Wild East: The Straw Man

On paper, he owned companies. In reality, only the debts were his.

Bratislava, 1993. Shortly after Czechoslovakia split in two, young reporter Marek Varga is handed what looks like a routine story: the death of Jozef “Jožo” Baláž, director of a company implicated in fraud. The official version seems straightforward. But Baláž never truly ran the company. He was a straw man—a director in name only, whose name and signature kept the people actually in control off the paperwork.

A damaged recording on Marek’s answering machine gives him reason to doubt the official story. Across the new border, Prague journalist Eva Svobodová finds the same pattern in an investigation of her own. When they compare notes, their separate investigations begin to reveal a single cross-border scheme.

Investigate Like a Reporter

As Marek, explore 2D locations, examine objects, read documents, talk to people, and use your inventory to follow the evidence.

What you know matters as much as what you carry. New discoveries unlock questions, change how people respond, and open new places to investigate. The right item can move the case forward—but so can the right question at the right time.

What to Expect

Classic 2D point-and-click gameplay with inventory-based puzzles.

A cross-border investigation spanning real locations in Bratislava and Prague in 1993.

Documents, signatures, and contradictions that reward close attention.

Conversations that respond to what Marek has already uncovered.

A measured, human-scale mystery with dry local humor.

The game features real locations, but its characters, companies, and criminal case are fictional and do not depict any specific real people or cases.