When We Made... Murder by Numbers
Chris Wallace gets behind the scenes of Murder by Numbers: a detective/Picross hybrid title that puts good times and LGTBQ+ representation front and centre.
actually look at you. And even with that little bit of work, with the help of the animation and really smart designers and engineers, with everybody working together, you could tell from the very beginning that she was a character that people would really gravitate toward.” Quill really becomes a fully fleshed out character with the help of the game’s strong world-building. As an interloper in Quill’s world, the player experiences it not through her eyes, but as an observer watching as she lives her life in her familiar setting. It’s a strangely intimate feeling, and one which gives way to joint apprehension as both the player and Quill enter new, unfamiliar areas. “When you go through Mousetown and you see Quill
run through there and you see that she has a hometown, the feeling of her leaving it, of that town maybe being in danger, gives you more of a bond,” Alderson says. “If that part was left out, you wouldn’t feel like there was much to fight for. Everything that we’ve done, the mood settings, taking Quill from one area to the next and letting you rest and take in this environment… It’s all supposed to exaggerate and accentuate that mood that you’re feeling. It all ties back into how you are connecting with Quill and her world.”
B
SAME QUESTION EIGHT WAYS Collaboration was key during the development of
efore there was Fall Guys, there was Murder by Numbers. The visual novel/Picross hybrid game is the sort of title that was once synonymous with the Mediatonic name – following the tradition of their leftfield, fan-favourite titles such as Hatoful Boyfriend.
A lot has changed at the company since Murder by Numbers first released in March 2020 – A month in which nothing else of note occured, I’m sure. Just a few months before Fall Guys’ Beans charmed the world (including Mediatonic’s new owners Epic Games), Murder by Numbers delivered an exceptional blend of 90’s nostalgia, a heartwarming story rife with LGBTQ+ representation and a talking robot, all packed together in a Picross game. It’s definitely a novel and eye-catching idea – Combining the best of Phoenix Wright’s camp melodrama with relaxing and satisfying Picross puzzles, two concepts that blend together far better than you’d ever have expected. The game’s narrative follows the adventures of
Ed Fear, lead creative at Mediatonic
46 | MCV/DEVELOP January 2022
actress-turned-detective Honor Mizrahi and her robot companion SCOUT as they tackle a series
Moss, not just within the team itself, but with the help of external playtesters. People were often brought in to feedback on the game and asked questions about their experience – even if most of these questions were actually very similar. “External playtests were mostly about ‘Okay, how do people feel when they play? Do they like it or not like it?’,” Alderson explains. “At the end of playtest we would ask the same question eight different ways. The question is really ‘What didn’t you like?’, but we would ask it differently: ‘What pulled you out of the experience? What took you out of the headset? If there’s one thing you could change what would it be? If you had two weeks to finish the game, what would be the thing that you’d fix?’ “Those help bring a playtester into their comfort zone, because no one wants to play something that people put
“I’d had the idea in my back pocket for about 10 years,” says Fear. “When I applied [at Mediatonic], I was asked to provide some game concepts, and a Picross/detective game was one of them. No one ever said anything about it. So I just assumed that no one was interested. “And then, years later, I was working on some
stuff that got cancelled and I suddenly didn’t have anything to do. So my boss asked me to prototype the idea, so I spent six weeks building the game. I mean, a horrific version of the game with everything cobbled together from Google Images and my terrible programming. But I submitted it and immediately went on holiday. “The next day, at the departure gate at the airport, I got an email saying that they’re approving it right
of murder mysteries, all to a remarkably nostalgic backdrop of the 1990s. As we’ve discussed in previous issues of MCV/DEVELOP, combining a puzzle game with a strong narrative, especially such a high-concept one, is a tall order. So we’re intrigued to know how Ed Fear, lead creative at Mediatonic, first pitched the idea to the studio.
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