Feature Spotlight - The Gallery with a Mind of its Own
In Murderous Muses, you play as the night watch exploring a reality-shifting gallery to solve a murder. In this second feature spotlight, we’re taking a closer look all the different ways the gallery elements are “re-rolled” each time you play...
By day, Gallery Argenta is just a normal gallery. You can wander the exhibit and help your boss Sasha hang paintings ready for the grand opening. But as soon as you start your night shift, things take a turn for the spooky - not least because an haunting presence is watching your every move!
Beyond the familiar walls of reception, new galleries spawn in random, unexpected ways. In each one, you’ll discover an exhibit populated with mysterious keywords on which you can hang portraits of the suspects. We procedurally generate the keywords and arrangement in which they appear, so each player experiences the game in a different way.
Other elements are shuffled too - from the way the galleries connect and the locations of hidden objects, to the clues you’re shown about the murder and memory mini-games you can play. Solving the mini-game puzzles is optional but can “urn” you collectibles which - you’ve guessed it! - are randomly spawned in locked treasure rooms.
Murderous Muses has been built from the ground up to be infinitely re-playable so, like Cluedo, the murderer can be any of the suspects in each playthrough. You can’t tell whodunit without using deduction (even if you’re one of the devs playing for the 100th time!)
Not only does each game give you a fresh gameboard to play on and explore, but you can share seeds with your friends and try to beat each other’s scores. And every time you play, you’ll uncover more about Mordechai Grey, his ‘Murderous Muses’ and the mysterious island setting of Mirlhaven…
Murderous Muses is releasing soon so wishlist now to get it on launch day!
With the release date for Murderous Muses looming, we’re taking the opportunity to highlight some of the gameplay features you’ll encounter when you take over as the night watch for Gallery Argenta. First up - Mirlhaven’s Unsolved Mysteries!
With all the uncanny events on the island, it’s no surprise Mirlhaven has its very own unsolved mysteries TV show. And the greatest unsolved mystery of all surrounds the murder of controversial artist Mordechai Grey.
Every night when the gallery changes, you’ll be able to view a clip from the show revealing a different piece of evidence. How, exactly, was the victim killed? Where did the culprit obtain the murder weapon? What trace evidence was left at the scene? And who placed a mysterious call to the doomed artist on the morning of his murder...?
With nine separate clues to follow up, you'll explore the gallery to search for related threads, hanging the suspects on plaques to restore the victim's memories. Each of the portraits has a limited number of uses though so you'll need to choose carefully if you want to uncover which of the Murderous Muses is guilty!
Whatever your investigation turns up, you won’t be able to eliminate suspects completely without unlocking their police interviews - which is a puzzle in itself. We'll say more about that soon, but until then wishlist Murderous Muses here!
Murderous Muses has entered the final stages of development, which means we're busy testing, tweaking and touching up the scenery ready for release in just a few months. It won't be long until we have a full trailer to show you and - fingers crossed - a release date announcement!
But before that, we've got some final, exciting, cast members to reveal. We're thrilled to announce the return of some familiar faces (and voices) to the D'Avekki Studios fold, this time helping us add mystery and intrigue to the 3D gallery as you explore...
The Gallery Speaks!
First up, we’ve been enhancing the strange and otherworldly atmosphere of the gallery, courtesy of voice over artists Ayvianna Snow and Will Harrison-Wallace. If you've played Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, you'll probably recognise Ayvianna as Millicent from the second episode, “In Bed with Poe and Munro”.
Ayvianna plays J.A.M.I.E., your Jovial Art Museum Information Educator and day gallery narrator, who reveals Mirlhaven's local lore when you place paintings in their correct positions.
Will joins us for the first time as Higgins, the gallery’s former security guard, who witnessed some strange occurrences and added his own theories to the night gallery. He’s also got plenty to say on other matters, including your attempts at puzzle solving, and he might have left you a few notes lying around too.
From Radio to TV
We’re also thrilled to welcome back Klemens Koehring, another D’Avekki regular, in the role of local expert of the unexplained, Dr Crispin Howe. Klemens played radio host John 'Poe' Pope in both The Shapeshifting Detective and Dark Nights with Poe and Munro.
