Meet Your Maker: Dan, The Detective Society // Interview

Meet Your Maker is a new addition to The Escape Puzzler! Have you ever wanted to know more about the creators of your favourite games? Do you crave more insight into the creative process of bringing a game to life? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll be featuring interviews with a wide range of well-known creators and shedding a spotlight on smaller independent businesses.

I’m delighted to introduce Dan from UK-based The Detective Society. We discuss game development, dream collaborations and helping other creators thrive. Dan also touches on the upcoming release of their Kickstarter-funded immersive puzzle adventure, Murder on the Moon (available to preorder now). Enjoy!

Your games were my first introduction to play-at-home puzzle experiences. Can I bill you for the MANY games I have bought since you ignited my obsession?

Ha, maybe we need a new disclaimer on the website to prevent over-puzzling! Thank you for your service to the Detective Society! Glad you enjoyed the games 🙂

Now, down to business! Tell me a little about yourself and your team.

My name is Dan and I am the co-founder and managing director of The Detective Society. I work with my two co-founders, Joe and Tristan. We’re based in London, England. The business is predominantly part-time but we do have periods where we work full-time depending upon what stage we’re in. Right now we’re working on new games, so we’re full-on!

What is The Detective Society for those who don’t know?

We make play-at-home mystery games, inspired by escape rooms! That means we bring years of working on real physical escape rooms and designing their puzzles, into the tabletop gaming space. Our mission is to make mystery games more widely played – not just by escape room enthusiasts but by all types of players. So we’ve designed our games to be challenging for puzzle folk but to have a great storyline for crime fiction fans too. They are also perfect for date nights or to fit in with regular board game evenings.

You launched in 2020 with The Disappearance of Claire Makova, an episodic mystery where players were mailed each episode separately. How has the company evolved since your first game was released?

We started during COVID because all the escape rooms shut down and we were out of a job. At the time, my co-founders were working on the Sherlock escape room (the BBC tie-in). We wanted to bring that feeling of discovery and immersion to players who were stuck at home. So with that in mind, the games started out as fitting inside an envelope that we could post easily. We created the feeling that you were a Detective being sent a ton of evidence to examine. We split the games into individual episodes because we were making a game each month and wanted an ongoing story. It became apparent that it cost a fortune to hold so much individual stock, especially when most printers wanted huge minimum order quantities of each episode. This wasn’t feasible for a small business. 

So, when people went back outside again we made a change… We put all the individual episodes into a single package that you could buy all in one. It works well because we sell at all sorts of gaming conventions, and in stores, as well as online. So, nicer boxes, and no waiting around to get to the conclusion of the story!

Have we seen the last of the episodic format or is this something you may return to in future?

The games are still episodic, it’s just that you get all the episodes in one package. We love being able to tell the story over a period of multiple episodes. And a typical game night might last two hours, which is just enough time to play a single one.

When you finish an episode, it builds hype to play the next in the series! So that format is not going anywhere – for sure. But, early on we had complaints that it was too expensive, and by packaging them all together we’ve considerably brought our price down. To emphasize this, Murder On The Moon, coming this winter, is considerably lower cost but has the same great episodic content!

Has your approach to game development stayed the same?

Yes, it hasn’t changed that much really. We start by meeting as a three and talking about the business needs for the next adventure. What do we think will be marketable? Then we come up with some ideas based on what interests us.

Once we have a ‘hook’ for the game we want to make, we sketch out a rough storyline. Usually, at this point, ideas for the puzzles will come too. Blending the puzzles and the story takes lots of trial and error. Our ultimate goal in the early stages is to get a playable prototype that we can test with our friends ASAP. It is amazing what you discover during testing! “Finding the fun” is just as important as bug squashing!

Once we are happy with the prototype, we then move to getting more lavish artwork done. Our graphic designers will make the nice brochures, business cards and other items you see in our games. We also work on creating more professional videos and audio to replace placeholders. All of that happens once we have fully tested the prototype because do-overs are expensive. Finally, we send the games off to be manufactured!

We play a lot of games together too and that gives us no end of ideas. To be honest, ideas are never the problem when it’s a business we are passionate about. It all comes down to what we can afford to do and what we think people will like. There is a bit of guesswork!

You collaborated with other game designers for Trouble in Folklore Falls and Family Adventures. How different is game development when working with people outside the company?

Working with Callum and Tom on Folklore Falls was awesome. They were really switched on and it was our job just to help them get the project to fit our format, use our technology and be suitable for manufacturing. We helped with testing and gave feedback, but on the whole, it was their game design. It paid off when the game won “Best Digital Hybrid” at the UK Games Expo award.

We’d love to do more of this sort of collaboration, and we actively speak with other designers all the time because we want to publish as many games as possible. However, we have strict rules about making sure everything we do ‘feels’ like a Detective Society game and fits in with our quality standards. 

And often we get pitched an “idea” which is a non-starter. We have tons of ideas – execution is what matters though! So, we are looking for people who have a semi-playable game, that perhaps need help reaching an audience, navigating the minefield of Kickstarter and manufacturing, or even using the technology we developed to run the digital systems in the games. 

Are there any dream collaborators you’d like to work with?

We’d love to do some brand/IP stuff! I saw Alien: Romulus recently and my mind was buzzing with ideas for a game based on that. I loved the retro technology aesthetic in that movie. 

Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Stranger Things, Doctor Who – these would be amazing. Lord Of The Rings! I’d love to make a Middle Earth themed mystery. Also, we play a lot of video games as a group, so maybe a tie-in with something there?

You‘ve launched a Partner Games section on your website where you sell games from creators around the world. How did this come about?

Ahh, this was a big thing for me personally! Our industry is filled with so many small, solo game makers who are making amazing games, but don’t have the time, knowledge or finances to get the games to a wider audience. Whereas, we’ve spent the last four years building up systems to handle that stuff. So I thought, why not reach out to some of those smaller makers, or those that are not based in the UK, and see if they want to sell games through our website? It’s a win-win. 

So far it’s working really well and we’re looking to find new companies to engage with. We want to create a little hub for mystery games here in the UK (although we do ship worldwide too). 

It’s particularly exciting when we go to the conventions and get to meet players and show off all these games, whether it’s made by us or not!

The highly anticipated Murder on the Moon is available to preorder right now and releases later this year. What can people expect from your latest adventure?

Oh boy, it’s a good one! I’m always hesitant to say too much because so much fun in these games is opening the box and being surprised. What I will say is that the standout feature in this one is the ‘moon map’ – where you get to build a little model of the moon base and use it to work out the comings and goings of the astronauts. It’s very cool!

Is it too soon to ask about what might be coming next?

We recently announced on our Kickstarter update for backers that we are working on new games. I can’t say any more than that unfortunately, but keep an eye on our website and newsletter over the next few months!

Where is the best place to start for those curious to try one of your games?

The good thing about our games is that they are designed to ease you in, no matter your skill level. There are no rules to learn, the game tells you what to do as soon as you open it. So really, any game that takes your fancy is a good place to start! With that said, I’d probably recommend Trouble In Folklore Falls if you like the Grimm fairytale vibe. Or start with The Disappearance of Claire Makova as its best-seller and longest-running game. Or, if you wait until Christmas, Murder On The Moon is going to be amazing!

Thank you!

A big thanks to Dan for giving a peek behind the scenes of life at The Detective Society. If you haven’t already, I’d highly recommend checking them out – their games are superb!

Follow The Detective Society online