Mei, so nice! To make sure the sun is still shining somewhere in Bavaria in the gloomy December fog, we're releasing a new, summery key artwork just in time for Christmas. Hopefully, a look at your Steam library will warm your heart over the holidays! We wish you happy holidays and a great start to the new year! The Active Fungus team P.S.: By the way: On 02 January 2025 there will be an update at The Ebbing that might interest you ... wishlist as a precaution so that you don't miss anything!

Hello, dear hardcore detective gamers! We are nearly finished with the story and with most of the gameplay mechanics - and now were looking for people who would like to test it all. Meticulously. We are especially interested in testers who have played a lot of detective games. You know the genre well, you know what excites and frustrates you and you have an opinion on games and always wanted to share it with people making them? Then you're hired! If you want to help, wed love you to sign up for the Beta: https://activefungus-studios.de/afs-beta-sign-up/

Hello, dear community! Today, we are reaching out to you because we need your support. We are slowly entering the final phase of development for Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing. To ensure we deliver a game that you'll be truly excited to play, wed love to know from you: In which detective games did you feel particularly engaged? What contributed to that feeling? Are there any game mechanics or features that frustrated you in other detective games? How would you improve them? What do you feel is currently missing in the demo? Was there anything you missed in A Bavarian Tale? Are there features from other games that you would like to see in ours? Are there any games that come to mind when you think of an Inspector Schmidt game? What are the similarities or differences? We would greatly appreciate your input your feedback could influence our game development over the next few months. Leave us a comment or contact us on Discord! Thank you so much!

This is now an award winning game!

Minor Update - Watschenbaum Achievement fixed - Re-Introduced Engine Prerequsities because of problems in Linux Version

Hi Community, We are happy to share a big tech update for Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale with you!
We have:

• Updated to Unreal Engine 5.4
• Optimized the performance
• Improved the light and colour settings
• Fixed the eavesdropping in the Priest quest
• Fixed the lantern so that refilling it is working again

Big Update: - We updated to Unreal Engine 5.4 - Light and Color settings improved - Performance improvements - A bug where it was not possible to eavesdrop in one of the quests was fixed - Refilling the lantern is working again

We are excited to be part of this year's Games Baked in Germany aka Games Made in Germany Steam Sale presented by Games Germany! Grasp this great opportunity, get a 75% discount on our beloved "Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale" and enjoy some freshly baked pretzels while solving a mysterious criminal case in 19th century Bavaria!
Make sure to also check out all the other brilliant games made in Germany here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/games-made-in-germany-2024 Have fun your Active Fungus Team

Roadmap Update There are still many things we want to improve on "Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale". The list below shows our planned Roadmap. It gives you a rough overview of the features and milestones we hope to achieve in the near future, but the contents are subject to change as we advance. We would love to hear your opinion on this. Please let us know which features and improvements you feel are the most important ones and if there is anything missing from this Roadmap. Thank you to all of you who have already given feedback, shared your experiences with "Inspector Schmidt" with us and flagged issues and bugs. We highly appreciate your contributions! Roadmap as of June 2024 Coming Weeks

• update to UE 5.4
• optimize performance
• perform several bug fixes (thanks again to our community for letting us know about the bugs you've come across!)

• improve on all localizations
• add Steamcloud Savegames
• Steam Collectors-Cards
• record and implement narrator for all Choose-Your-Own-Adventure parts

Save 50% now with our Weeklong Deal on Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale!

• Lead intriguing conversations: use the dialogue-mechanic to find out who is hiding something from you and convince the villagers to help you out.
• Make difficult decisions: your decisions have an impact on the course of the story, the world and the villagers. Will you find the right words?
• Level up your skills: decide which skills to level up and use them wisely in classic pen'n'paper skillchecks.
• Find hidden clues: use the detective-mechanic to find clues and evidence.
• Move around in the shadows unnoticed: sneak past enemies and guards to stay unnoticed. Or knock them out from behind.
• Defend yourself: if your sneak-mission has failed, you can use the fight-mechanic as a last resort and defend yourself with an old fashioned fist fight.
• Craft items to boost your skills: with the things you find in the world you can craft items that will allow you to succeed in difficult skillchecks.
• Decide how you want to solve the tasks at hand: With charisma, diplomacy, brute force, the art of stealth or strategic escape? The mission, however, is clear: solve this case!

