Detective: City of Angels is a noir crime board game inspired by LA Confidential, LA Noire and The Big Sleep

A new crime board game from the publisher of Saloon Tycoon and Hostage Negotiator plans to bring the tension and uncertainty of grilling suspects for clues to the tabletop world.

Detective: City of Angels is described by Van Ryder Games as being inspired by film noir such as LA Confidential, crime novels by the likes of LA Confidential author James Ellroy and even Rockstar video game LA Noire, and casts players as detectives in 1940s Los Angeles attempting to solve a range of mysteries.

The game’s unique mechanic is the Adaptive Response Card (ARC) system, which allows an antagonistic player known as ‘The Chisel’ to control suspects in each case, offering lies and falsities to the remaining detective players to try and mislead them.

The detectives can press on a suspected lie, but will end up at the whim of the Chisel if they pursue a dead lead.

Detective: City of Angels will include casebooks for both the detectives and Chisel, offering a variety of Consulting Detective-style outcomes depending on the decisions taken by the players – revealing different suspects, uncovering a variety of clues and chasing fresh leads.

The game is the latest design from Dark Moon creator Evan Derrick and illustrated by Robinson Crusoe, TIME Stories and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game artist Vincent Dutrait.

It’ll take to Kickstarter later this year, with a planned launch in summer or autumn.