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In Bilbao we caught up with indie dev Borja Gambra from Ametz Games to get pixelated evidence about this detective graphic adventure which combines the classic genre's traits with a modern twist that reminded us of Ghost Trick.
"Hi friends, I'm in Bilbao for the BIG 2024 and I'm learning about several graphic adventures, which is always interesting, and the last one is by Borja and it's called Detective Firefly.
Thank you so much for joining us, Borja."
"So in this case, again, you have to solve a mystery.
So what can you tell me this specific detective is going to try to solve?
Yeah, Detective Firefly is a game of puzzle narrative games, puzzles, and you have to solve these cases set on a city full of bugs."
"The people are bugs.
And there's a mafia, the Yakuza Mantidae, or Mantis, that are trying to force all the people on the city.
So it's your job to clean all this mafia off from the city."
"And you are using pixel art for this, which is very typical of graphic adventures.
I've been talking with locomotive guys, for example, it's also pixel art.
So how do you work on this? Are you the solo developer?
And why did you choose this specific art style?
Yeah, as you said, this pixel art fits really well with this kind of games."
"I'm a solo developer myself, so I had to work with this pixel art from the beginning to the end.
And the characters are not pixeled, but I think that the vibes that the pixel art gives to the environments works really well.
And what type of puzzles can we expect to solve for the detective to move forward with the investigation?
You have to resolve murders."
"It's a city that, as I said, the mafia is going into the city, so you have to stop it solving all the murders that they make.
Is it about gathering different clues or items or taking notes?
Yeah, the scene is full of suspects, so you have to talk to all of them and then contrast their testimonies so that you get to know who is the murderer."
"And also you have to look for clues all around the site.
And then gathering all that information you have to come up with the murderer.
How is the game structured in terms of chapters and the different steps you have to take to complete the story?
Yeah, the game is built with six cases, so from the beginning you go case by case solving the mysteries, but what you make when you send the report of the mystery, the information that you place there affects the following mysteries."
"So you have an impact on the narrative and there are four different endings that you can achieve depending on the path that you choose.
So it's branched in a way, it's a branched narrative.
What's the status of the project? You showed me the first chapter, I think it's in a kitchen or something?
The first chapter is on an arcade and it's the demo of the game."
"I'm trying to move it to this kind of events and it's the only one that is built, but the whole game is written, so now I'm looking for funding to keep with the game.
And for a publisher?
Yeah, a publisher that helps to move the game to more events and getting into this fan base of this kind of games that are really good to know."
"All right, thank you so much for your time and good luck with the project and looking forward to playing with Detective Firefly. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much."
