The Criminal Minds Game was released on April 19th, 2012 for PC and Mac as part of the Legacy Interactive's Hollywood Hits series.
Game Premise[]
In Criminal Minds (the game), the player will join the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI as part of an elite team of criminal profilers to solve a series of shocking crimes, and will have to scour crime scenes for clues, interview witnesses and suspects, and analyze evidence to catch the culprits.
The player will get to play as various members of the Criminal Minds team to solve puzzles and build criminal profiles to narrow down the list of suspects. Each member of the team has his or her own areas of expertise that can help pinpoint predators' motives and anticipate their next move.
Game Developer[]
Ryan Modjeski
Ryan Modjeski wrote and designed his first adventure game on spec in the late 1990′s, and has gone on to work as a designer and producer of casual, mobile and social games.
His games have won multiple Parent’s Choice awards and even a Kids Game of the Year from Gametunnel.com. Having a passion for experimental and indie development, he was also a juror for the 2010 Indiecade International Festival of Independent Games and keeps a game design blog.
He explains in his own words how he got involved in the development and production of Criminal Minds (the game): I admit it. I was late to the game. I never really started watching the Criminal Minds TV series until about a year ago when I caught a marathon of episodes late at night. I couldn't tear myself away! Each episode was captivatingly creepy and refreshingly different from the vast majority of the other “cop” shows on television. Little did I know that six months later I’d be tapped as the designer and producer for a light adventure/casual game version of the Criminal Minds license.
Obviously I was met immediately with a very unique set of challenges in trying to translate a show that revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze and hunt down the country's most twisted criminal minds into something the intended audience of gamers would enjoy as much as I do. The show is darkly lit, contains disturbing themes, features a large cast of characters at different locations each episode, and plots that are driven primarily by very abstract psychological profiling. Where to begin?
I decided to approach the restrictions as a challenge. The Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) travels to a new city every episode? Great! We decided to make the game contain three distinct episodes (instead of just one as most games do), each in a different region of the US: Texas, Florida and the Pacific Northwest. Each episode would follow the same format that has made the series a ratings success.
Dark lighting and large primary cast? A big challenge for this game is to meet the casual game audience on their terms. We carefully examined what works and doesn't work in some of the “darkest feeling” casual games and have learned to play with colored light and to make the brightest spots brighter rather than make the darkest spots darker. [...], the result is a colorful but darkly moody feeling. And our crack team of artists found a gritty, but realistic style for our characters that I think both fans of the show and casual gamers will enjoy.
Presenting an interactive experience that contains disturbing themes? Bring it on! Most (if not all) Criminal Minds episodes deal with some pretty dark plot lines. Tune into a random episode of the show and the BAU team is likely to be hot on the trail of a sick-minded serial killer who probably has some issues that can be traced back to a bad childhood. While this is admittedly titillating to watch on TV, I don't think most people want to be immersed "up close and personal" in that world.
The addition of a cursor on the screen, the digital embodiment of the player's presence, and active hidden object gameplay (now you're touching the stuff!) to a story like that could be a real turn-off to most casual game players. After reviewing years of Criminal Minds episodes, we hired some of the best writers around to come up with three brand- new cases that the license holder (CBS) would love and scripted them in a way that could translate into exciting gameplay that doesn’t take things too far.
Game Characters[]
Supervisory Special Agent
Supervisory Special Agent
Technical Analyst
Game Screenshots Gallery[]