We would like to inform you about an occasional issue that not only affects our game Inspector Schmidt - A Bavarian Tale, but has also been reported in other games based on Unreal Engine. The problem probably occurs in connection with a certain CPU, especially with Intel Core i9-13900K and i7-13700K. You can read more about this in this article, for example. If your game crashes and you receive the following error message, this could be due to the CPU issue described: Error Message: LowLevelFatalError [...] Could not decompress shader group with Oodle. According to forum posts here on Steam and Unreal Engine, other users have been able to work around the issue by running their games in Win8 compatibility mode and inserting -d3d12 into the command prompt line. We hope this information helps you in case you encounter this error. If you have any other tips for workarounds, please share them with the community here. Thank you!

- Menu music kept playing in game: Fixed.

• Huge translation and subtitle overhaul
• Fixed Archievements
• Fixed Flags and Gameplay events
• Fixed bugs in Widgets
• Fixed other minor bugs

Inspector Schmidt is currently investigating for 60% below the normal price. Don't miss out on this offer!

Whats new at a glance:

• now in Unreal Engine 5
• new English version
• bugs fixed
• performance improved
• steamdeck mode in the settings

[video webm= mp4= autoplay=true controls=false][/video]

[video webm= mp4= autoplay=true controls=false][/video] Hi, we look forward to seeing you at GGBavaria this coming weekend in Munich! You'll find us in the Indie Games Area in the Rotunde. See you there and pfati!

We are pleased to announce that our game has a new name that puts our beloved detective Valentin Schmidt in the spotlight. May he solve many more cases!

We would be very happy, if you support us to get the Studio of the year at Deutscher Computerspielpreis vorschlagt. Participation is still possible until 31.1. https://deutscher-computerspielpreis.de/studio-des-jahres-2024-gesucht/ Thank you very much! See you soon!

Better late than never...

We are pleased to announce some exciting improvements in our latest update for A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen! The lighting system has undergone a major overhaul over the holidays to make the game experience even more immersive. The implementation of Unreal Engine 5 resulted in some bugs that we were able to fix and improve the stability of the game. We paid special attention to storage management to optimize performance on different systems. The game now not only looks better, but is also easier to play with smaller RAM. These optimizations allow the game to run more smoothly even on systems with limited resources. We hope you enjoy these improvements. Thank you for your continued support.

We wish you all a happy new year according to your wishes and expectations. We're back at it again and want to start the year with a survey to find out your wishes, expectations and experiences with/of our games and learn from them. We would be very grateful if you could take a few moments to help us. It won't take long and will help us immensely. Sorry, the survey is only available in german at the moment.

Right here

Roadmap for 2024 We started work on The Ebbing and we learn a lot while doing so. For example we improved our pipelines for character art and animations. We plan on bringing some of the new knowhow into A Bavarian Tale in the next months. Plans for 2024 Q1: Improved Animations Improved Charaters Improved Lip Sync Q2: Improved english voiceover Q3: possibly porting to XBox and PS5

UE 5 Update Stream

- Better Looking Trees - Fixed the unlocked door - Loadgame Bugfixes

Big Update! Lighting System Upgrades Steamdeck Support Localization English Bugfix Direct X 12 Crash We improved the lighting system and have a much better looking sky now. Steamdeck support is finaly here. Enjoy solving crimes from you comfy sofa. We kept working on the english localization. Some people had crashes when aproaching the guards in the beginning of the game. We found the cause and fixed the bug.

Hello folks, we would like to thank you, our dedicated community, for your support. Your passion and feedback have helped to make "Totgeschwiegen - A Bavarian Tale" what it is today. Now we have the chance to be nominated for this year's Steam Awards and we appreciate every vote!

