Murder Manor - Web Browser Rougelike/Strategy/Sadist game

[chrisbot6]

rotondo did it so i can do it

Devlog

Description
I've been making a little browser game based off of Super Murder Mystery and other Murder gamemode's I've seen throughout the years on gmod and tf2; gamemodes I used to host a lot in the past. If you know how SMM works, good for you. If you don't, here's the idea; the game stars YOU as a random dude caught in the wrong place at the wrong crime while some mental stuff is going down. By default, there is one murderer who must eliminate as many players as possible without being caught, but alternate gamemodes include a "bounty" mode (where everyone is given a target to kill and those who have killed the most when time runs out win) and a classic "mafia" mode (Where there are multiple murderers on the loose! Huzzah!)

Tech

• Both client and server are written in Javascript. Sorry if that's an issue for you.
• Client uses Phaser HTML5 engine for rendering, to keep the source simple and maintainable.
• All net communication is done through socket.io.

Planned Features:
I started with these ideas:

• "Clues" system. Find things that help you catch the killer! You can find notes telling you important information throughout the house, or get info from other players (though players can lie!)
• Classes. There will always be Murderers and Civilians. But what if someone's a doctor? They can examine bodies and identify what weapon they were killed with. If someone's a detective? They can tell when you're lying to them or withholding information. The murderer has a class too. Beware of detective murderers!
• Gore! Blood everywhere! Blood as evidence! Fake blood! Real blood! Somewhere inbetween blood! (...how...?)
• Many, many items and objects to find and use! Numerous head bashing aids! Mops to clean up blood! Furnaces and cupboards to dispose of or hide corpses! Keys to lock/unlock doors! Crowbars and axes to break open said doors! Lockable breifcases to secure items! Time bombs! Secret passageways and areas! Fake evidence!
• Several maps for each gamemode!
• Randomized events and item locations!
• Turn based OR real time action!
• Play in your web browser WHENEVER!
• No real chat system, on purpose. The only way to talk to another player is go up to them and start a linear conversation, to which they can choose how to respond. New dialog options are unlocked by new descoveries.
• ...And much more!

Which evolved into these designs and ideas:

MURDER MANOR ONLINE ALPHA ITEM LIST WOOOOOOO

Grolly
Lockpick
Crowbar
Axe
Note
Hatchet
Ceremonial Sword
Syringe
Revolver
Cupcake
Breifcase
Time Bomb
Mr. Mean (spray bottle)
Iron Bar
Candlestick
Key
Knife
Concieled Knife
Pistol
Concieled Pistol
Cane
Medkit
Morphine
Pain Pills
Body Bag
Mallet
Sledgehammer
Fake Gun
Fake Knife
Fake Blood
Disguise
Metal Detector
Strongbox
Rubber Mallet
Water
Burger
Chicken Leg
Drink
Poison
Mop
Baton
Teleporter
Paint
Junk
Swag
Floor Polish
Automatic Turret
Crate
Monkey Wrench
Taser

CHARACTER CLASSES, RANDOMLY ASSIGNED

doctor - if this player is a doctor (can examine bodies in detail and heal people midway without medical tools)

detective - if this player is a detective (can detect lies and withheld info in conversations, starts with revolver)

theif - if this player is a theif (can pick locks, starts with random keys)

psycho - if this player is a psycho (double damage, starts with cupcake, screams on death)

hoarder - if this player is a hoarder (double inventory size, starts with junk, screams on death)

addict - if this player is an addict (can survive all poison, starts with syringe, screams on death)

spy - if this player is a spy (starts with unique disguise kit that other players can take)

hustler - if this player is a hustler (can convince players to give up items against their will)

Screenshots and GIFs

Original Mockup:


Current appearence and mechanics of game (subject to change):








GIFS:
Testing movement...


Testing examining of and hit-based interaction with doors and players...


ROOM DESIGNS (Alpha Manor):

Cellar, finito


Furnace room


Coridoor, left wing


Lobby (too big to fit in a picture without blurring and loss of detail)


A bathroom


OTHER:

Server window, doing server things.


Goals

• Have actual walking animations on the client side
• Make it so you can put an armed time bomb in a briefcase, lock the briefcase, and give it to someone and the bomb still goes off and kills that person.
• Make it so you can put an armed time bomb in a strongbox, and the strongbox will suppress the explosion and potentially save your life.
• Make it so that you can lock someone in a freezer and they freeze to death.
• Make it so you can give fake weapons to people you distrust, but remove the label and they will see them as real until trying to hurt someone with them.
• Make it so your client tracks where people are in the house by approximation (as shown in the mockup), but if you use certain items (i.e. Walkie Talkie, Baby Monitor, Motion Sensor, Hidden Camera) you can keep track of people.
• End up with a game item list twice as long as the one I posted above.
• Get some kind of 24/7 test server going late into the alpha.
• Reproduce Entropy Manor, in its entirety, in topdown pixel art form, in the Murder Manor engine, and play a game in it with people.
• Reproduce Mini-Ville, in its entirety, in topdown pixel art form, in the Murder Manor engine, and play a game in it with people.
• Make it so the turn based system can be turned off for crazy, blockland style games.

