Berlin, March 4, 2025 - Paintbucket Games, the award-winning German indie studio known for its thought-provoking games, announces the release of its historical investigation and court game The Darkest Files. The spiritual successor to their award-winning Nazi resistance game Through The Darkest of Times will initially be released for PC and Mac on March 25, 2025. The demo of the game is playable on Steam.
The Darkest Files is a historical investigation and court game. As the young, aspiring prosecutor Esther Katz, the players investigate unsolved crimes from the Nazi era based on true events. To do this, they interview witnesses, look for clues and ultimately bring the perpetrators to court, where they must prove their theory of what happened. On her exciting and emotional journey in post-war Germany of the 1950s, the protagonist Esther Katz joins the team of the famous historical figure Fritz Bauer, who actually investigated such cases as Attorney General in Frankfurt at the time.
"Above all, with The Darkest Files we want to make a gripping investigation and court game based on real cases that captivates gamers with its open deduction mechanics, its captivating story and its beautiful cell-shaded graphics in the style of pulp comics of the 1950s," explains Jörg Friedrich from Paintbucket Games. "But we also want to tell the story of Fritz Bauer, who, with his team of courageous prosecutors, against massive resistance fought for justice after the war. This story has become frighteningly relevant again today, at a time when the rule of law and democratic institutions are under unprecedented pressure. We hope that we succeed in both, because it is through the stories that grab and carry us along, that we are inspired to take action ourselves."
Features
- Interview relatives, witnesses and suspects to find out the truth about the extensively researched, historical cases.
- Immerse yourself in the statements through Esther's inner eye in first-person mode - interactively relive what happened from the perspective of the person giving the statement.
- Evaluate the evidence and draw conclusions.
- Reconstruct your theory of the crime on a blueprint of the crime scene, and bring it to court.
- Bring any theory and achieve different endings to the cases. It can certainly happen that a perpetrator goes unpunished.
- Explore the lovingly and elaborately designed public prosecutor's office building. Discuss the case with your colleagues or your boss Fritz Bauer, find out more about their backgrounds, explore the archive or simply chat in the kitchen.
- Since the successful Kickstarter in April 2024, Marlene, the office cat, has also moved into the public prosecutor's office.
- Full voice acting (English)
- Beautiful 3D graphics with a cell shading effect that makes the game look like a walk-in 1950s pulp comic.
Historical background
Fritz Bauer was a German lawyer. As a Jew and a declared opponent of the National Socialists, he was dismissed from his position and taken to a concentration camp. He emigrated in 1936 and resisted the Nazis from exile.
After the war, he returned to Germany and worked as a public prosecutor - he became known, among other things, as one of the key whistleblowers in the capture of Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann and as the initiator of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials in the 1960s.
In Through The Darkest of Times, the spiritual predecessor of The Darkest Files, players organize the resistance in Berlin of the Third Reich. The game won numerous national and international Awards including the German Developer Award in the categories “Best Indie Game”, “Best game Beyond Entertainment” and “Best Story”. At the German Developer Award 2020 it was nominated for “Best German Game” and won in the “Best Serious Game” category. At The Game Awards 2020, it was the first German game to be nominated in the “Games for Impact” category.
More about The Darkest Files and Paintbucket Games is available on the website of the game as well as on BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
About Paintbucket Games
The indie studio was founded in 2018 by Jörg Friedrich and Sebastian St. Schulz. Both have been developing games for over 20 years and played key roles in the development of AAA games like Spec Ops: The Line or Dead Island 2 , before they founded their own studio.
A diverse team of around 20 developers are now working in their studio in Berlin on The Darkest Files. Paintbucket's first game, Through The Darkest of Times, was released worldwide in 2020 for PC, Mac, consoles and mobile devices. It received numerous awards and was nominated for “Games for Impact” at the Game Awards. Released in 2022. Paintbucket Games game Beholder 3 which also won the “Best Story”, “Best Indie Game” and “Best Game Beyond Entertainment” awards at the German Developer Award as well as the “Best Serious Game” award at the German Computer Game Award.