Disorient On The Murder Express (PROTOTYPE 2016)

[UPDATE: Circumstances have provided our team the opportunity to remake this game to bring it to its full potential, so I've relabelled this a prototype, as that's very much how it'll look compared to the final version. We'll keep you posted.]

Disorient On The Murder Express is a short, humorous and experimental murder mystery game in which you are tasked with deducing the details of a convoluted murder that took place on an isolated train, and making a show of presenting the evidence and accusing the culpable parties.

The game was born from a Game Jam hosted by GamesDev Wales in association with the Agatha Christie estate. The theme was Murder Mystery, and it was the first Game Jam I'd ever worked on without a team. Basic versions of Act I and Act II were made in the allocated 48 hours, and Act III was conceptualised. The complicated nature of Act III made it impossible to even start during that time, so the story's set-up, presentation and mystery itself were the development focus during the Jam. It was important to me that the game contain all the components of the msytery for the player to solve, so I could focus on the mechanics of expressing those conclusions later. The game was completed over the two weeks following the Game Jam.

This was almost entirely the work of myself, Gary Kings. I am not a 3D artist, hence leaning into a simplistic (and hopefully, endearing) art style, and making use of the default Unreal skeletal Mesh in various poses in the game. I am also not much of a programmer, so be sure to report any bugs to me (and spelling errors). What I am primarily is a narrative designer, writer and director, and my aim with this game was to create a murder mystery focusing on deduction and the theatrics of expressing your findings.

I hope you enjoy and support my future work with National Insecurities.

Thank you.

Gary Kings.

Follow us on Twitter at @GaryJKings and @NIPresents

Note: While the Game Jam itself was in association with the Agatha Christie estate, the game is not. Any similarities between this game and Christie's iconic works are meant as loving homage or loving parody.

MAC NOTE: I haven't tested the Mac build very much, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're on fairly new mac with actual graphics hardware (Nvidia or whatever).