Knee Deep in the FAQ

What is Knee Deep?

What’s a “swamp noir?”

Why the episodic approach?

Who made the music?

[skewsound.com]

Why the theatrical stage setup?

What theatrical shows inspired Knee Deep?

Is it all fun and games in Knee Deep?

Why didn’t the game start with voiceover? And why was it added?

[krashcreative.com]

How big is the Prologue Games team?

What engine does Knee Deep use?

Any more episodes planned after Act 3?

Knee Deep is a swamp noir murder mystery that unfolds on a massive theatrical stage. It takes place in a forgotten Florida tourist town called Cypress Knee. The narrative primarily follows three central characters - a blogger named Romana Teague, a private detective named K.C. Gaddis, and a down-on-his-luck print journalist named Jack Bellet. The game starts with the investigation of the apparent suicide of Hollywood has-been Tag Kern. Soon enough, it’s obvious more is going on than first appears.We got a lot of inspiration for Knee Deep from classic film noir movies, such asand- shady deals, double-crosses, unscrupulous characters, and dark conspiracies abound. Our game takes place in a swampy north Florida town. Throw the two ideas together: swamp noir!It’s a fairly common method for narrative games these days - see Telltale’s adventures and Kentucky Route Zero, among others. But we planned from the start to limit the episodes to three acts, with the goal of releasing all of them within a year of launching Act 1. That first act came out on Steam in July 2015. Act 2 was released in November 2015. Act 3 is on track for release on March 8, 2016.The music and sound design for Knee Deep came from SkewSound , based in Portland, Oregon. They’re talented musicians who worked previously on Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We’ve really enjoyed the flavor their tunes gave the story, adding a quirky, bluesy layer to our swamp noir tale.During early iterations of Knee Deep, we kept the design fairly cinematic, similar to Telltale. However, in team play-throughs of the game, we didn’t feel awed enough by the presentation. We could get into the story and the characters, but the visuals didn’t set it apart enough. We brainstormed a while and finally settled on the idea of putting the entire affair on the world’s biggest stage.This approach gave us a built-in excuse to control character movements (every stage actor must hit their marks, after all) and allowed us to liberally play with time and space during the course of the story.It also occurred to us that theater, one of the oldest storytelling methods, is something people in the real world don’t always take time to appreciate. Maybe if someone plays a computer game that celebrates theater, they’ll check out a Broadway show or a community theater performance.We’re lucky to be based next door to the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC), so we’ve often got a chance to check out theatrical shows in their native environment. Our game draws inspiration from shows ranging fromandtoandThe game’s got quirky dialogue and amusing characters, but it also tackles serious issues, including environmental protection and over-development, cult religions, racism, small-town political corruption, and the clash between traditional print media and new social media platforms.Our thoughts on voiceover during the production of Act 1 ran about like this: It’s too expensive and, besides, isn’t it more cool to let players use their imaginations to “hear” the voices of all these characters?After Act 1 launched, of course, we heard a lot of positive feedback about the story and the visual presentation, while many complained about the lack of voice acting. We thought about it. Ultimately, we agreed with our fans and critics alike. We made room in the budget, teamed with the gang at Krash Creative , and got all the dialogue in the first two acts voiced in time for the launch of Act 2.It made a world of difference, in our opinion. The stage seems a lot livelier with actors who speak!We’re a small but agile team based at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, North Carolina. We’ve got a writer, a couple of programmers, a few artists, an animator, and a designer.We built Knee Deep using Unity.The story we’re telling in Knee Deep ends with Act 3. That’s not to say we won’t ever find a reason to share more stories about these characters, but the story we set out to tell with the mystery at Chief Roadside’s Wonderland and the machinations of the Church of Us should be done. We’re definitely looking forward to future projects, though!