Obra Dinn references in A Case of Fraud (spoilers for both games)
I haven't been able to find anyone mentioning this yet, but there are several Obra Dinn references in A Case of Fraud. For anyone who hasn't played ACoF, it's a deduction game most similar to The Roottrees are Dead, in which you sort through written materials and images to figure out who people are by determining their position, first and last names, and matching their image; in the case (no pun intended) of ACoF, it's mostly an organizational chart for the company whose CEO was murdered and then you also have to solve who killed her after you figure out the org chart. If you liked TRaD, I highly recommend this game, although it's shorter than TRaD.
Anyway, I noticed that a letter from a company had a name and logo eerily similar to the Obra Dinn, but figured it was just a coincidence. But then as I progressed and got more evidence and figured out more people, I saw a couple names and knew it couldn't possibly be a coincidence. There are a some references that may be a stretch, but since there are very obvious ones, it makes me think maybe they were just trying to be more subtle for some of them. So I compiled a list of all the references I could find.
Spoiler warning!!! Many names are spoilers for ACoF due to the nature of the game, so I've generally hidden names from both games for anyone who hasn't played as to avoid spoilers. Some minor spoilers for Obra Dinn fates, so I've hidden those specifics as well.
General format: ACoF info - Obra Dinn info and connection/reference
- East Company Financial Services Group, Ltd - logo is literally the Obra Dinn ship with like two more sails and is called East Company, very similar to East India Company, with pretty much the same font
- Henry Evans, BandAid First Aid Training Solutions - Henry Evans, Surgeon
- >!Martin Perrott, Developer and First Aider!< - >!Martin Perrott, 3rd Mate and hero !<
- Sally Blake listed as S.E. Blake - reminiscent of Edward Spratt, artist listed as E.S.
- >!Paul Verdi !<- >!Paul!< Moss - Both >!Pauls!< and last name >!Verdi!< comes from the word for green in Italian , and Moss is green
- >!Peter Kettle!< - >!Peter!< Milroy - Both >!Peters!< with Scottish origin last names; last name >!Kettle!< can also be Norse in origin just like the Kraken (probably a big stretch there, though)
- Ignite Leadership Solutions - Ignite Leadership Solutions logo is someone on fire, which is a fate for at least 3 people on the Obra Dinn (>!It-Beng Sia!<, >!Philip Dahl!<, >!Charles Hershtik!<), even more if you consider electrocution, explosions, and cannon blasts.
These are just the ones I noticed and felt like had the most solid connections. There's a couple more I didn't list as I thought they were too much of a stretch and would just be risking more spoilers. If anyone else has played both and noticed any other ones, please add to the list!
I couldn't find much about a connection between Hesperus Games (ACoF) and Lucas Pope (Obra Dinn), so I'm not sure if someone at HG just really liked Obra Dinn and threw in some distinct references or what. I'm pretty certain it's HG referencing Obra Dinn and not the other way around since ACoF (2025) was released years after Obra Dinn (2018). I've gotten really into detective/deduction games since first playing The Roottrees are Dead and have been going through as many as possible that are available for Mac on Steam (ACoF, TRaD, Obra Dinn, TR-49, The Operator, The Red Pearls of Borneo, No Case Should Remain Unsolved, Type Help/upcoming Incident at Galley House) and this is the first time I've seen such specific references to another game that doesn't seem to be made by the same developers.
Just thought this was curious and couldn't find any posts that related the two games, other than listing them as similar type deduction games, so I figured I'd make one.
Edited to add images of the logos.