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“I present you with a challenge to spot the culprit before I am ready to reveal him/her. To make it easier for you, I will give you hints and clues along the way but I still defy you to anticipate my solution. However, I give you fair warning that I will use every trick in my writer’s repertoire to fool you but I still promise to abide by the fair play rule.”
(John Curran 2016: 80)
Da das Spiel selbst komplett englischsprachig sein wird, ist auch diese Konzeptvorstellung auf Englisch. Lasst euch aber nicht abschrecken, selbstverständlich muss deswegen niemand auf Englisch schreiben, wenn ihm oder ihr Deutsch lieber ist. ;)
* * *
WHITTEMORE MANOR
Guest House
05th of November 192x
Dear Mr. Langsdale,
I would like to thank you for your letter, delivered to me on the 04th of November. As per your request, we have reserved the specified room on your name for the time of the 20th of December until the 03rd of January.
Whittemore Manor is looking forward to your stay.
Yours truly,
Margaret Whittemore
* * *
December 192x.
Robert Langsdale, veteran of WWI, is on his way to Whittemore Manor, a remote guest house in the countryside. Shortly after his arrival, however, a snowstorm sets in, cutting the residents of Whittemore Manor off from the outside world.
When a murder occurs on the first night, with no one being able to leave or enter, it is clear that only one of the six remaining people can be the culprit…
Robert Langsdale
A young man in his early 30s. A war veteran seeking some peace and quiet in the wintery solace of Whittemore Manor, who does not like to talk about his time at the front.
Margaret Whittemore
Widow of a manufacturer who amassed a fortune during the war. In her early 60s now. After her husband’s death, she and Jane Green turned Whittemore Manor into a guest house.
Jane Green
An old spinster and friend to Margareth Whittemore. After Mr. Whittemore’s death, the two moved in together. A teacher in her late 60s at the town’s primary school.
Edith Jones
A novelist who stays at Whittemore Manor over the holidays to work on her current novel. Seeing how she has been coming for the past 3 years, she seems to be fairly successful, although no one knows what exactly she writes.
Annie Whittemore
Margaret Whittemore’s granddaughter who, on a whim, decided to spent her holidays at her grandmother’s. A bright young thing who has gotten a lead as an actress for a number of radio plays.
William Spore
Annie Whittemore’s fiancé. A man in his 20s of unknown profession who appears to live off his father’s money. He is accompanying Annie on her spontaneous vacation.
Frederick Hembry
The local doctor and family physician of Margaret Whittemore. He is just on a house visit at Whittemore manor when the snow storm sets in.
Golden Age crime fiction
An era spanning the time between World War I and World War II that saw the likes of Agatha Christie, Ronald A. Knox and John Dickson Carr introduce their Detectives to their audience. Closed room murders, remote country houses, trains and storms cutting you off from the outside world. The (chronological) predecessor to the Hard Boiled genre.
Great Britain of the 1920s
The “Roaring Twenties” were a time of contrast: Manufacturers had profited immensely from the war, women had gained wages and voting rights and the aristocratic youth – the “Bright Young Things” – had the time of their lives. Tides turned quickly in the mid 1920s, however, and Britain fell into unemployment and depression. A time with no DNA samples or CCTV, but rather one of dictaphones and the advent of the first radio news broadcasts.
A battle of wits
The idea that a detective story also functions as a challenge to the reader: “Can you solve my mystery I choose to reveal its solution?”, or as Knox put it: “A detective story must have as its main interest the unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end.” (Knox 1929)
Genre: RPG, Crime Fiction
Engine: Game Maker Studio 2 (no RTP required)
OS: Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu
Resolution: 160x144px (native, upscaled 320x288px)
Intended length: appr. 3 hours
Curran, J. (2016). Agatha Christie's Complete Secret Notebooks. London: HarperCollinsPublishers.
Knox, R. J. (1929) “Decalogue.” Knox, R. J. and H. Harrington (eds.): Introduction to The Best English Detective Stories: First Series, pp. 9-23. New York: Horace Liveright
