Grundislav’s A Golden Wake opening for business next year

Written by Peter Mattsson — September 28, 2013 at 09:55

Florida in the Roaring Twenties: sunshine, jazz, prohibition, and... real estate agents? Never one to take the obvious path, A Golden Wake is the first commercial title from developer Francisco "Grundislav" Gonzalez, better known for his popular Ben Jordan freeware series. 

A world away from Ben Jordan's paranormal investigations, A Golden Wake delves into the seedy underbelly of Miami in the 1920s. It's an era more commonly associated with flappers, mobsters carrying violin cases, and moody black-and-white gumshoes, but here instead we're invited into the life of Alfie Banks, real estate salesman. Young Alfie has recently arrived from New York seeking the American dream, only to get swept up in the less-than-pretty events surrounding the founding of Coral Gables, The City Beautiful. (In case you're worried, though, it's a "game about real estate in the same way Resonance was about particle physics.") Based on real-life events, locations and people, this is the "story of an innocent man's descent into greed and corruption, and his eventual redemption."

As with Grundislav's earlier titles, the interface is pure old-school point-and-click and the graphics are unapologetically low-res and lovingly hand-drawn, though they're definitely looking sharper this time around. We're also promised a jazz soundtrack, full voices, and at least one character dancing the Charleston.

A Golden Wake will "hopefully" be released for Windows sometime in 2014, but (as Ben Jordan fans know all too well) Gonzalez is not a man to be rushed. You can follow events at his development blog or the game's official website.