Will it be free?
YES.

It's a stupidly extensive browser game I'm making for fun based off the basic ideas of Port and Bushido when they made (and stopped making) SMM, as well as the ideas those were based off of and the ideas THOSE are based off of. I might stick some ads in there to grease me through the summer sales if it gets popular, but you guys can block those if you want.

Can I do anything to help?
I am good as the sole coder. Things like map design, art, and the general user experience side of things, though, are things I do struggle with and would be happy for help in. This would be voluntary; the sole reward would be seeing your content in the game and being credited for it.

I do not accept donations.

[Ad Bot]

[Mr.Blocko]

FIRST! This actually looks promising, keep up the work man!

[chrisbot6]

I'd edit this into the initial post, but I didn't think it would fit as part of it so I'll add it here instead.

Before I designed the game, I wrote a "fantasy chatlog" of an ideal game being played. This chatlog influenced a lot of the mechanics and dialog the game now has, so I thought I might as well post it here to give you guys an idea of what I want a single match to be like in Murder Manor. Yes, it takes a while to get going, but the ending might surprise you;

A murder has occurred!
You and everyone else have gathered in the Dining Room. You are:
- Not the murderer.
- A doctor, meaning that you have the ability to heal other players without items, as well as inspect corpses.
- Carring certain medical items that go with your profession, some dangerous, some useful.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their first turns...
Samuel is holding something.
Samuel puts something away.
Samuel demands answers from Jack.
Since Jack hasn't even had a turn yet, this turns out to be a waste of time.
Samuel leaves the room.
Jack takes something off the table.
Jack leaves the room.
---------------------------
Begin your first turn.
You examine the body:
- You notice the victim is bruised around the head, but not cut - likley a blunt object.
- As a doctor, you can tell that this was a recent death, happening around a minute ago.
- Your medical skills also tell you that these wounds were inflicted by a skillet, or frying pan.
You examine Ben.
He is:
- Not carrying anything you can see, though his coat bulges a little.
- Not holding anything in his hands.
- Grinning maniacally.
You take an umbrella from the umbrella stand.
You examine your umbrella. You notice several things:
- It is not threatening, and will not alert other players when you hold it.
- It is very visible; other players that examine you or see you with it out will know that you are carrying it.
- You would probably have difficulty defending yourself with it.
You enter the Kitchen.
Jack is in here.
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
Jack takes something from the fridge.
Jack eats something.
Jack takes something from the fridge.
Jack turns towards you. You can now see he is holding a burger.
Jack eats a burger.
Jack takes something from the fridge.
Samuel enters.
Samuel examines you. He doesn't seem to notice anything interesting.
Samuel questions you. What do you tell him?
You tell Samuel your medical findings.
You tell Samuel that you don't know anything else.
As Jack is nearby, he can hear your conversation.
Samuel gives you a walkie talkie.
You can now track and converse with Samuel as if he was in the room with you.
---------------------------
It's your turn.
You enter the Dining Room.
You are alone.
You enter the Lobby.
You are alone.
You take some paper from the floor.
It reads: "Samuel is a detective, so he can tell when people are lying or withholding sensitive information."
There is a loud noise upstairs; sort of like a thumping sound.
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
---------------------------
It's your turn.
You try to enter another room, but this door is locked.
You examine the door. You notice:
- The door is not sturdy, and could be knocked down or pried open with the right tools.
- The door has no signs on it stating where it leads.
- The door requires a key to open it without causing damage.
You ask Samuel if he's seen a key. He says no.
Trying a different door, you enter the Upstairs Coridoor.
You are alone.
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
Ben enters the room. He is carrying a set of keys.
Ben leaves the room.
Jack enters the room.
Jack is carrying a crowbar.
Jack leaves the room.
---------------------------
It's your turn.
You enter the left bedroom.
Ben is in here.
Ben is carrying a breifcase.
You ask Ben if he's seen anything.
Ben claims to not have seen anything.
You ask Ben about the breifcase.
Ben doesn't know anything.
You take a Skillet from the floor.
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
Ben leaves the room.
There is a shrill scream from the Upstairs Coridoor.
---------------------------
It's your turn.
You enter the Upstairs Coridoor.
Jack's corpse and Samuel are in here.
You ask Samuel what happened to Jack.
Samuel says Ben killed Jack with a breifcase.
You give Samuel the Skillet.
You tell Samuel that you found the Skillet on Ben.
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
Samuel gives you a breifcase.
Samuel leaves the room.
The walkie talkie connecting you to Samuel goes quiet.
---------------------------
It's your turn.
You enter the Lobby.
Ben and Samuel are in here.
Samuel is in bad shape.
Ben is holding a baseball bat!
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
Ben tells you Samuel killed Jack in the coridoor.
Samuel attacks Ben.
Ben is injured.
---------------------------
It's your turn.
You attack Ben with the umbrella.
Ben is in bad shape.
You attack Ben with the umbrella.
Ben goes down.
Your turn ends.
---------------------------
Other players are taking their turns...
Samuel thanks you.
Samuel leaves the room.
---------------------------
It's your turn.
The breifcase you are holding explodes.
You are dead. Now spectating...
All innocents are now dead.
The murderer was Samuel.
Good game!

