Summary

• Dead Meat features a unique interrogation scenario and deep conversations with suspects that offers players the freedom to ask anything.
• Inspired by D&D, Dead Meat creates a new genre of 'First Person Talker' where players can explore gameplay through conversation mechanics.
• Dead Meat uses AI trained by hand-written stories, with creatives still very much at the wheel and the AI simply being a tool.

One thing I love about gaming events like WASD is sharing recommendations with people. You can tell them of a little gem tucked away in a dimly-lit corner of the showroom floor you don’t want them to miss, and they will turn around and do the exact same thing for you. The more people you chat with, the more recommendations you get, and generally, if you keep hearing the same name over and over, you know it’s 𓂃a winner.

Dead Meat was that game. I lost count of how many people mentioned it to me during the sh🍒ow, including developer Meaning Machine co-founder and creative director Thomas Keane. It features black and white cartoony graphics thꦺat have a splash of red for that extra dramatic element.

Dead Meat takes place in an interrogation room, but don’t worry, you’re the one asking the questions. Opposite you sits a suspect, and when it comes to solving the murder you must find out the following: who the victim was, where they were killed, how they were killed, and why. You ask the questions and your suspec꧃t answers, but you also have a secret weapon: the Mindreader 3000, which provides more information than your suspect anticipates, allowing you to narrow down your line of questioning even further.

I love all things murder and mayhem, so the idea of solving a murder is my jam, but I haven’t even explained the best part of Dead Meat yet. You can ask suspects whatever you w🧔ant. Literally. It doesn’t have to be in any way related to the murder, you are free to type whichever question your heart desires. You can try to persuade them, threaten them, or even flirt with them. For the record, I kept it entirely SFW while playing, you know, other than chatting murder. There are kids at WASD, after🐻 all.

In the demo, you find yourself face to face with Lucia, a robotics engineer who’s just killed her husband, though she’s naturally claiming her innocence. As well as reading her responses and in🐠ner thoughts, you’ll also see her emotional state switch up on the chart as she gets more and more nervous, so you know when you’ve got her on the ropes. You only get🙈 three guesses to submit your conclusion, but you can ask as many questions as you like and there is no time limit. You just have to make sure you’ve got all the facts before you commit to your accusations.

I lost a couple of guesses with silly wording, but I got the𓃲re in the end with my final guess and was told I was one of the quickest to solve it. I feel the need to mention that as it’ll balance out my other WASD coverage where I fail spectacularly.

The First Person Talker Genre

“Our ambition as a studio is to create an all-new genre: the ‘First Person Talker’”, K⭕eane tells me. “This genre is about giving players the chance to have deep and meaningful conversations with characters – using their own words. And then exploring what gameplay mechanics emerge when you put freeform conversation at the heart of an experience.”

Keane is an experimental game designer who has been exploring this for a while now, with his comprehensively. Inspired by the likes of mystery games Return of the O꧅bra Dinn and The Case of the Gꦐolden Idol, the aim was for Dead Meat to feel similar, “but instead of inspec🐲ting a ♏scene to crack the case, you’re interrogating a suspect.”

“We see massive similarities between Dead Meat and a game of Dungeons & Dragons,” Keane adds. “Where the player is ꦑco-creating the narrative by bringing their own ideas to the table. We’re super keen to encourage this creativity – and have tried to design the game so that players are rewarded for thinking outside the box, and for adopting unique and eccentric strategies.”

The team felt that the interrogation scenario was the perfect fit for a ‘First Person Talker’ as it encourages open conversation while still giving the player clear objectives. “Another early breakthrough was the mind-reader mechanic,” Keane adds. “We fell in love with the idea of giving players a window into the soul of our characters – exposing their innermost insecurities, hopes, and fears. This became the central dynamic – with players using the vulnerable truths 🅘exposed in the mind reader to close in on the case.”

Dead Meat uses an AI system trained by the team’s own hand-written story conꦑtent, with Keane explaining, “It functions a bit like a Dungeon Master in a D&am🦹p;D campaign – giving players the freedom to do whatever they want, while always responding in a way that is believable and meaningful for the game world.”

Keane gave me an example. You might ask Lucia what her favourite coffee is, but she’ll reply with something like she doesn’t have the heart to drink coffee iཧn the morning now her husband is gone. The game wasn’t always as adept at this as it is now, as the new technology is constantly being perfected as the team employs new techniques and improves their AI models.

“Six months ago Dead Meat was still fun to play, but it was also fairly easy to make the game talk ♛in a way that didn’t fit the character – or even break the fourth wall entirely,” Keane says. “But now we’r🌄e getting to a place where the characters are basically bullet-proof. We had a whole load of people try to break it at WASD, but no one succeeded. This is a big breakthrough for us since we want our players to dig deep into the characters – and probe the boundaries of what’s possible – all while maintaining the illusion you’re sitting in front of a cold-blooded killer.”

AI As A Tool, Not A Replacement For Human Creativity

AI is a thorny subject, with Keane acknowledging that concerns about the impact of AI on jobs and creativity is a valid one. Howeve🐷r, he reassures me that “Dead Meat demonstrates that there can be another way – if creative people take the wheel. Dead Meat is covered in human fingerprints – from the hand-crafted story and artwork, to the 🌳character-led game design. It’s a game made by people, not machines.”

The team is particularly proud th🥂at it is creating s🐻omething that has never been done before. Meaning Machine hopes to inspire other developers to join in their “new phase of bold creative experimentation” and to show that “AI is only valuable when creative people are at the heart of it”.

Keane jokes that the easiest way to break through in the industry is by creating an entirely new game genre, as if creating a game wasn’t hard enough, “There is definitely some truth in that joke. So many indies – as well as blockbuster studios – are exploring the same old ideas. How many times have you met someone making a 'Roguelite meets Deckbuilder meets Survival Horror meets FPS' etc.? This makes sense on one level since there is a proven market for certain genres and mechanics. But it also makes it super hard to differentiate yourself.”

I’ve never played a game quite like Dead Meat. I’ve played mystery games and murder games, but never one that allowed such freedom in how you as the playeജr control the scene. Maybe Meaning Machine has really done it and created a whole new game genre.

Dead Meat is curre♔ntly planned to l﷽aunch in 2024 and is now.