Kickstarter laid out for Cradlemoor

Written by K R Parkinson — March 20, 2022 at 10:27

If you were to receive a mysterious USB drive in the mail, what would you do? If you answered, “plug it straight into my computer and peruse the contents,” you're precisely the target audience for TallHead's Cradlemoor, an upcoming interactive murder mystery currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.

Cradlemoor casts you as a journalist whose foray into the contents of this "mysterious USB drive from an unknown sender" reveals a trove of clues relating to the disappearance of a film crew in 2013 while they were investigating an unsolved, two-decades-old murder in the eponymous village in Dartmoor, "one of England's last great wildernesses." Presented via a virtual desktop computer environment reminiscent of Her Story, the player’s job will be to explore over a hundred documents, audio files, film clips and photographs you find within, as well as use an “interactive multi-branching chat interface” to communicate with other characters in the game.

Cradlemoor's story will be revealed through more than two hours of live-action video and audio clips, and is intended to be accessible to both veteran gamers and non-gamers alike. The mouse-centric gameplay can be explored at your leisure, with notes taken and conclusions drawn from the evidence as you dig deeper. How you approach the material matters, as the developers note that “rather than dictating answers, the game encourages players to interpret clues in their own way, allowing the wider narrative to be explored inside the imagination.” 

Supported to date by the Arts Council England, the indie two-man development team is now seeking £3,500 by April 17th through its Kickstarter campaign in order to finish production. Backing development at a £15 minimum will grant access to the full game, which is slated to debut on Steam Early Access in February 2023 with new content added regularly after that until completion.