We have finaly managed to move the game to Unreal Engine 5. Enjoy Wolpertshofen in all new graphics, with Lumen, Nanite and all the new tech from UE 5. If you perfer the old UE 4 version, this will be available as a Beta version. You can switch and compare any time you like! Please excuse the late release. We had a hard time getting the achievements to work. But now everything should be fine. You can write us any time on discord if you want some hints for the "Der Wanderer" achievement: https://discord.gg/nShUfPznMJ

We have finaly managed to move the game to Unreal Engine 5. Enjoy Wolpertshofen in all new graphics, with Lumen, Nanite and all the new tech from UE 5. If you perfer the old UE 4 version, this will be available as a Beta version. You can switch and compare any time you like! Please excuse the late release. We had a hard time getting the achievements to work. But now everything should be fine. You can write us any time on discord if you want some hints for the "Der Wanderer" achievement: https://discord.gg/nShUfPznMJ

We are happy to share these good news!

Munich, July 11, 2023 - Munich-based indie developer Active Fungus Studios announces the second part of the series A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen. From 11.07.2023, the title can be wishlisted on Steam. The Ebbing - A Coastal Tale is scheduled for release on PC via Steam in 2024. In it, players will be put in the role of Valentin Schmidt, an officer who, after a stirring case in Upper Bavaria, actually just wants to take a vacation at the North Sea, but gets involved in a mysterious murder case again. [previewyoutube=qzwAK0rgr3o;full][/previewyoutube] Don't worry, development on A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen will continue. But the next adventures allready await: Havstedt - A small town nestled between idyllic meadows and the unforgiving sea. In The Ebbing - A Coastal Tale, players in the role of Bavarian official Valentin Schmidt are transported to the North Sea in 1870. What begins as a leisurely cruise quickly turns into a dramatic investigation to prove his own innocence. The installation of the first transatlantic telegraph cable from the USA, via England to Germany creates hope for many a resident for a peaceful time full of communication and understanding. But shortly after the first successful message, instead of the usual Morse code, only mysterious, incomprehensible signals seem to reach the German mainland. The undecipherable light pulses continue to feed the mistrust of the doubters about this new technology. Meanwhile, supernatural-looking lights are suddenly visible at sea, providing new material for sailors' yarns. Have the electronic signals at the bottom of the ocean awakened something that should have been better left alone? A dark mystery can be found around every corner, and every wave washes up a new inexplicable event. Story and gameplay merge in a unique way. The players have to discover clues and collect evidence in their role as detectives. By questioning the secretive inhabitants of Havstedt, they can obtain further valuable information. The players have full freedom to decide which skills they want to level up and use. These are put to the test in classic pen'n'paper elements through skill checks. In The Ebbing - A Coastal Tale, serious decisions have to be made, the effects of which can be felt in the investigative work and the further course of the game. It is not only the diverse abilities that make the course unique. Valentin can approach the challenges with charm, mischievousness or diplomatic approaches, thus adding a personal touch to the conversations. Valentin can also draw on the clues he has gained. Will he correctly combine facts and statements to uncover the truth behind the lies? Or will he get tangled up in a web of assumptions and false statements? Low German is on everyone's lips. In The Ebbing - A Coastal Tale, you encounter the charming flair of northern Germany at every turn. Not only the crab rolls and the authentic ambience, but also the characters are genuine fishheads with the finest dialect. The game is available in Plattdeutsch as well as in English. Didn't understand a word? No problem! The game is beginner-friendly - subtitles are in German and English. The dialogues in The Ebbing are a fully interactive feast for the ears. Key features at a glance: - Action takes place in 1870 at the North Sea - Historical crime RPG from the 3rd person perspective - Skills can be freely improved and are used in pen'n'paper elements - Decisions have influence on the further course of the story - Several different endings - Complete voice output in Low German and English - German and English subtitles - Unique Nordic-modern soundtrack

Servus... ah, wrong dialect... Moin Moin! We are proud to announce our new project today. Besides moving Totgeschwiegen to UE5, the production for "The Ebbing - A Coastal Tale" is already underway. Be excited for another 3rd person RPG crime adventure with Valentin Schmidt, this time at the North Sea! Get ready for a new environment, new people and new... murders?! Valentin just wanted to go on vacation, but now he needs your help! You can already wishlist the game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2492570/The_Ebbing__A_Coastal_Tale/ [previewyoutube=FQFbWJWrDps;full][/previewyoutube]

We are super happy to be part of the Games Germany Steam Sale. Explore games made in germany. And grab your copy of "A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen" now for 40 % off.

