Murder in the Mansion [Patch Released]

[Creator]

OK. I'm guessing you want to know about my new game.

Story:
2 people enter into a game show that's hosted in a mansion.
Murders and such start happening. As is usual everyone start's suspecting someone as the most likely murderer.
Is it the Butler, the Golfer or the Ninja?
How will these people escape from the mansion and who or what is killing in the first place?

That's basically it (copied it from my readme, I'm so lazy  ).

Downloads are here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=996

and here: http://www.freewebs.com/salmond-key_productions/murderinthemansion.htm  (.exe version available from here only)

And thanks to m0ds for letting me use some of his music from 'Trilby's Notes' and '6 Days a Sacrifice'.

[scalad]

Sounds great. But could you please upload some screenshots? I can't see any in either of the sites.

[miguel]

I liked the music but I think you could add some more 'color' on the characters and more detail on the backgrounds.
it's just my opinion, cheers

[Creator]

Screen shots are below:

[scalad]

Thanks for that! Downloading now!

[megafun]

why did you erased my very constructive critics :'( whoever you are

[Creator]

why did you erased my very constructive critics

Are you talking to me? If you are: I didn't erase anything. I want constructive criticism. If enough people like this game (story-wise that is) I'll probably get someone who is better at drawing than I am to help me.

[megafun]

well it wasnt constructive but I think someone erase it never mind : )) keep working on your future games;)

[egamer]

I tried to play this game, but I could only access two rooms, the first room you see when you enter the mansion and the yellow room to the west.  There was only one object that I could click on that resulted in any action, the bed in the first room.  Clicking on the doors did not open them, so I could not go through the doorways.  Clicking on the bed resulted in death.  You post two screenshots of rooms that I have not seen in the game, so obviously I must be missing something.  So how do I get out of those two rooms?

EDIT:  Changed "sofa" to "bed."

[Frodo]

Egamer, have you been upstairs yet?   

[egamer]

Upstairs?  How do I get there?  I could find no staircase, elevator, escalator, or ladder.  I tried climbing the walls, standing on the furniture, climbing on the roof, but I can't get anywhere.

[Creator]

Try:

Spoiler

Clicking on yourself when the butler's after you

[close]

The readme has useful information like that under 'Mouse'.

[Frodo]

Upstairs?  How do I get there?  I could find no staircase, elevator, escalator, or ladder.  I tried climbing the walls, standing on the furniture, climbing on the roof, but I can't get anywhere.

My mistake!  I got mixed up with another game.   

Sorry.   

[egamer]

Sorry, I forgot to look at the readme file.  I got it, now.  I like the fact that the game uses the arrow keys to move around; I always liked that better than the walk cursor.  In general, the interface is nice, but I think the action to escape the buttler was counterintuitive.

[Creator]

I think the action to escape the buttler was counterintuitive.

Ha ha, yeah. When I was creating that scene I realized that there was nothing in the room to actually use to escape from the butler and I couldn't think of anything. That's what happens when I start to get lazy 
If I start to develop a sequel I'll create better puzzles, but first I have to find someone who can draw.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

You don't need great art, at this stage, you need to refine your writing and gameplay. With the art as-is and the obvious effort you took in making a non-standard interface, you could have had a great game if you had included more and better puzzles and if your writing was good - the story as it was presented had one very good quality -

Spoiler

The whole "always waking up from a nightmare" worked very well, you never knew whether you were now in real life. The butler leaving the cell as homicidal and coming back normal just as you expect him to kill you is also very good

[close]

But apart from this, there's very little in the story... and the dialog writing is frankly sub-par. Which saddens me, because of the bery good things I talked about, and the fact you obviously spent some time on this.

See "Beyond the Horizon" for an example on how good games don't need good graphics if they have everything else. And either try to refine your writing before getting an artist, or get an artist and a writer at the same time.

Cheers.

[bicilotti]

Make text skippable and please don't use .exe, just zip the game's files.

edit: played a bit more. Make your character faster, text skippable. Chase scene was a little bit... uncouth. But it was your first game, so I can see the effort put in. Good luck with your next one!

[Creator]

OK I updated it.

The download link from the AGS website downloads a .zip version of the game and you can skip text with the mouse. I will upload an updated .exe version soon for people who want the .exe.

[Creator]

Just thought I'd add that I have just updated the .exe file.
.exe available from the website (link in first post).

[sergiocornaga]

This game was inspirational to me, I don't know how else to put it. But the end really annoyed me.

[Creator]

I'm glad I inspired you... somehow.
In what way was the ending annoying?

[iggy987]

Dude.. are you going to make a sequel or not? The story was good although for the rest I can't say.. but still the dream etc part was interesting.

[Creator]

Thanks for the comment on my story. I agree that the rest of it was not really as good as it could have been (with the dialog only having 3 options and the game practically pushing you in the right direction all the time), but because the story is so open-ended I'll probably start making a sequel when I finish my mid-year exams. Untill then I'll plan out what I can add to MitM 2 to make the story more exciting and make the game play more fun.

[MoodyBlues]

I played through this last night, and it really surprised me! 

Yes, it's rough.  The graphics are pretty simple, and there aren't any real puzzles.

But the game has a lot going for it:

Spoiler

The first time Ninja woke up from a nightmare (or was it?), I thought, "Oh great.  He's ripping off Seven Days a Stranger."  But the difference was you kept doing it at unpredictable times.  It was really pretty effective.  Even with the blocky graphics, the part where the butler suddenly transforms and says, "I'm going to kill you now" made me jump.

[close]

If you rewrote some of the dialogue and gave the game a less jokey, self-conscious tone, it could be really good.  Good luck on the sequel!

Oh, and I second the motion to allow the player to click through text.

[Creator]

Thought I should say that I've made a patch for this game. Changed the story a bit and changed some sprites. It's available here.

[LRH]

Played through it, really neat for a first!

I liked the story, there were times when the text was a little too fast and I had to play again to understand just what was going on, but then again, that fast-paced style kinda made my head spin, as far as with what was going on, so that was also kinda neat.

In any case, nice job, keep learning ags, I bet you have a lot of potential.