When escape rooms meet visual novels – In a complementary combination of puzzles and storytelling, PuzzLab games have brought their extensive expertise in escape room design to the table in Detective Ridelle, a murder mystery game that seamlessly blends 2D visual novel and 3D puzzle elements to create an innovative, immersive experience.

I was lucky enough meet the devs of Detective Ridelle at the gaming convention, PAX Australia 2023, and chat a little about their upcoming detective mystery game – but it’s a little tricky to get down to the nitty gritty stuff in the hustle and bustle of a convention, so Josh of PuzzLab Games kindly agreed to chat with me more in this post-PAX interview.

☆ Game Name: Detective Ridelle
☆ Developers: PuzzLab Games
☆ Platforms: Steam
☆ Genres / Vibes: Mystery, Puzzle, Visual Novel, Detective
☆ More info: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Discord, Website

Trailer

Detective Ridelle

Detective Ridelle is a cozy murder mystery game that blends the visual novel genre with escape room puzzles. Join Ridelle and her partner Lucy on a luxury train as they solve puzzles, interrogate a strange cast of suspects and search for clues in order to uncover the truth behind a puzzling murder.

Explore a unique, handcrafted world filled with suspects, clues, and hidden secrets. Can you uncover the truth and bring the killer to justice?

(puzzlab.com.au/detectiveridelle)

It was lovely to meet you at PAX! For those reading this who haven’t come across Detective Ridelle before, could you describe it in a nutshell?

It was lovely meeting you too! Just to set the scene a little, my name’s Josh Tredinnick and I’m the designer and lead developer of Detective Ridelle.

Detective Ridelle is a murder mystery visual novel with a whole bunch of escape room puzzles to solve along the way. To give a little summary, Ridelle is a private detective who receives a mysterious invite to board a luxury train. On board, someone turns up murdered. Ridelle and her new partner Lucy have to search for clues, interrogate suspects and solve puzzles in order to solve the murder. 

The vibe is quite light-hearted and comedic, with a few serious and romantic moments in there as well.

If you’re interested in games like Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, Zero Escape, Danganronpa or just escape rooms in general, Detective Ridelle might be up your alley.

One of the things I love about Detective Ridelle is how you combine the classic 2D visual novel style with 3D puzzle elements – why did you decide to blend these together, rather than choosing one or the other?

When I originally started working on Detective Ridelle, it was initially going to be a traditional point and click game. I opted to make the backgrounds 3D because the intention was to have a dynamic camera, for example, you could click on a clue and the camera would approach it. However, once some of the environments started coming together, I realised that these were environments that would be better suited to walking around in and exploring, rather than just being in the background.

We’re a 2 person development team, and by opting to make the characters and some objects 2D, it shortens the length of development by a lot. We can make a game in 2 years instead of 10!

How did you go about blending the 2D and 3D elements?

I think the trick to blending 2D and 3D is to make the 3D elements as 2D as possible. Does that make sense? Not really? Let’s say that visually I aim to make the 3D textures quite flat, and try to have a consistent art-style throughout. My aim was to make the 3D environments cartoony and stylised so that even though the environments are 3D, they still have a bit of a 2D vibe.

Our 3D objects are also as low-poly as possible, which helps to make everything look flat, but also has the added benefit of making the game run much smoother.

Our character artist is named Rakkigaru. She’s just amazing and has produced some awesome art for this game. I really just wanted to make environments in which the characters didn’t feel out of place.

I have to ask, how do you come up with the puzzles?

That’s the easy part! I’ve been working in escape rooms for the last 7 years or so, and have designed a bunch of escape rooms in Sydney, so I’ve been around a lot of puzzles.

For me, the trick is keeping a notepad with me so that if a puzzle idea ever pops into my head I can write/sketch it down.

The hard part is making puzzles that everyone will enjoy. Sometimes half of our playtesters will say a puzzle is too easy and the other half will say it’s too hard! Finding that balance is key, and I’m more than happy to cull a puzzle if I can tell people are finding it frustrating. It’s just something you playtest like anything else.

During the development of Detective Ridelle, what has been your greatest achievement, and your greatest hurdle?

Like any indie game developer, I have a folder filled with dozens of unfinished projects. I’d say my greatest achievement has been having enough confidence in the game to ensure it gets finished, and fighting the temptation to start other projects halfway through.

My greatest hurdle by far has just been dealing with my silly brain. Some days I’m working flat out, but I can also go weeks at a time struggling to find the motivation to make any progress. It’s frustrating, but also a really great feeling getting over that slump and making progress again.

Also, marketing kinda sucks! I love making games but struggle when it’s time to market them. Luckily PAX Aus has been awesome for us and being featured in a PC Gamer article helped a lot too.

How did you find the convention experience at PAX this year?

The convention was AMAZING. This was our first time at PAX Aus and it was just crazy. We expected to be a quiet little niche game in the corner, but the attention we got was mind-blowing. Hundreds of people played our demo at the convention, and thousands played on our Steam page. More people like puzzle games than I thought!

The other indie developers in the PAX Rising section were so lovely and everyone was really supportive of each other’s work.

It would have been nice to see more of the convention, but we were so swamped that I didn’t have a chance to leave our booth! Hopefully I can explore a little more next time I come down.

What’s next on the agenda for Detective Ridelle?

A release very soon (fingers crossed)! We’re working really hard to get it in your hands by the end of the year. There’s no official release date yet, but stay tuned because hopefully we can tell you more really soon.

After that, a sequel? Maybe? I already have ideas and stories for a few sequels, but it all depends on the success of the first one!

Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with me! Before you go, do you have any other news, tidbits, or fun facts you’d like to share?

Yes! I’ve been reading a lot of Agatha Christie (particularly Poirot) because I wanted to emulate her murder mystery style in Detective Ridelle. Did you know she published her first Poirot book in 1920 and her last one in 1975? That’s, like, a long time!

Also, my wife and I are having a baby girl early next year, which is very exciting! That, plus getting Ridelle ready for release means my life is a little crazy right now, but it’s all very, very exciting too.

Thank you so much for the interview! I had a lot of fun. Let’s do it again for the next game!

Final Thoughts

If you’re a fan of detective stories, puzzles, and narrative-driven games with loveable characters, then I highly recommend checking out the demo for Detective Ridelle. PuzzLab games have extensive experience designing puzzles and escape rooms, and I can’t wait to explore these further in the full release of the game – hopefully before the end of the year!

Game Info

☆ Game Name: Detective Ridelle
☆ Developers: PuzzLab Games
☆ Platforms: Steam
☆ Genres / Vibes: Mystery, Puzzle, Visual Novel, Detective
☆ More info: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Discord, Website

Thank You

~☆ Patrons ☆~

About the Author

Contact Us

For all enquiries, please email us at sweetnspicyreviews@gmail.com or via the social media links below:

• Twitch
• Patreon
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Discord

More like this…