If you would like to participateyou have to activate the Beta Version in your settings. Best place to leave feedback is the ingame tool (F&) or our discord: https://discord.gg/mxMZUNpw6T

Open Beta of UE 5 version coming soon

We are still alive! Sorry, that it was so quiet in the last weeks. We are working on switching to UE 5 but it is way more work then we expected it to be. But we are not giving up and we hope to be able to have an open Beta of the UE 5 version running by mid of May. Once again: Sorry you did not hear from us. We are still a very small team and the amout of work very much overwhelmed us. But we can't wait to show you the UE 5 version soon! We hope some of you might be interrested in patricipating in the Beta and giving us some feedback and helping with finding bugs in the UE 5 version.

Thank you #ggbavaria and #gamesbavaria for having us. We had so many interresting conversations and so much nice feedback. A special thank you to Judith Gerlach, the bavarian state minister for digitals, for the visit and the very good conversation about the bavarian gaming industry and "A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen". We are taking all this positive energy into our next projects! Right now we are working on moving "Totgeschwiegen" to the UE 5 to bring you a major update in the near future. But there are also some pretty exciting new projects waiting in our pipeline. We are looking forward to telling you about them soon!

The demo will be online for 10 days 23.02.23 - 05.03.23

We decided we will move the project to UE 5 and already made good progress with that. We hope to be able to provide Steamdeck support, controller support, better graphics and better performance. But moving from UE 4 to UE 5 will take some time. We hope to have the UE 5 version ready in about 3 weeks. There are many things we want to improve on "A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen". The table below shows the planned Roadmap. This is a rough overview of what features and progresses we hope to make, but the contents are subject to change as we advance. We would love to hear your opinion on this. Please let us know what features and improvements you feel are the most important ones and if there is anything missing from this Roadmap. Roadmap 22.02.23 March 2023 - Move to UE 5 - Improve character graphics - Add controller support - See if we can get the game to work on Steamdeck - Improve performance - Fix too small subtitle font - Bring the demo up to date and have it available again (probably for a limited time only) - Better sorting options for inventory (categorys) - Fix bowling/kegeln bug - Fix problem with special signs in savegames Coming weeks - Add Steamcloud Savegames - Steam Collectors-Cards Longterm - Improve on all localizations - Record and implement narrator for all Choose-Your-Own-Adventure parts

Game Overview A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen

- Text and voice language can be changed in game - Added resolution to settings - Detective mode starts faster - Kegeln - no bowlingballs problem fixed - Repair glasses now working propperly - Drunk buff wears off faster - Fixed character names not disappearing - Red Eye and Enemys load correctly - Dialog Flow improved - Categorys in inventory

There are many things we want to improve on "A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen". The table below shows the planned Roadmap. This is a rough overview of what features and progresses we hope to make, but the contents are subject to change as we advance. We would love to hear your opinion on this. Please let us know what features and improvements you feel are the most important ones and if there is anything missing from this Roadmap. This week [KW/CW 6]: German and English Audio in the same Build Screen Resolution in Settings Menu Fix character names not disappearing Fix too small subtitle font Further improve on dialog flow Fix guards reapearing Fix red eye not being reset on load Fix english translation bugs Keysettings bug not being saved Fix disappearing boy bug Coming weeks: Add Controller Support See if we can get the game to work on Steamdeck Add Steamcloud Savegames Steam Collectors-Cards Participate in Steam Mystery Fest Bring the demo up to date and have it available again (probably for a limited time only) Better sorting options for inventory (categorys) Implement another "Kegeln-Minigame" Longterm: Improve on all localizations Record and implement narrator for all Choose-Your-Own-Adventure parts

- We fixed a bug where the audio-comment during detective mode would be audible even when not in the tutorial.

