Disorient On The Murder Express (PROTOTYPE 2016)
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
[UPDATE: Circumstances have provided our team the opportunity to remake this game to bring it to its full potential, so I've relabelled this a prototype, as that's very much how it'll look compared to the final version. We'll keep you posted.]
Disorient On The Murder Express is a short, humorous and experimental murder mystery game in which you are tasked with deducing the details of a convoluted murder that took place on an isolated train, and making a show of presenting the evidence and accusing the culpable parties.
The game was born from a Game Jam hosted by GamesDev Wales in association with the Agatha Christie estate. The theme was Murder Mystery, and it was the first Game Jam I'd ever worked on without a team. Basic versions of Act I and Act II were made in the allocated 48 hours, and Act III was conceptualised. The complicated nature of Act III made it impossible to even start during that time, so the story's set-up, presentation and mystery itself were the development focus during the Jam. It was important to me that the game contain all the components of the msytery for the player to solve, so I could focus on the mechanics of expressing those conclusions later. The game was completed over the two weeks following the Game Jam.
This was almost entirely the work of myself, Gary Kings. I am not a 3D artist, hence leaning into a simplistic (and hopefully, endearing) art style, and making use of the default Unreal skeletal Mesh in various poses in the game. I am also not much of a programmer, so be sure to report any bugs to me (and spelling errors). What I am primarily is a narrative designer, writer and director, and my aim with this game was to create a murder mystery focusing on deduction and the theatrics of expressing your findings.
I hope you enjoy and support my future work with National Insecurities.
Thank you.
Gary Kings.
Follow us on Twitter at @GaryJKings and @NIPresents
Note: While the Game Jam itself was in association with the Agatha Christie estate, the game is not. Any similarities between this game and Christie's iconic works are meant as loving homage or loving parody.
MAC NOTE: I haven't tested the Mac build very much, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're on fairly new mac with actual graphics hardware (Nvidia or whatever).
Download
Install instructions
The game should, in theory, run on any capable windows computer straight after unzipping the file. I'm not sure what the bounds of 'capable computer' are in relation to this game, as I don't have the means for widespread testing, so if it runs particularly badly for you, I'd appreciate hearing your specifications.
I hope to release a Linux and Mac version soon, so feel free to pester me a little to speed me up if you're particularly interested.
Thank you,
Gary Kings.
Comments
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Enjoyed it a lot after I was looking more of the same after I finished Tacoma. Really love the story and feelings you are able to create with such simplistic graphics. Wonderful little gem.
I really enjoyed this! It was super fun and I really loved the style
NICE. Did not expect the end 😅 I was like "what the hell???". Can't wait for a finish product
Did you or are you every finish this game? (Sorry if I missed this information if it's somewhere)
We started and did a lot of work on a remake, but then a bigger project got funding so it kinda fell to the side. But that work is still done so we intend to finish it sooner rather than later.
Cool, how did you go about getting funding for your next project?
Pretty interesting game I thought. Did I get the suspect right? lol
This and 2000 :1: are awesome games man, I really enjoy your work!
Hello, I did a play through of this game and recorded it. I just put it up on YouTube today. I loved the game. I had big amount of trouble with recording it but the game itself ran smoothly and it was fun to play. Even when I had to record it again it was as fun to play the first time around as the second. I am really excited to hear you are going to remake this game to bring it to its full potential. I look forward to playing that one!
I really liked the use of audio cues, the fireplace, and player control to pull off the comedic timing of the very last scene. I'm sure that took more thought than it seemed.
Great game funny as hell, great setting and atmosphere, cant wait to see what you guys come up with next....here my lets play of the game hope i did it justice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ4e6ZkoVfk
I tried to run this game; so i unzipped it and launched the .exe but i just got the message:
https://gyazo.com/832f58ae1a1f95660ef44be06ebbfe94 I've not run it as i am not sure it is safe, if someone could tell me why i am getting this i would be happy.
--
Unilew
It does this for me, too, and I made the game. It did it with my new game the other day right after I created the .exe.
To my understanding, Windows does this to any .exe that isn't recognised, and I get it often with programs I run.
MAC SUPPORT PLZ
I have a mac build but it's far from super stable, and I have no real means of testing it. How good is your mac?
This was some sick shit bro. It was like doing an ollie over the half pipe my friend. I hope you have a lovely day. #emoji
I could not agree more friend; I shall not thwart thine from reaching said half pipe whilst doing an ollie. #Hashtag
Inebriation causes detective skills to increase, but sadly causes the 'accents' section of the brain to function sporadically. Great work Gary, really enjoyed it and look forward to your future work.
Thanks very much, I enjoyed your video.
Your slow, dry delivery lends itself very well to this game.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the game- I had a lot of fun. Keep on doing what you're doing.
I was wondering if you could make it compatible with the itch.io browser
Thanks! ~David
I have a few theories after editing this video... but I'll avoid potential spoilers :P . If anybody knows how to fix the mouse issue, I'd be very grateful :)
Thanks for playing. I can't seem to fix the mouse issue, but may tackle it again later this week when I've put out a few fires. For now, the only thing I can suggest is using a gamepad, as people don't seem to be encountering the issue with those.
Would love a Mac version!
Gimme gimme gimme, work work work! <3
I have a mac build, but it's so poorly optimised. How fancy is this mac of yours? Specs if you can get them. It nearly killed mine, but mine is a solid few years old now. I'd have to find a way to privately send it to people, as i don't have the confidence in its functionality to throw it up for download.
Hmm, mine is old :) 4 years and burning hot with every game I play. So I’m used to it!
