Cologne, - After the success of The Inner World and Trüberbrook, Headup announced Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, their next beautifully hand-painted point & click adventure. Developed by the Lithuanian team Tag of Joy and led by the art director of Broken Sword 2.5, the game will take the players to a vivid modern Europe, zesting for life. The game will be released for PC, Mac, and Linux in 2022.

The story follows a girl from Chicago, Milda, who unexpectedly receives an inheritance from her grandfather – a house in Lithuania. She sets off to Europe, but an unknown stranger threatens her upon arrival, demanding that she give up her inheritance. Determined and intrigued, she explores the run-down house, discovering old documents and clues dating back to the 15th century. In no time, Milda gets dragged into a dangerous search for a long-lost mysterious relic.

”In Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, we use 2D hand-painted backgrounds that we project on a 3D world and blend them with 3D characters”, says game director Šarūnas Ledas. “As challenging as it may be, this allows having various visual effects in the game: smart lighting effects, real-time shadows, 3D depth effects (parallax), which react to the cursor's and the main character's positions in the scenes.” What’s more, many of the scenes in the game have various perspectives and camera angles, from traditional side view to top-down.