Markus Ritter: Ghosts of the Past seeking a future on Kickstarter

Written by Jack Allin — August 28, 2021 at 10:37

If the story of a shiftless young man traveling to Central Europe to uncover his family legacy sounds familiar, you're on the right track with regards to an upcoming new FMV adventure from indie developer Flimmersoft. But here it's not Gabriel Knight in the starring role, but the titular protagonist of the fan-made Markus Ritter: Ghosts of the Past, which is currently seeking crowdfunding through Kickstarter.

Most of what we know about this game is derived from the free first installment in the series, The Lost Family, released earlier this month on Steam. In his short debut outing, Markus is plagued by inexplicable nightmares revolving around an unknown young woman in a white dress. She seems so familiar to Markus, and yet he doesn't know why, making him wonder if there's something more to these strange visions than merely being dreams. And so he heads to Vienna in pursuit of answers, where he may just end up fulfilling a quest to "become the person he was always supposed to be" while he's at it.

Inspired by the point-and-click FMV adventures of the nineties (and no doubt a certain Jane Jensen classic starring a fellow Ritter Schattenjäger in particular) Ghosts of the Past will pick up where its predecessor left off, sending players to explore a number of filmed real-world locations, including a church, the garden of Schloss Pottendorf, and "one of Europe's largest cemeteries." Depending on its crowdfunding success, there may also be a second famale protagonist to play, in which we alternate between characters with each new chapter.

In order to improve the quality of the production and expand on the content, Flimmersoft has lauched a Kickstarter campaign to raise €2,000 by September 23rd. Having already surpassed this modest goal and now targeting additional stretch goals, the first full-sized installment of Markus Ritter should be available for download on Windows and Linux by August 2023.