Murder at the Birch Tree Theater

I really wanted to like this game, as I have thoroughly enjoyed the Golden Idol games. However, many of the puzzles were too straightforward and did not actually feel like I was solving anything - just clicking around the scenes and picking up words to fill in the blanks that had very little nuance. This level of difficulty stayed fairly consistent so I will give props to that, except for the final chapter, where suddenly there were more leaps in logic but by then I had gotten quite frustrated with the game due to the plot and had no patience left to try to understand the scene. My biggest grievance comes with the plot, which I find rather unbelievable and rather disturbing the more the game progressed. This may be personal taste, but I do not find fulfillment in this story. [spoiler]This is mainly due to effectively the main character and the main antagonist, Mason, never being truly caught or apprehended for the suffering and deaths that he brought to other characters. Even in the ending and after his death, the clues that he left behind in the final chapter are still causing misery to characters that he had framed for disagreeing with him. The sheer greed and selfishness of Ma…

A delightfully morbid mystery story told with the Golden Idol interface. (Exactly the Golden Idol interface really, but hey, it's a fun interface, and the credits imply that it has the Golden Idol team's blessing.) I love this sort of narrative deduction game and I'm so happy that it's blossoming into a genre. This one is obviously replete with a massive love for musical theatre, with detailed and committed parodies that go so far as to provide bits of sheet music for original quite-good pastiche songs. It's the sort of pastiche work that hits not only the biggest names like "Sweeney Todd", but things like "Pippin" too (and the fictional "Wuthering" has the Les Mis poster but the song titles imply it's a parody of the "Secret Garden" and/or "Jane Eyre" musicals, right?). I think that Murder at the Birch Tree Theater would appeal to non-MT heads too. (Though, how could I ever know?) It has quite a good story, with a nice pace where complexity and intensity both ramp up in parallel. It's got hand-drawn charm, from the art to the document writing to the puzzle design. Its world feels bigger than its breezy scope. Some things will not be for everyone: • The puzzles are on the…

This was cute! If you want more Golden Idol but with a cozy murder mystery with fun musicals references, this is your next stop. Some of the UI is a bit rough, and the average difficulty is much easier than the Golden Idol games, but despite some little things we still had a very fun time with this!

Phenomenal Golden Idol'esque deduce-em-up game with a compelling story, great mysteries and deductions, and a masterpiece soundtrack. If you like these types of games, this one is not to be missed. One of the very best and I hope the creator makes more games like this in the future.

Great stuff

This was a lot of fun - a mystery game in the style of Golden Idol, but set in a community theatre in the 70s/80s. It is delightfully over-the-top with fun music and a clear art style. The designer plainly has a lot of affection for musical theatre, and it shines through every case. The story is ridiculous (this is a compliment!! the subject demands High Drama, and the game delivers) an the characters are great. It's not a long game, and that's good: camp can overstay its welcome, but this game knows when to make its exit. Here's to you, Mason. By and large the gameplay is polished. The final mystery had me at least clicking around a bit more than I found enjoyable, hunting for hidden clues and then One Last Word clue. So, one sour note, but honestly a very minor one.