Press Kit Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing
Fact Sheet
Developer:
Active Fungus Studios GmbH, München
Release Date:
Demo available on Steam
Full Release: app. 2025
Platform:
PC
Languages: DE/EN
Description
“Inspector Schmidt – The Ebbing” is a playable mystery thriller. In this story-driven third-person RPG, you solve a murder case at the German North Sea coast in 1870, where the first telegraph cable between the North American and European continents had just been installed. It is the second part of the “Inspector Schmidt” series.
In „Inspector Schmidt – The Ebbing“, you, as Valentin Schmidt, are sent on a well-deserved vacation after solving your last complex criminal case in Wolpertshofen, Bavaria. You immerse yourself in the open world consisting of the small town of Havstedt and a picturesque peninsula at the German North Sea coast. Just arrived, a brutal murder case shakes the community and thwarts your vacation plans. To prove your own innocence, you must question residents, gather information, find and link clues. Level up your character’s skills and use them in classic pen and paper dice trials. Combine your findings to follow the right clues.
It soon becomes clear that this small town is hiding some dark secrets. As the boundaries between sailor’s yarn, superstition, the supernatural and tangible conflicts become increasingly blurred, it is your job to clarify the situation and successfully solve the case.
The aim of the game is to investigate several mysterious deaths and identify the right culprit. In doing so, you must be careful to not become the target of the village community yourself or cause even more unrest. The outcome and development of the story, as well as the behavior of the villagers, is influenced by the decisions that you make as a player.
Features
- Exploration: Experience and explore the game world, the fictional small town Havstedt on the German North Sea coast in the 19th century.
- Dialogues: Talk to the villagers, question them for clues, defeat yourself in verbal confrontations.
- Detective Sweep: Use your detective sense to find hidden clues and information.
- Combination: Combine statements and observations to gather evidence.
- Confrontation: Confront the suspects and convict the perpetrators.
- Level Up: Develop your character, level up your skills in dice tests, and use them in dialogs and choose-your-own-adventure situations.
- Skill Checks: Use your stats in classic pen and paper skill checks.
- Crafting: Gather resources and craft items and consumables which will help you in skill checks.
- Decisions: Your actions affect the course of the story, the inhabitants’ behaviour, and your own fate.
Gameplay-GIFs
Logos
About Active Fungus
Active Fungus Studios is a Munich-based game development studio founded in 2020. Led by Jakob Braun, the founder and CEO, a small-size, high-impact team of 20 develops first-person and third-person games focusing on their key skills:
- Realistic graphics style
- Deep stories and branching narrative with player agency
- Building, simulation and management gameplay with first-person perspective
- Survival mechanics
- Serious games
- Historic settings
- Unreal Engine 5
As a remote company, Active Fungus Studios values flexible working conditions that allow it to integrate talented professionals regardless of their location.
Active Fungus Studios develops computer games as experiences that entertain as well as immerse players deeply in the subject matter and provide food for thought. Through computer games, players are enabled to adopt different perspectives and encouraged to experience and understand conflicts and problems from different angles.
Active Fungus Studios creates worlds that are deep and rich in stories, experiences and challenges for the players and ourselves. One of Active Fungus Studios’ aims is to use computer games to draw attention to social issues. The focus is on historical events whose effects can still be felt today. The company attaches great importance to all team members encouraging each other to contribute ideas, feedback and improvements and to participate in the decision-making process.
Founded in 2020, Active Fungus Studios released the game “Inspector Schmidt – A Bavarian Tale” in February 2023 making a first impact in the German gaming community. The release with 83% positive reviews on Steam opened the doors for new projects and a strong development of the team from 3 developers in 2020 to 20 team members by the end of 2023. Currently, the team is working on 3 projects:
Inspector Schmidt – The Ebbing
A playable mystery thriller. In this story-driven third-person RPG, you solve a murder case at the German North Sea coast in 1870, where the first telegraph cable between the North American and European continents had just been installed. It is the second part of the “Inspector Schmidt” series.
Medieval Frontiers
A first-person survival and village builder game, set in medieval times.
STRESS
A serious game dedicated to the training of medical personnel in high stress triage situations like disasters and terror attacks, funded by BMBF, the German Ministry for Education and Research.
Do you have questions, requests or ideas for your reporting? Our PR contact Jakob Braun is there for you and will be happy to put you in touch with the right people from our team for your topic. If you report on us, we would be delighted to receive a link or a digital specimen copy.
Contact
Jakob Braun
Mail: info@activefungus-studios.de
Credits
Jakob Braun
Programming, Gamedesign, Creative Lead
Tristan Blaukat
Tech-Art, Localisation
Yasmin Ottenheimer
Tech-Art, 3D
Dominik Teichert
Lead Animation Artist
Bastian Zechmeister
Animation
Max Güttler
2D Art
Hanna Metelmann
2D Art, 3D Art & Character Design
Lars Brockob
Quest Design, Story Writing, Characterart
Sarah Roth
Gameplay Design & Story Writing
Julia Bencker
Story Outline & Writing
Ludwig Drexler
Musik
Max Greifenhagen
Musik
Marvin Seymour
Sound Design, Animation
Emil Richters
Programming, User Interface / User Experience
Sebastian Theuerkorn
Technical Director
Rainer Wordel
Programming
Christoph Floßmann
QA
Ingrid Amler
User Interface / User Experience
Christian Kuchta
Art Director & Environment Design
Tristan Blaukat
Environment & Level Design