Tales From The Arcade: Starship Murder
My Next Games · 2023 · Interactive Fiction, Roguelite, Artificial Intelligence, Investigation, Time Management
PC
Positive100% · 10
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About Tales From The Arcade: Starship Murder
Tales From The Arcade: Starship Murder is an experimental murder mystery roguelite in which the killer changes every time you play.
The astro hauler the SS Persephone is falling apart. You - the on-board AI - are being reactivated to perform the necessary repairs. The crew claims that the captain died in a mysterious accident, the same one that conveniently erased your memory banks. Who is telling the truth and who is just trying to buy time to finish the job they started? Welcome, to Starship Murder.
Making games can wear you down. A few months back as a break from our main project we created a little free game - Hank: Straightjacket. The experience was so invigorating that we decided to repeat this exercise whenever we get burned out. In the weeks before this year’s Summer Steam Next Fest once more we felt exhausted… And so… we took a breather and made Starship Murder. This game is an experiment in creating tension. We’re not exactly sure how people will interact with it :D If you’d like to share your playthrough we would be very happy to watch or read or hear about your experiences in any way.
The astro hauler the SS Persephone is falling apart. You - the on-board AI - are being reactivated to perform the necessary repairs. The crew claims that the captain died in a mysterious accident, the same one that conveniently erased your memory banks. Who is telling the truth and who is just trying to buy time to finish the job they started? Welcome, to Starship Murder.
Features:
- Artificial Intelligence Perspective - become the AI of a starship.
- Experimental Gameplay - balance searching for the killer with repairing the ship.
- Digital Thriller - experience an atmosphere of tension and mistrust.
Making games can wear you down. A few months back as a break from our main project we created a little free game - Hank: Straightjacket. The experience was so invigorating that we decided to repeat this exercise whenever we get burned out. In the weeks before this year’s Summer Steam Next Fest once more we felt exhausted… And so… we took a breather and made Starship Murder. This game is an experiment in creating tension. We’re not exactly sure how people will interact with it :D If you’d like to share your playthrough we would be very happy to watch or read or hear about your experiences in any way.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
It is an okay game; short and simple, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. The killer can be any of the three characters and this changes with every playthrough, which adds a little bit replayability to the game. The soundtrack, along with the artwork and dialogue, helps to create a tense atmosphere. There are a few typos, which shouldn't be there as this is essentially a text-based game. And it's also pity that I couldn't enjoy the dialogue / story that much, as I had to juggle this with fixing the ship, but that definitely adds to the tension.
The hard shadows and art style of the sprites give the characters such a unsettling feel and I really enjoyed the sci-fi look of the interface, it did feel as though you were seeing the world through the eyes of the AI, hehe. As for the concept, the idea of solving a crime in five jumps is very neat, I feel like this has the potential for a more ambitious mystery! My only complaint here would be that I couldn't really focus on the dialogues while trying to patch up the ship because the errors popped up too fast, which I guess adds to the rush, but I couldn't figure out who to listen to at times and I would have appreciated a little pause or maybe a "case notes" tab where you could quickly see what you know? Anyhow, I don't know if a good ending is achievable or if I'm just not very good at the game (very possible), but I get that it's experimental, so it was interesting all the same! A little tutorial on the description could help getting a grasp of the controls, I think. That being said, everything feels consistent, which I appreciate. Good work!
This was very cool I loved this game not only the art is pretty funny but also great
The last jump is overwhelming at first... Cool concept. Love it
A Manly game for manly man
Nicely done! Took a few tries, but it was fun getting the right culprit at the end. Appreciated the interesting way of taking care of the killer, as well as the varied endings. Solid work with the art and music as well.
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