Now showing: Fogtown TV pilot – Mystery of the Moth Napper!

• Features by Sean Parker
• Published:

Shadowy figures lurk in the misty streets. Outrageous crimes occur right under the nose of the ineffectual police force. And the populace's only hope for justice can be found in... a cozy little apartment numbered 221B, home to an easily distracted detective and his stalwart best friend.

Welcome to Fogtown.

Conceived by the twenty-year comedy short veterans at Hapstance Films as a television series with a pilot episode crowdfunded in 2022, Fogtown is a new franchise that pays cheeky homage to the world of Sherlock Holmes through a very different lens—one where the world is made of handcrafted cardboard and everyone is a puppet.

As an added bonus, Fogtown's other main endeavor is an upcoming interactive adventure game! Developed by a group that includes some of Adventure Game Hotspot's very own staff (namely editor-in-chief Jack Allin as lead writer and yours truly as creator/director), along with other talented programmers, designers and puppeteers, A Rum Case in Fogtown seeks to appeal to anyone who loves FMV mysteries and a bit of wacky mischief.

With tonal influences drawing from Wallace & Gromit as much as it does from Sam & Max, the game takes place prior to the events of the TV show and sees Sherblock and Blockson investigating a mysterious pub sabotage that lands very close to home, frantically chasing down leads and often getting off track in equal measure.

A Rum Case in Fogtown  is being made with real puppets in CG environments with choice-based investigative gameplay, and will sport an all-star cast of video game FMV and voice acting legends, including Lenval Brown (the narrator of Disco Elysium), Dean Erickson (Gabriel Knight himself from The Beast Within), Rupert Booth (Inspector Jenks of Contradiction), Cissy Jones (Delilah in Firewatch), and Paul Morgan Stetler (Curtis in Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh).

After debuting a short playable slice at the first-ever Adventure Game Fan Fair this July, A Rum Case in Fogtown will soon be getting a larger public demo on Steam, with the full game targeting completion by the end of next year.

Fortunately, enthusiasts of puppet-based Sherlockian satire needn't wait to get their fix, because the Fogtown team has now released the half-hour television pilot directly on YouTube, free to all!

The pilot episode, entitled "Mystery of the Moth Napper," sees the brilliant but scatterbrained Sherblock still struggling to gain recognition as one of Fogtown's top sleuths, all while having his focus pulled from an important case to do battle with a nefarious but unorthodox master thief, played by voice legend Stephen Russell (of Thief, Fallout 4, and Skyrim fame). 

This is the proof-of-concept for a full TV series that's been over twelve years in the making, with the hope of being turned into several full seasons of wacky, heartfelt puppetry adventures in the near future. Until then, we hope you enjoy the first adventure of the inseparable Sherblock and Blockson.

More information about Fogtown can be found on the project's website and official YouTube channel. If you like what you see, please help us spread the word, and stay tuned for A Rum Case in Fogtown!

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