Death in video games isn’t really much of a thing. Your average gamer has a digital body count in the millions. But death didn’t always have such volume in our pop culture. There was a time when the murder mystery was all the rage, and people would pour over whodunit novels from the likes of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the way we binge on games from Todd Howard or Shigeru Miyamoto. A Matter of Murder from Worthing & Moncrieff is a video game driven by the spirit of the murder mystery, but with a thoughtful application of modern game making mechanics.
“This game in many ways walks the line between roguelike puzzle game and procedurally generated adventure point and click game,” said Eric Hamel of Worthing & Moncrieff. “And, of course, Clue.”
My playthrough at IndieCade East 2016 felt more point and click than roguelike, but it’s tough to test procedural generation with a limited time frame. But the game is easy to pick up. You’re in a mansion. There’s been a murder. You need to walk around and talk to suspects, all the while a clock ticks away the time you have to crack the case.
You have to identify a suspect, a motive and a murder weapon before time runs out. Investigations are centered around looking for inconsistencies in suspects’ testimonies before making a final accusation. The characters and setting are part of what Hamel says is a “love letter to the golden age of detective fiction.”
“We're targeting people that love adventure games and love literature. There are lots of nods to Agatha Christie inside it. All the characters are classic archetypes, you've got the maid, you've got the dowager, etc., ” he said.
Hamel also drew inspiration from The Colonel’s Bequest, an old Sierra On-Line murder mystery adventure. But he explained that the one thing he really wanted from the game was change. He wanted the mystery and puzzles to be different each playthrough. So he built that wish into A Matter of Murder .
“Not only does it mix all the ingredients of each of the puzzles, but you can also do a level where it mixes the puzzles themselves. So it'll take a motive from one puzzle, a weapon from another. In theory there are thousands and thousands of potential cases,” said Marc Harpin of Worthing & Montcrieff.
Unlike many of the titles featured in IndieCade East’s Show And Tell exhibit, A Matter of Murder is actually a finished project available right now for $2.99. The game launched on April 18 and is available on iOS , Android and PC .