Dr Howe presents episodes of ‘Mirlhaven’s Unsolved Mysteries’... the island’s own late night documentary about everything weird and wonderful that happens there, including the murder of Mordechai Grey. There are nine episodes in total to find and each one focuses on a new piece of evidence so you won’t want to miss them!
The Booth at the End
Finally, FMV legend Rupert Booth (Jenks in Contradiction: Spot the Liar and Dupont in The Shapeshifting Detective), joins Murderous Muses as the voice of Detective Salisbury.
If you're successful in unlocking specific memories for a suspect, you’ll be rewarded with a brief flashback of their police interview. Rupert's dulcet tones can be heard asking probing questions which reveal crucial clues about the murder so make sure you pay attention!
The Paint Thickens
Along with adding video and audio content, we've been busy furnishing the gallery with puzzles, treasure rooms and collectibles... plus a few easter eggs for you to find.
There's even a scorecard at the end of the game so you can see how well you did - hanging paintings correctly, unlocking police interviews, solving puzzles and of course, catching the killer. It also shows you how much of the full game you’ve unlocked, which we hope will make you want to replay it (there’s so much more to discover!)
We hope you're as excited about the release of Murderous Muses as we are and we can't wait for you to explore the gallery, meet the Murderous Muses, and uncover the secrets of Mirlhaven!
Murderous Muses has been selected for the #PitchYaGame Summer Showcase!
We're thrilled to share that Murderous Muses has been chosen as one of just 21 top upcoming indie games for the #PitchYaGame Summer 2022 Indie Game Showcase.
This most recent #PitchYaGame event took place on Twitter on June 6th, 2022 and attracted over 900 pitches from indie developers around the world. It's an honour to be picked out amongst so many fantastic games - plus we've now got a shiny new laurel for our Steam page!
Huge thanks to the #PitchYaGame team for selecting us!
Check out the full showcase:
Whodunit? Unveiling Mirlhaven’s Most Wanted…
Filming has finished for our Murderous Muses - the six suspects you’ll meet in the FMV parts of the game - and we’re getting stuck in to editing the footage (about 600 videos!) ready to drop them into the gallery.
The murderer is selected at random at the start of each playthrough meaning any one of the six Muses could be the killer. It’s up to you to decide who’s innocent and who’s guilty based on their statements and the evidence you discover – whether that’s about the time of the murder, clues at the scene of the crime, the murder weapon, or the very specific symbol painted in blood on the victim’s forehead. It’s all very Cluedo-esque just more… occulty.
Each suspect will also have their own sordid and/or supernatural story to reveal, and of course, they’ll each have a very good reason to want to kill poor innocent artist Mordechai Grey...
Which Murderous Muse is your favourite? And which do you think seems the most guilty...?
Teaser Trailer II - Clockwork Exhibits and Talking Paintings!
A lot's been happening behind the scenes over the last month or so. We've finished filming our six Murderous Muses, plus the gallery has been getting a few new additions, so we thought it was time to release a new teaser trailer. Watch it below!
Murderous Muses is our most ambitious game yet and we're packing loads of things into the gallery for you to discover - puzzles, treasure rooms, collectibles, plus of course lots and lots of supernatural lore - so this teaser is just to give you a small peek. (Did you spot the fish? ;-)
The full trailer is a couple of months away and we'll be revealing more gameplay in future posts so for now, we're just going to highlight a couple of features...
Curate Your Keywords...
See those rotating plaques under the paintings? You'll need to pay close attention to those if you want to get the evidence you need to solve the murder...
Make 'Em Talk...
Every time you hang a painting, you could reveal a new secret about the mysterious Mordechai Grey, the motives of his murderous muses, or even the island of Mirlhaven - the supernatural capital of the world! Each suspect has their own strange story which you'll need to piece together from Mordechai's memories.
Like what you see? Don't forget to add it to your wishlist!
Over the last month we've been busy casting for the roles of the five remaining Murderous Muses - aka the main suspects in the murder of Mordechai Grey - and we can now introduce the cast.
