In this detective RPG, you untangle a thick web of intrigues, lies, and secrets that surround a mysterious death. Find the origin of eerie telegraph signals, question the villagers, decipher the strange symbols that are suddenly appearing all over town - and hide from the danger lurking in the moor.

The sudden death of Bente Hansen shakes the picturesque seaside town of Havstedt. The townspeople are in turmoil: Who murdered him? What is the story behind the mysterious symbols in the town and - is there really a brutal beast lurking in the moor?
Uncover the truth behind the sea of lies and reveal the dark secrets of the inhabitants of Havstedt - without being targeted yourself.

Gameplay
Explore the open world: Move freely around a coastal town in 1870 and search for clues.

Lead exciting dialogues: Use the dialogue mechanic to question the residents, gather compelling information and find out who is hiding something.
Start a confrontation: Question the suspects and catch the perpetrators

Search for clues: Use your detective sense to find hidden evidence.
Crack exciting puzzles: Use hidden clues and, above all, your wits to find important information.
Evade detection: Slip into forbidden areas and survive the dangers of the moor – getting caught is not an option!
Pass the skill checks: Use your abilities in classic pen and paper skill checks (dice rolls).

Level up: Develop your character and decide which skills you want to improve.
Craft useful items: Gather resources and build items and consumables to improve your skills.
Make difficult decisions: Your actions affect the course of the story. Decide for yourself how you want to succeed: Through charisma, diplomacy, ... the mission is clear: crack the case!

Setting
The year is 1870 and the first functioning transatlantic telegraph cable has just been put into operation, heralding a new era of communication between the USA and Germany. Industrialisation and social movements are gaining momentum - and with it, critical discourse and conflict among the population. And then there is the Franco-Prussian War which worries people: nobody wants to be drafted.
Story
Valentin Schmidt, a young civil servant, just wants to spend his well-deserved holiday on the North Sea. After an eventful boat voyage, he finally arrives in picturesque Havstedt - but then events take a turn for the worse: Bente Hansen's body is found at the telegraph station.
Valentin's holiday seems to be over ... unless he uncovers the culprit and ensures safety in Havstedt again. However, he soon realises that every faction of the idyllic little town harbours its own dark, strange secrets. Who - or what - has Bente Hansen on their conscience?
Will you be able to get to the bottom of the sinister happenings in Havstedt?
What's new in The Ebbing compared to its predecessor, A Bavarian Tale?
More detective work
With the revised Detective Sweep, you can make sure that you haven't overlooked anything in a room. You can now also inspect elements and examine them for hidden clues, just as you can find important clues inside furniture.
Combination and number puzzles
Some information is hidden behind tricky combination and number puzzles. In The Ebbing, it's no longer just your interpersonal skills that are required in dialogs with NPCs, but also your deduction skills.
Improved stealth mechanics
We've completely overhauled our stealth mechanics for The Ebbing and developed some very nice quests around them that will hopefully keep you on the edge of your seat.
Tailor your game experience to your needs
There are different modes in The Ebbing that allow you to experience the game exactly the way you want to.
In story mode, the quest log will give you plenty of clues as to what you need to do next to solve the case. It is ideal for people who simply want to immerse themselves in the story and solve exciting puzzles. You can now significantly simplify our dice skill checks or even switch them off completely to get even more involved in the story.
The detective mode gives you fewer clues in the quest log and you are responsible for writing down your findings and not losing track of them. Who have you already questioned? What information are you missing? This mode is for hardcore detectives.
If you have to sneak past enemies, you can also adjust the stealth difficulty. This also allows you to set how thrilling these parts of the game are. If you get scared easily (and don't like it), this setting is basically your tension regulator.
Roadmap for Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing
We're continuously working on Inspector Schmidt - The Ebbing and look forward to your reports via Steam and our Discord server. This is our roadmap for the following months:
Controller Support
Steamdeck Support
Improvement of the Beta Language Versions
Porting for XBox
Porting für PS 5
Platt voice overs
Upgrade to Unreal 5.5
Funded by nordmedia – Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH.

funded by FFF Bayern.