MacBook Pro (Retina, middle 2012)
2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
The fact that it has 1gb of Nvidia Geforce graphics might give it a bit of an edge here in comparison to the machines I've tried on. Still might not be enough. Between Unreal's poor mac optimisation and my poor Unreal optimisation, it might simply fail to load. Still, shoot me an email at nationalinsecuritiespresents@gmail.com if you'd like a link to my crude Mac build.
Sir or Madam, this is hilarious!
you really missed an opportunity here for punage.
Disorient on the MURDER EXPRESS????
comeoooonnnn...
the joke made itself here...
Disorient on the Orient Express.
I seem to have encountered a bug where I can't move my mouse up or down, and apparently I need to. I've tried unplugging my controller, even my webcam, and restarted both times and I still can't progress with it.
If it helps, my mouse is an Anker CG100. Worked fine with every other game I've tried in the Unreal Engine before this one ._.
That's incredibly strange. I also don't have the resources or knowledge to even begin to fix that, so I'm sorry this game doesn't work for you >.>
I'm having the same issue, and it's on my laptop so it's definitely not tied to my mouse specifically (which is a Logitech G600, for what it's worth) since it's happening even when that's not plugged in. Really unfortunate that it's happening; some friends and I were enjoying the game but couldn't progress since we couldn't look down to examine things
That's ever so odd. I didn't really change anything from the way Unreal handles mouse movement by default. If either of you have a USB gamepad, try using that.
If either of you are still interested, the new update crushes that mouse bug that made it unplayable.
Dear all,
I have now updated the game. It's mostly the same, though I did rewrite part of The Lawyer's dialogue. Aside from that, some awkward bugs are fixed, spelling errors that I knew about have been corrected, I added a splash-screen type thing at the start and an icon to the exe. If what I've done somehow destroys everything (though I have tested, it doesn't), please contact me either here or at my twitter @GaryJKings.
Thanks to all who have played. I'm seeing much bigger numbers than I expected from this, and some really lovely feedback.
Gary.
Brilliant game! The humour was really well timed, everything was well explained and nothing took longer than it needed to. Minor niggles: I couldn't always tell when I'd pointed at a person or object successfully, I think just a small audio or visual effect would go a long way. As well, the text coming onto the screen felt jarring, having it appear letter-by-letter or line-by-line would've worked pretty well.
I won't spoil it too blatantly right in the comments section, but *that* moment at the ending was perfect XD
Hi! I played and liked your game very much, thanks for putting it together. It was nice. (Found it via RPS.)
I wanted to ask you one thing: could you please attribute the music to its author? It's Sarabande (a slow dance movement), from a suite by Handel - or rather an orchestral "remix" of a keyboard (harpsichord) piece, made by Leonard Rosenman for the Kubrick movie Barry Lyndon. This orchestral version is the most well-known.
So your credits screen actually says so (HWV is sort of a "Handel's legacy index", like BWV is for Bach), but for some reason it also says "by Alexander Briger" (Briger is the conductor of the specific recording you used).
I'll be sure to correct that in the next update, thanks :)
If you have any suggestions for how to word this credit so it doesn't occupy half the screen, it would be much appreciated. You seem to know much more about this piece of music than I.
Well, just put it like this:
G. F. Handel - Sarabande from Suite in D Minor (arr. by L. Rosenman)
...and an optional smaller line that may say "XXXX orchestra, conducted by A. Briger" if you know which orchestra did the recording. HWV (opus number) and other stuff is optional, it's like correct bibliographic info in references list.
Thanks. I updated that in there. :
Awesome game had real fun playing it, humor was great and would love to see more of your content :D! Keep it up!
Thanks for playing. Having a video of it exist of it is flattery I can barely handle. *Falls slightly apart*
The next thing you're likely to see from me and National Insecurities would be The Old Gods Are Dead. It's been in the works since long before this game came to mind, and it's certainly more ambitious, so keep an eye out over the next year or so.
Thanks bro :D im glad you enjoyed haha and dude....... that trailer was amazing now you have just got me really excited for more of your content! Count me in!!
Wow! Count me in as well! When do you think this will be released? 'Cause it's been radio silence since this post, bar updates for bug fixes for Disorient, so is The Old Gods Are Dead still a thing? Just asking! Thanks in advance
The Old Gods Are Dead is still a thing, but we need appropriate funding and publishing to develop it. So, since that post, it's entered a kind-of standby, and we've spent much of the intervening time working on a follow-up murder mystery game. 2000:1: A Space Felony will be available in a few weeks, not quite for free and not through Itch.io (yet). I would reveal where, but I'm unsure our hosts are ready to announce just yet. Follow us on Twitter, if you can, I certainly won't be quiet about its release (@GaryJKings, @NIPresents). This game is our most ambitious work yet (made it with my team this time, rather than alone), so I hope you get a chance to check it out. Here's an outdated trailer, as I'm still a week away from making a new one:
I really rather enjoyed this. I did enjoy the fact 'proffesional Con Man' was misspelt though I don't know whether it was intentional or not. Regardless of that, it was a pleasure to play.
I caught that spelling error just before release, and decided to release anyway. I'll be spell-checking the whole game through over the next couple of days and then I'll update.
Really glad you liked it! Thanks for playing.
No, I think it absolutely worked. I didn't mean for it to be a criticism, it just added to the humor. 'Oh look I'm a professional thief', though I can say/spell my own title.
I'm glad it kinda worked.
A couple of the other typos people caught work a little less well, so I'll still likely fix this one when I update, too.
Again, thanks for playing, means a lot to me. :)