Thank you for the feedback and the many twitch and youtube streams. We tried to watch them all and implemented some minor changes to improve parts where things were to hard to find or unclear. We are very grateful for your feedback. Please join our discord in case you found some bugs or have ideas on how we could improve the game further! https://discord.gg/HWeTpJaQKP

Wow, the last few days were a wild ride - a wonderful wild ride! We want to take the time to say a big Thank you! to all of you! To our wonderful community who helped us all the way through the Early Access phase. To all the wonderful people who helped us on the way to release this game and support us in our efforts. Especially to Remote Control Productions, Attractmode, Marchsreiter Communications and Games Bavaria. And to all of you, who support us by playing A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen and putting your trust in us.

Recorded Stream - A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen

A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen - Livestream

A mords Gaudi! "A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen" is now officially released and waiting for you to find out what dark secrets are waiting for you in Wolpertshofen!

Update - Minor Dialog Fixes

New Enemy AI Fix Schnapsbrenner Quest Overhead Texts new Red Eye Fixes Alois JR Fisching Rod Tasks English LOC Improvements

- Steam Achievements - English Localization improved - Hiding improved - New Enemy AI - More XP - New Quest: Broken Glasses

Skill checks work similar to classic TTRPG / Pen'n'Paper skill checks. Skill checks can be triggered through dialog options or via interactions with items. In "A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen", you have seven different skills that you can level up over the course of the game. Each skill check corresponds to one of these skills. During a skill check two values are displayed, on the one hand a measuring value, which you have to roll, and on the other hand a skill value, which results from your respective skill level + possible bonuses or mali and serves you as a kind of buffer. You must now roll four times with a W20(twenty sides) and exceed the measuring value. If you roll a value that is smaller than the measuring value, you have to fill up the difference with points from your skill value. If you can't reach the measuring value on a roll and your skill value points are used up, the skill check fails. But don't worry, by strategically using consumables, certain skills can receive a temporary bonus or malus. You can still use these consumables during a skill check. This way you can gain a small advantage even in difficult situations with the right Bavarian delicacies ("Schmankerl"). If you manage to reach the measured value in all four rolls, the skill check was successful. Most of the time this leads to essential information, new dialog options or access to unexplored locations. Good luck with your rolls!

In A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen you'll carry out varied dialogs that require a variety of skills, depending on the conversational situation. You'll be able to make classic dialogue decisions that will steer the conversation in a certain direction. However, some decisions will only become visible once a specific piece of information has been found or the character has reached a certain skill level (for example, a charisma of 8 or higher). Alongside this, the specific skills of the protagonist, in which you can invest skill points beforehand, will be put to the test. You'll encounter dialogue options that will result in a positive outcome for the conversation only after a successful skill check. In some dialogs, choices are divided into three archetypes (charisma, gut instinct, acumen), which have different effects depending on the personality of the interlocutor. These choices can result in a bonus or malus on skill checks for these individuals. Also, in conversations that involve conflict, you can get involved in a battle dialogue. At the end of the battle dialogue, it will either turn out to be a success or a failure, depending on the dialogue options you have chosen in the process. Your choices within dialogues are meaningful and have far-reaching influence on the game world and its events. Find the right words!

A murder in Wolpertshofen? Can you solve the case?

Bugfix endless XP

Many small fixes Thank you so much for you ongoing feedback and support!

Explore the unmatched charme of traditional bavaria! Buildings and Environments were designed and inspired from original places in Bavaria. And the flair and feeling of the year 1866 was captured with the help of historians and original sources. #history #bavaria #games #abavariantale #totgeschwiegen

Update - Bugfixes

Update - NPC Lore Dialogs: Loib + Severin Griesbacher + the amazing Georg Bankerl Damen Holzfller

We are supper happy to announce the full release date for A Bavarian Tale - Totgeschwiegen: February 2nd, 2023