[Sentry]

This is looking really good, Can't wait to try it out when its more stable.

[chrisbot6]

Been working on the shadows. I like these ones a lot better.

[Sitrus]

Very nice

[chrisbot6]

I've added a few more visual effects to the game. Dem windows!

[TristanLuigi]

If all players except one (for obvious reasons) accuse someone of the murderer and gather in a room, then perhaps the police can be called and they arrive in several turns. If the killer was correctly guessed, the innocent win; otherwise, the murderer wins.

Also, at the moment it seems the briefcase is unconditionally bad. Maybe it can carry loot randomly, so players have an incentive to open it? If it carries the bomb, it goes off, otherwise they receive one or more items. It can be set down, too, in which case it kills any nearby players if it goes off.

[chrisbot6]

If all players except one (for obvious reasons) accuse someone of the murderer and gather in a room, then perhaps the police can be called and they arrive in several turns. If the killer was correctly guessed, the innocent win; otherwise, the murderer wins.

Also, at the moment it seems the briefcase is unconditionally bad. Maybe it can carry loot randomly, so players have an incentive to open it? If it carries the bomb, it goes off, otherwise they receive one or more items. It can be set down, too, in which case it kills any nearby players if it goes off.

Breifcases normally spawn with either nothing in them or a usable item. Occasionally they are locked. A breifcase will never spawn with a timebomb already in it. The point of the game is to encourage players to experiment, not do it for them.

As for the police idea, I like it; but getting a bunch of random internet people to gather in a room and go through all that while still keeping the game realistic and physically based (i.e. actually requiring everyone to gather in the room and vote on accusation)  doesn't seem like a mechanic that will realistically be played very often, if at all excluding accidents that people go along with. I'd say leave the police out - the game should be like one of those classic middle of nowhere with no telephone line mystery films where the killer can be stopped by his victims, and no one else.

Bathroom finished!


I'll update the main post with new mansion images.

[NessNet]

looks cool

[Landmineman4000²]

More spooky athmosphere would fit, and perhaps let players who are dead posess furniture which they can then move around in and block the path of another person.
Also let there be a room that can only be accessed after a lot of turns have passed, and in that room is a monster which will hunt and kill all players, it would be intended to end a game that has gone on for to long, and in that room can also be some lore on the monster, but also let people turn off that feature entirely because i could imagine people not liking their games to end untill they've done all they wanted to do.
wait i reread the thread, consider this an alternate gamemode instead

[Skip]

perhaps let players who are dead posess furniture which they can then move around in and block the path of another person.

This part is stupid too fyi

[chrisbot6]

More spooky athmosphere would fit, and perhaps let players who are dead posess furniture which they can then move around in and block the path of another person.
Also let there be a room that can only be accessed after a lot of turns have passed, and in that room is a monster which will hunt and kill all players, it would be intended to end a game that has gone on for to long, and in that room can also be some lore on the monster, but also let people turn off that feature entirely because i could imagine people not liking their games to end untill they've done all they wanted to do.
wait i reread the thread, consider this an alternate gamemode instead

I already "sort of" covered atmosphere. All rooms have an ambient track playing, and some also have gamaphone music.

Certain rooms start locked and keys must be found to open them. There is currently a round time limit, so there is no need for a monster or anything.
...
Oh. As a gamemode? I like it. I'll look into ai for the game.

[Bushido]

i sent you a friend request on steam, and i want to get involved

[chrisbot6]

i sent you a friend request on steam, and i want to get involved

Thanks! I'll accept you when I get home.