Shadows of Doubt To Be Moddable Soon

It might not seem like it from the preview I did, but one of the highlights of the year for me has been the Early Access detective game from ColePowered Games, Shadow of Doubt. After the preview, I started a writing exercise doing a series of short stories based on crimes solved by my homeless detective for hire, Cormac Walker, expanding on the details of the crunchy pixels and cobblestone pavements of New Tokyo (clichéd huh?). I did so mostly by walking my way through the crimes, using my detailed notes assembled during investigations to compile a detail-rich story.

According to the latest information on the upcoming update, there will be a focus on giving players a new sense of control in their cities. “We are currently aiming to have the update ready for early December.” the update on Steam notes. “Before then[,] we may look to share the modding tools with some of the dedicated Shadows of Doubt modding community to make sure it all works and to check if there is anything else we should implement. If you would be interested in this please do join our Discord and take on the ‘Crunchers’ role.”

Talking about the details, the bullet points highlighting what to expect note that you’ll be able to create new citizen conversations, new dialogue for them to say, swap out V-mails for what I assume will be custom templates, and generally create your own mysteries. On top of this, you’ll also get the ability to create your own city, rename buildings and streets, and decide where everything goes. This will (quite literally) take the procedural generation aspect out for human-made stories. I expect a lot of Cyberpunk 2077-style missions or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to be re-created.

The other highlighted aspect is that to give you the ability to mod without concern for your stability, there should be an unstable branch separate from the main game with less optimization. Though that was one of my problems in the preview, I think it is fair to say, “You are doing a lot, and offering players the freedom to do so too, fair play.” I’d like optimization in that branch further down the line, but I see why it wouldn’t be right now. Oh, and for the weirdos who care about instant gratification, Steam achievements will be implemented too.

I love and adore when games embrace the creativity of the community that surrounds them. I mean I’d have to, otherwise, I’d be a hypocrite for my Cormac Walker stories. If there is Steam Workshop implementation to allow players to share their stories easily with others, all the better. Modding and overall creativity are supposed to be shared, so to quote the great Canadian philosopher Avril Lavigne from 2011, “What the hell!” Jokes aside, I can’t wait to jump back into Shadows of Doubt this December as we take our break, maybe even writing my own stories.