This month marks the 5th anniversary of murder mystery puzzles which was created on July 12, 2020. To celebrate, here’s the remastered version of the very first murder mystery puzzle I’ve ever made but never shared online before. All original object designs were kept. If you’re into a bit of origin lore, scroll down. Or you can have fun solving this puzzle straight away, but I warn you, it’s a weird one! Basic rules still apply, and rest assured, future puzzles will go back to the regular rules.
EDIT : My apologies for the error in the puzzle posted last Sunday which made the ending impossible to solve. Here’s a new version. V’s placement contradicted A’s clue, plus G/H were interchangeable. I’ve removed one of the plants from the grid. Sorry for the confusion and thanks to everyone who flagged it!
The most unique thing about this puzzle : characters were able to hear each other (and the TV).
It worked fine, but at the time, I decided to apply a core principle of game design I live by : cut, don’t add. So the next puzzle I made the next day, I removed the hearing keyword which instantly made the game easier to teach and more elegant. I still want to revisit that mechanic someday as it opens up some fascinating design space, but it’s definitely more advanced and less intuitive. What do you think?
Tons of elements have improved over the years. Funny enough, the chairs barely changed from day 1. I tried many visual variants, and this version still wins : easy to tell it’s a chair, minimalistic, with lots of white space to take notes on. Another notable difference is how every clue was written in the first person. I switched to third person after constantly being asked “why would the murderer tell the truth?”
Curious about the true original? Here’s what the puzzle page actually looked like (in French). It had even stranger quirks, like a Reading Glasses object that told you someone was in a specific square. Character portraits didn’t appear until around Puzzle #30.
Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with me since the early experiments. You helped turn a small test made just to entertain friends on a boring day into… well, big news very soon. I hope that five years from now, we’ll look back at today’s puzzles and gasp the same way: “wow, we were just getting started.”
Félicitations pour les 5 ans ! 🥳🎉
Victim cant be heard? Based on the solution, Victor is in hearing radius od Adam. Dont know if that makes sense, but i thought that Victim could be heard too
Hi Tomas,
You’re right, there was a mistake in the first version, sorry about that. I’ve uploaded a new version which removes a plant to fix the ending, and G/H placement is also fixed. Thanks!
Hi there! Discovered your puzzles in the FT and was instantly hooked, my GF and I love them. Congrats on all you do, and hope that they go mainstream in the future, if that’s what you’re aiming for of course – they definitely deserve to be!
Thank you! Very exciting news coming up very soon!
I think this puzzle is underspecified, as in it doesn’t have a unique solution, in two ways. Although it still pins downs the murderer so it is solvable. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that there are two implicit rules at work. First I think Gloria and Henrietta are interchangable, nothing rules out Gloria being in the kitchen. Unless there is an implicit rule that hearing clues to be maximally informative, i.e. Henrietta can hear Gloria AND nothing else. Whoever is in the bedroom can hear the TV as well as the other woman. Second, I think that the Kitchen Woman and Victim columns are interchangable. Having Kitchen Woman in the corner makes her close enough to hear the other woman. Unless there’s an implicit rule that sound travels in a straight line, e.g., the diagonal, which is not how I would typically read radius. I might have made a mistake, usually when I think it’s under specified your solution clears something up.
Anyways love your work (wouldn’t have bothered with this long comment if I didn’t)!
Hi Ainsley!
Thank you so much for the comment, and for being such a loyal fan!
You’re absolutely right, I messed up on that one and didn’t test it properly, my apologies. I’ve uploaded a new version that fixes the ending.
(Regarding your note about G/H possibly being in the corner of the Kitchen, unless I misunderstood your comment, that square is blocked by A, who didn’t hear anyone.)
I really appreciate you taking the time to write this. It shows you care, and that’s really great.
I’ve really fallen in love with completing these puzzles! The colors in this one in particular are so nice! I do agree that the hearing element is a bit more challenging to keep my head around while completing the puzzle. I found myself saving that clue until last, and I constantly had to recheck how far a 2-tile radius really is. I think it would be interesting for some puzzles, but not as a major component!
I do have a question on this puzzle (SPOILER WARNING!)
Can’t the victim not be in that square, as the clue says that Adam did not hear anything, and the victim square is within a 2-tile radius of Adam?
Thanks for keeping on making these, it is greatly appreciated!
Hi Haley,
Thank you for your comment, and sorry about this mistake, I’ve fixed the ending so that V can be placed properly.
I agree the 2-tile radius can be a little annoying. I like the new logic it opens up, maybe I’ll try ‘hearing’ again someday, but instead as a 1 tile radius that goes through walls.
Hi! Another great puzzle, we are addicted to these!
*SPOILER ALERT*
Question – are G and H not interchangeable? What stops G from being in the kitchen with F and B being in the main bedroom with H, we cannot figure out why these are exclusive from the clues, as there is a plant in both rooms and G can hear H regardless of if they are switched around?
Hi Zoe! Yep, I messed up on that one.
I’ve uploaded a corrected version, the ending works now, and G and H are clearly placed in a specific room. Thanks!
Hi,
Thanks for the puzzle, it is amazing. I love the hearing mechanic, you should definitely keep it in. About this puzzle difficulty rating, I think it should be medium or even easy, not hard.