Dead Meat being seasoned for PC release

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Experimental black-and-white murder mystery interrogation coming to Steam in 2024

Interrogation of suspects is hardly new in the adventure genre, as confessions or slip-ups are often crucial for detectives to bring perpetrators to justice. But usually there's only a few pre-selected options to choose from to dictate your approach. Not so in indie studio Meaning Machine's upcoming Dead Meat, which uses "author-led machine learning" to let players use their own words to solve a crime.

Lucia is a billionaire robotics engineer who almost certainly killed her husband; at the very least she's clearly hiding a "terrible secret." With her lawyers on the way, players assume the role of a detective with a limited window of opportunity to question her before they arrive. But Lucia's a smart customer and won't be easily swayed. You'll need to devise your own way to "manipulate, persuade, threaten, or even seduce" her for the information you seek. You can rely on "classic strategies you've seen in the movies," or come up with a more creative method of interrogation that's entirely your own. It helps that you have an ace up your sleeve: your trusty "Mind Reader 3000" that gives you first-hand insight into what the suspect is thinking. You'll need to think strategically each time you "ask Lucia a question, read her mind, and use what you've learnt to get closer to the truth."

This "macabre story involving hamburgers" features a stylized black-and-white cartoony presentation, with the action taking place on the left side of the screen and the conversational interface on the right. Even as Lucia tells you one thing, you have the ability to "see the emotional impact of your words on the suspect," sort of like a built-in lie detector. The game's ability to interpret your words relies on machine learning, but the developers are sensitive to the controversial nature of artificial intelligence in games. Dead Meat is being written "in partnership with Script Compass – London’s leading script development consultancy," whose stated belief is that "AI used ethically and responsibly can be a powerful tool to enhance human writers and human creativity." Rather than minimizing the personal element, for game directors Tom Keane and Ben Ackland, the technology affords them "a new opportunity to express our wildest visions."

There is no firm target release date for Dead Meat just yet, but the game is due to be launched on Steam for Windows and Mac sometime next year. To follow its progress in the meantime, you can sign up for updates on the official website.