by: Maddie Rowley
Fun fact: not all pens are created equal—at least when it came to Curtain Call, Hunt A Killer’s newest season which includes several handwritten vintage-style letters that come in the first box of clues.
“These letters were all written in-house by various members of the Hunt A Killer team, said Krystle Alder, lead designer on the Curtain Call project. “It was a challenge to find cursive writing and make it legible, especially with the pens we’re using. They’re a little harder to control than, say, a ballpoint pen.”
According to Smithsonian Magazine, ballpoint pens weren’t invented until 1938 by Jewish-Hungarian journalist, László Bíró, so this detail didn’t fit in with the Curtain Call timeline, which fades in and out from the early 1930s to contemporary times.
“We were like, ok so we have to use either fountain pens or pencils,” said Director of Production Carlea Holl-Jensen. “Rebecca and Krystle did an incredible job making sure that every single letter, especially the coded letters, are legible, so it was a complex challenge.”
This is just one of the minute details that are painstakingly discussed between team members while writing and designing a new Hunt A Killer season and I wanted to get more of a behind-the-scenes look into that process with Curtain Call.
I called Elinor, Carlea, and Krystle, all members of the production team for Curtain Call who work at our Baltimore office to chat more about how the season came together and to get the inside scoop.
First, let’s start with a quick season synopsis:
“Curtain Call is the story of a woman who owns a Broadway theater finding a body that is connected to an infamous cold case in the attic of the theater. It’s been there for years and years, sort of buried way in the back and uncovering it opens up all these questions about the history of the theater and the history of her family that you get to delve into and untangle this web of 1930s Broadway intrigue,” said writer Elinor Haney.
Before landing on the above plot, the team cycled through several ideas that included everything from a Dracula musical to a ghost-centric storyline.
“I think we focused on the 1930s era specifically because it’s so beautiful visually and so many things were happening in New York City at the time like the Great Depression,” said Elinor. “There’s also a lot of intrigue and glamour around old Broadway stars that we thought would make for really interesting characters in a story.”
The goals for Curtain Call at the beginning stages were to consider the views of Hunt A Killer’s stakeholders, nail down a tone, and create something that feels nostalgic to the particular time period while evoking the glamour and tinge of darkness from that time.
“I’ve done a lot of theater in the past—deep down I’m a theater kid,” said Elinor. “I think that this is the version of the story that focused the most on the dynamics of a cast and the dynamics of people who do theater with each other which is something I’m very interested in, even if it’s transposed against almost a century of a different time and place.”
Design plays a huge role in every Hunt A Killer season, but there were new challenges with Curtain Call regarding how to translate the intricate 1930s look and feel to the clues and materials that come in each box.
“I referenced a lot of 1930s celebrity magazines,” said Krystle. “They had very interesting layout techniques that they did back then and I pulled a lot from those. The typewriter faces you see are authentic to the 1930s and are what people would use back then.”
Krystle also chose paper materials that felt vintage to keep with the theme.
“There are almost no smooth-textured papers, they’re all vellum or eggshell to accentuate the fact that they’re supposed to feel old.”
From the photography to the cohesiveness of all the materials together, the media production, the attention to detail and accuracy of the time period, Curtain Call is probably one of Hunt A Killer’s most intricate productions yet.
No detail went unscrutinized, even to the point where copy editor Rebecca Torchia read through a draft of a document that mentioned the New York City zoo and came across a problem.
“She went back into these old newspapers and found that the New York zoo was closed this week,” said Elinor. “She combed through everything to make sure that nothing went into the content that would not have been realistically something that somebody said in the 30s.”
The production team for Curtain Call had more lead-time with this project which meant more time to research all aspects of the storyline, like how medical examiners conducted autopsies in the 30s, how they set up lighting and photography in the 30s, and more.
With the amount of morbid and murdery aspects that the team researches, the question often comes up about whether or not they get used to reading about such gory topics and if some of it affects them.
“We’ve definitely done some other projects where we were looking at very graphic things like severed feet and it’s pretty gory,” said Carlea. “I think we’re all true crime fans to some extent so we’re not totally desensitized. Murder is always upsetting but some of the stuff about the conditions in which characters lived and the pressures that were put on people is hard to carry around.”
Elinor added that many of us at Hunt A Killer have some level of fascination with morbid or darker interests and have formed a bit of dark humor surrounding that.
“We go into every project wanting to tell a compelling, interesting, multifaceted story and make a good game but we still want to really pay tribute to this genre and the people we’re writing about,” said Elinor.
In terms of upcoming Hunt A Killer seasons? Elinor, Krystle, and Carlea are, in a word, excited. Working at Hunt A Killer isn’t like a typical 9-to-5 gig, and we generally get asked a lot what it’s like to be in a start-up environment that creates such a unique product.
“The kind of stuff you work on at Hunt A Killer really varies from project-to-project or even day-to-day,” said Elinor. “I really like that variety because it keeps me on my toes and I learn about all kinds of things that I’d be learning about at any other job.”
Hunt A Killer’s community on Facebook allows the team to access feedback on the game almost instantly, which is a great way to build on future ideas for the coming seasons.
“I’d echo all of that,” said Carlea. “I’d also add that it’s really extraordinary about this company and the products that we’re making is that we have such a dedicated audience and we get this opportunity to tell stories and see how people are reacting to it in real-time. We get to see how the members are engaging and learn from that. They’re extremely passionate and extremely smart. We stalk the Facebook pages!”
From a design standpoint, Krystle said she enjoys the challenge every day.
“I wouldn’t say that as a product designer at Hunt A Killer you’re a typical graphic designer. You definitely do things that push the envelope in terms of printing or process that I find very rewarding in the long run,” said Krystle. “I’m always excited to come into work, so I’m excited for the next season of Hunt A Killer.”
To learn more about Curtain Call and Hunt A Killer in general, check out our website.