet are prominent.
The artwork is European story book style, drawing on contemporary images of buildings, landscapes and people, inspired by themes in realism and classical painters, and artist like Johannes Flintoe, Christian Krog, John W. Edy and Peter Andreas Blix.
Game mechanics
The narrative is told in Visual Novel form. All your choices matter. Every decision will impact your attributes (knives, lies and kindness), as well as how people treat you, and which doors are opened or closed to you – Ultimately, your choices determine if, and how, you get your son back.
