Grasshopper Manufacture
"The Silver Case" was the debut title of Grasshopper Manufacture, a then-independent company formed in 1998 by video game developer Goichi Suda after leaving Human Entertainment following the completion of "Moonlight Syndrome", a spin-off from Human's "Twilight Syndrome" series. "The Silver Case", and consequently Grasshopper Manufacture, was born from Suda's wish to create something original, having only worked on pre-existing projects for Human. While the development team was independent, the production itself was supported by the game's publisher ASCII Entertainment, who had initially suggested a collaboration with Suda when he left Human, and whom Suda had approached with the concept for "The Silver Case" following the formation of Grasshopper Manufacture. When the genre had been selected, Suda's main challenge was to create something different from any other game in the genre. During development, the team was faced with severe financial restrictions, which further exacerbated the problems caused by a small staff as they could not produce all the art assets normally needed for such a game. To compensate, Suda created what he termed the "film window engine": illustrations and text were relegated to dedicated windows. This allowed development to continue. Story sequences were also communicated through 3D CGI and inserted live-action and anime sequences.