 Each year was divided into several non-linear branches of puzzles that all had to be solved before the player could progress to the next year.Schafer opted to give the conversation-heavy game the flavor of film noir set in the 1930s and 1940s, stating that "there's something that I feel is really honest about the way people talked that's different than modern movies".He was partially inspired by novels written by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.