Here at D’Avekki Studios, we’ve been busy developing our fourth game, Murderous Muses, so we 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 won’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 mystery 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 that’s it for now. 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 @MurderousMuses on Twitter and please wishlist Murderous Muses on Steam!
Lynda, Tim and Sam
D’Avekki Studios
March 2022
