What first struck me about WHODUNNIT is how it seems to take every single one of its individual components to its developmental extreme.

To put this in concrete terms, this game did not settle for having "a custom-made user interface", no, it had to have the most fantastic and well-realized UI it could deliver. It was not enough to have good music made for the game, no, it had to have an alternative version for the tracks to play if you pause the game at that scene. To merely have good designs and sprites with microexpressions was not enough, they had to be utilized extensively to push the mystery, and for that it's clear the developers were constantly asking themselves what each character was thinking and feeling at every line of dialogue to adjust these expressions. It was not enough to have gameplay mechanics for investigation, they went the extra mile and really created a web of ways to interact with the story — and, as a writer, I could not help but notice the attention to detail in how some optional interactions trigger very optional asides on conversations, depending on the order of events in your playthrough.

That was my first impression: that I could point at every single visible element of this game and say "good was not enough, they were aiming for excellence."

After finishing the first episode, I feel even more justified in this belief. If anything, the start of the game is disarming and plays it coy. The premise and the protagonist, Howie, are introduced in such a gremlin-like way that one cannot help but be disarmed by it. Then the story kicks off and, so far, my impression has been that in terms of writing it was not enough to provide a funny protagonist and a silly story, no -- each individual narrative element that follows and precedes it was also taken to its logical conclusion. Too many times to count I found myself taking note of details that in real life would imply very specific things, only to find that my suspicions were entirely founded and integral to the story -- which is absolutely fantastic for a mystery story.

I'll be following this game's updates. I'm hooked.