If you saw our news last month, you'll know we already announced the supremely talented Aislinn De'Ath as Lilith, the undertaker with a secret vice. Aislinn is one of the most recognised actors in FMV and won fans for her beguiling portrayal of Marianna in Doctor Dekker and Violet in The Shapeshifting Detective / Dark Nights with Poe and Munro - we're so excited to be working with her again!
We're thrilled to be able to introduce the five actors who'll be joining Aislinn as Murderous Muses - all of whom are making their debut in FMV games. Clockwise from top left they are...
AISLINN DE'ATH as Lilith Rendell, the undertaker BETH GATHERER as Professor Catherine Myers, the criminologist DAVID JOHN-BORES as Xavier Haan, the clockmaker ANNA FRASER as Sunday and Monday Finch, doubles tennis champions BEX FINCH as Dominique Serrant, the burlesque performer RIKKI STONE as Otto Pipistrelle, the ventriloquist
You’ll meet all of these suspects when you hang their portraits on the wall, unlocking flashbacks that reveal more about their strange stories, their relationship with Mordechai, and the mysterious island of Mirlhaven. It's your job to work out which one of them is the killer, and it's their job to not get caught...
We're thrilled to announce that Aislinn De'Ath has signed on to play Lilith Rendell - an undertaker with a taste for the macabre who is one of the six Murderous Muses and a potential suspect in the murder of Mordechai Grey!
Lilith is the second role to be cast alongside gallery manager Sasha Venice (played by Olivia Bourne) and auditions for the other five Muses begin next week!
Dev update - the gallery is growing
Here at D'Avekki Studios, we've been busy developing Murderous Muses and thought it was time to give you an update on our progress and what you’ll be able to do in game when it releases later this year.
No Ordinary Gallery
Over the last couple of months, Sam and Tim have been focusing hard on bringing the 3D gallery to life and giving it a mind of its own by adding randomly generated rooms, spontaneously spawning paintings and clockwork exhibits to keep you guessing. The whole game might take place inside the gallery walls, but those walls don’t always stay in the same place!
The Artist's Vision
We’ve also been fleshing out the gameplay and adding loads of things for you to explore. You can discover the otherworldly origins of Mirlhaven Island and its lore - from the Headless Hearseman to the Undulating Hills - by finding and hanging paintings. Then, as the gallery shifts, you’ll encounter strange objects and puzzles that appear overnight, allowing you to unlock secret rooms that weren’t there before. And in the mysterious night exhibition, you can use the swirling ‘Eyes of Mordechai’ to bring paintings to life and see into the past, uncovering the final weeks of the artist and his muses in glorious full motion video!
Framing a Murderer
Which brings us to the heart of the game: the murder mystery - or rather, the murder mysteries. The aim of the game is to work out who killed Mordechai Grey, but we want you to be able to replay it as many times as you like, without being able to tell ‘whodunit’ until the end. This means the murder mystery elements are shuffled whenever you start a new game. The murderer will be chosen at random from one of six potential suspects, along with three framing devices - the clues you’ll use to decide which muse is guilty. You won’t be able to work out who the murderer is until you’ve seen all three frames and revealed each suspect’s connection to them, meaning you can solve the mystery time and time again with no spoilers.
Sketchy Suspects
But that’s only half the story. As well as getting to complete a murder investigation every time you play, you’ll also be unraveling parts of a much bigger puzzle, namely the secrets surrounding Mordechai Grey and his six muses. All of the suspects are very different, and each has their own tragic tale which you’ll need several playthroughs to reveal. There’s the ventriloquist who’s constantly outshone by his dummy, the criminologist pulling the strings of Mirlhaven’s most wanted, the grief-stricken burlesque dancer making all the wrong choices, the perky undertaker with a taste for the macabre, the clockmaker who’s too tightly wound for his own good, and the tennis twins desperate to escape their family curse. Tim and Lynda have been busy writing these scripts over the last couple of months and we’re getting ready to begin casting at the end of this month so watch this space!
We can’t wait to show you more - including features we haven’t even mentioned yet! - but we’ll save some things for another update. In the meantime, if you want to keep tabs on our progress, follow us on Twitter and please wishlist the game below!
