Item — HN Reader

I think these are fair points, let's take a look:

> I don’t find this engaging as a murder mystery. Firstly, the player doesn’t have agency other than revealing other clues. I think it would be more entertaining if the player could choose what questions to ask.

I tried to keep the game simple, but it is certainly possible to introduce more interaction. I guess, in its core, detective work is mostly reviewing clues and making accusation, but this is supposed to be fun as well.

> > Also, the 15-minute time blocks don’t make sense to me. From today’s mystery:

> > Clue #1 Eddie said "I saw nobody when I was leaving the bathroom at 10:45"

> > Clue #2 Eddie said "I saw Bob when I arrived to the living room at 11:00"

> I would immediately ask him why it took him 15 minutes to go from the bathroom to the neighboring living room. Are they in an electric wheelchair that’s almost out of power, or did they in-between commit the murder?

I have to think about this, but the clues could be rephrased to convey that Eddie spend time the bathroom and the the living room, between 10:45 and 11:00.

> > Also, the suspension of disbelief isn’t there for me:

> - looking at the victim, how hard is it to choose between poison, rope, gun, and knife, especially given that it can be deduced that the body wasn’t moved?

I'm not completely sure what you mean here.

> - if they don’t dare lie, why not just ask them “did you do it?”. A murderer that can lie would IMO make things more interesting.

I agree, and I will be introducing a murderer that could lie, which will make the game more interesting (potentially, harder in some cases).

> > Minor items that affect play:

> - the player has to open all clues up to the murder weapon is revealed. Once you know that, opening those each day will become a chore.

This is not the case in fact, you can deduce where the murder weapon is located and discard the ones in rooms that were not visited.

> - in today’s puzzle, when I make an incorrect accusation that includes “Carol”, the text says “After apprehending the suspect”. Isn’t she dead?

Something to fix. I think Carol should not be in the list of suspects (except perhaps, if we allow suicides, which is an interesting idea)

In any case, thanks for all the comments and suggestions!

>> - looking at the victim, how hard is it to choose between poison, rope, gun, and knife, especially given that it can be deduced that the body wasn’t moved?

> I'm not completely sure what you mean here.

They found the victim, figured out the body wasn’t moved, but managed to do so without noticing the gunshot wound, so they can’t rule out poison, cutting their throat, or strangulation?

Technically, there could be two would-be killers, with the one using the gun shooting an already dead victim, or killing the victim minutes before the poison would have, or one killer doubting the poison worked, and making sure with a knife, but the presentation makes me think we can rule out such cases.

Now I think of it: poison typically takes some time to take effect, so if the cause is poison, the killer need not have been near the victim at the time of death.

If it’s a gun and that was used as a gun (and not to club her to death, for example), wouldn’t everybody have heard the gun shot in such a small house? That works in Cluedo and Agatha Christie stories, but those typically are set in large country houses where sometimes people happen to show of their guns to their guests.

And for today’s puzzle: what house has a bath room next to the living room? I think that’s even illegal in many building codes.

As I said, this doesn’t engage me as a crime story. The typical story has some intro, and then somebody finds the victim. Who did that? Why did they go to their room?

I see what you mean. A writer is taking care of creating an overarching story that will explain why they do what they do. Visitors will have access have a small piece of story solving the daily mystery. While the story will not give very precise answers to your questions, it will provide introduction as well as an ending, for the first "season".

Perhaps you can choose similar weapons. For example, one day cutting weapons: knife (from the kitchen?), and axe, an ice pick or a scalpel (like Jack). Another day 4 poisons: rat poison, cyanide, mushrooms or snake poison