Dear Community,\n\nwe want to thank you all for the incredible amount of valuable feedback youve shared with us over the past months and especially for your patience. We know it took us a bit longer this time to release a new update. The reason is that weve been working deep in the core of the game, completely overhauling essential systems.\n\nBecause of this, we werent able to ship smaller interim updates along the way which makes us all the more excited to finally deliver this big, polished update to you now! Highlights include a complete overhaul of controller support, noticeable performance improvements, and plenty of visual upgrades.\n\nWeve also added a brand-new in-game feedback system: just hit F6 at any time to submit your feedback, with or without screenshots. Your input goes straight into our project management system, which helps us receive and process it faster and more efficiently than before.\n\nAs always, you can find all the details in the Patch Notes:\n\n---\n\nBuild Version 10338\n\nThis patch includes various improvements and fixes.\n\nGameplay\n
- \n
- Fixed a rare level-up bug and a save issue that could lose progress.\n
- Interactions are now correctly disabled during cutscenes, and sprinting no longer triggers interactions by accident.\n
- Death now returns you to the Main Menu.\n
- Time-of-day adjustments: game starts during the day; night lighting reduced; multiple fixes to sky/time-of-day behavior.\n
- Drinking game with Fiete and the Twister Sisters achievement now work reliably.\n
- Fixed an issue where the player could shrink after sleeping on a bench.\n
- Improved fall/kill volumes to reduce unintended deaths and respawns.\n
- Buff system: improved handling in skill checks; new and clearer buff/debuff icons; brightness and tinting corrected.\n
- \n
- Full controller support polish: inventory, trading, inspection, and dialogues are fully navigable with gamepads.\n
- Added controller deadzone setting; fixed controller drift.\n
- Navigation and focus reworked across Settings, Load/Save, Skill Line, and other menus.\n
- Apply is no longer pre-selected when using keyboard/mouse.\n
- Cursor handling overhauled (hardware cursor, transparency) to prevent it from getting stuck or visible at the wrong time.\n
- Skillcheck widget focus/input issues resolved and added clearer button info.\n
- Compass toggle and Case Closed sound cues fixed.\n
- Fast Travel UI is now translatable and uses clearer visuals.\n
- Blocked access to the main menu while in dialogue to prevent conflicts.\n
- Shadow slider in Settings works as intended.\n
- \n
- Light in the Dark now completes properly after the finale.\n
- Fixed multiple confrontation info gates (e.g., Stine/Black Sheep, VanGroot, Pfefferminze detection) so clues appear when earned.\n
- Telegraph office key: door can be opened again; key no longer disappears from inventory after use.\n
- Corrected an epilogue flow for the mayor and several end-of-story sequence issues.\n
- Added quest for Jannis passenger register and integrated related dialogues.\n
- Numerous fixes to mis-ordered or missing dialogue lines, including mixed-up sequences.\n
- \n
- Menu sound issues fixed; sound classes and routing cleaned up.\n
- Level Sequence audio now uses proper cues and attenuation.\n
- Improved mixing for CYOA sequences, finale moments, ambient volumes (Kerker, Schferhof), and narrator takes.\n
- Added feedback cue for spending skill points.\n
- Removed duplicate explosion sounds.\n
- Music system upgraded with smoother playback and fades.\n
- Added door sound at Schferhof and corrected various dialogue sound cues.\n
- \n
- Corrected overly bright lights, adjusted point light falloff, and reduced skylight leaks.\n
- Added lantern and candle lights (with proper flames) in key locations; multiple night-time tweaks.\n
- Fixed numerous material issues (wood reflections, negative scaling artifacts, decals/surfaces, brick wall textures, glass glow).\n
- Time-of-day/sky system stabilized and optimized.\n
- Corrected many object placements, overlapping meshes, and clipping in interiors and exteriors (church, harbor pub, harms villa, and more).\n
- Replaced a broken fence and adjusted gate orientation where needed.\n
- Reworked foliage and reed materials; reduced excessive wind sway; several LOD and texture fixes.\n
- Added/updated environmental details such as tracks to the harbor gate and signage.\n
- \n
- Monsters: multiple fixes to spawn/loading and trigger volumes to ensure encounters start and stop correctly.\n
- Cleaned up sequence actors on game start to prevent duplicates.\n
- Chickens: fixed T-poses and spawner behavior; trigger volumes moved and tuned (slight radius increase).\n
- General AI improvements: movement state fixes and saving/loading of actor transforms; dialogue partner rotation corrected.\n
- \n
- Item inspection now uses improved post-processing and consistent lighting for better visibility.\n
- Inspection during dialogue restored and stabilized.\n
- Fixed issues where inspection, crafting, and dialogue could interfere with each other.\n
- \n
- Inventory is fully usable with a controller; exchange/trading reliability improved.\n
- Crafting widget refreshes correctly; removed a duplicate poppy flower.\n
- Added missing item icons and improved icon clarity/sizing (including new temp-buff icons, blueberry icon).\n
- Category and translation fixes for several items.\n
- \n
- Broad localization update for The Ebbing and other content, including signage and fast travel labels.\n
- Fixed multiple text language issues, live language switching with controllers, and assorted spelling/grammar errors.\n
- Corrected missing or incorrect translation entries across dialogues and items.\n
- \n
- Reduced poly counts on selected assets; lowered particle draw distances.\n
- Disabled ray tracing; optimized Nanite usage on select meshes.\n
- Enabled virtual texture streaming on targeted materials.\n
- Navmesh resolution tuning and foliage optimizations.\n
- Lighting pipeline tuned for performance and consistency.\n
- Stability improvements to asynchronous loading and save/load flows.\n
- Various backend updates and cleanup to reduce build size and improve reliability.\n
- \n
- Boats: corrected positions/behavior in the level.\n
- Reset rotated actors correctly on load; actors wont rotate unexpectedly if a save exists.\n
- Start at day, date/time consistency, and compass fixes applied.\n
- Numerous clothing fixes (skirts/trousers) to reduce clipping and LOD issues.\n
Minimum Setup
- Memory: 8 GB RAMStorage: 22 GB available space
- Storage: 22 GB available space
Recommended Setup
- Storage: 22 GB available space
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