Can you solve all the mysteries?
Accessories to Murder is a detective-adventure game about solving murder mysteries and more in a fictional 1920-30s city with a quirky twist. You play as Stella St Clair, a fashionable dressmaker and amateur sleuth as she weaves her way into the hearts of Fairweather's citizens, earning trust and solving mysteries. But beware, today's friend could be tomorrow's suspect!
What is Accessories to Murder?
A side-scrolling adventure game set in a fictional English city in a vague inter-war time period. The game is divided into 4 main Chapters, each defined by their own key mystery.Each Chapter is broken up into between 3-5 Daytime & Evening segments, where the player can investigate areas and talk to characters, some of which are unavailable during either daytime or evening.After each evening segment, the player is invited to a Discussion that the main character, Stella, and her companions hold to go over evidence and build theories. This all culminates in a final Confrontation that rounds out the Chapter.
Travel the troubled city of Fairweather which is riddled with mysteries and a robust rogues gallery! Make friends with the townsfolk to earn their trust, get close to the truth and earn the ire of the puppet-masters & masterminds behind Fairweather's darker side.Who is lying? Who can you trust?
Can you solves all the mysteries?
The Wold & History
The world of Accessories to Murder is semi-realistic, mostly keeping up to date with historical 1920s-30s England, but with a lighter tone and some very sharp departures. First, the city of Fairweather has been devastated by something called The Cataclysm, a seemingly natural yet entirely unexplained disaster that sank half of the once-bright seaside district of Seahaven and brought about weeks of immense flooding. Not much is known about the cause or origin of the Cataclysm and there will be a constant supply of urban legends, haunted locations, unusual rumours and tall tales spread around but often dismissed as local gossip. Stories about researchers who took a great interest in the sunken district of Seahaven that set up camp but disappeared, leaving the camp in-tact as if only just vacated; or tales of the waters of Seahaven carrying a song in the air with no known source; or stories of hidden treasures and living monsters.
The City of Fairweather
The city of Fairweather, divided by the Darby River, is further divided into 6 distinct districts, each with their own visual style representing a style that represents England or the time period in some way...Riverside: The official district. Embodying the industrial, art-deco workmanship of the time. With tall, blocky buildings and busy with working men and women.
Hillview: The luxury district. Embodying the opulence and extravagance of Victorian times, with patterned gates, rich interiors and people in fancy evening attire.
Redbridge: The high-end district. An offshoot of Hillview, it carries much of the same visual quality but within the shadowed streets lies the more illicit side of the city.
Colby: The middle-class district. Cobbled flagstone paths and angled tiled roofs, with a homely feel to it all. Decorated like old postcards that give the feel of a child going Christmas shopping on a high street.
Falmouth: The dockside district. An industrial hellscape with smog, boats strewn about all the dock areas and full of people overworked or out of work. Full of abandoned factories that can no longer run and warehouses used for criminal means.
Seahaven: The sunken district. Embodying poverty in every form, from hopeless to hopeful. Rags are styled into fashion, washing hangs between buildings, makeshift bridges are made from flotsam and everything is cobbled together, ready to crumble any moment.
The Gangs of Fairweather
Beyond the history and the districts, the most key and special factor of Fairweather is the existence of the gangs that populate it. The gangs, while carrying an obvious criminal element, also carried (and still carry) a social club element, offering safety and companionship to those within. From the nefarious to the altruistic, Fairweather is divided not just by districts, but by territories too.Mercury House: A former gang of elite importers who also dabbled in blackmail, extortion and high society crimes, operating in the districts of Hillview & Riverside.
The Wolves: Soldiers and mercenaries with no home and no hope, founded and led by the taciturn Edgar Stokes, operating in the destroyed district of Seahaven. Bodyguards and armed security would only see this group so far, and so they turned to racketeering, menacing and underground fighting.
Blackjacks: A dockside group that specialises in importing and exporting, led by the Brewer family for two generations, operating within the docks of Falmouth. Ford Brewer has been missing since the Coppergate Raid, leaving his wife, Anne, to run the gang and business with mixed results.
Valentine Gang: A gang that specialised in forgery, once led by the charismatic César Valentine, operating within the districts of Falmouth and Seahaven. The gang once had territory in Colby but this was ceded in an effort to bring peace during the upheaval caused by the Cataclysm. With Valentine dead, the gang has all but faded into the shadows.
Meet The Key Players
Meet Stella St Clair!
A fashionable dress-maker with a flair for amateur sleuthing as she gets tangled in a web of murder, betrayal and long-buried secrets. A fateful encounter with an old friend turns deadly and only Stella and her trusted companions seem interested in finding out the truth!
Stella is joined on her journey but 6 companions she will start with and meet along her journey, each with their own talents and skills to help Stella on her way... and flaws that may cause trouble!
Layla, a rebellious cab driver with a nose for trouble and talent for cooking.
Ilya, a solitary librarian with a photographic memory and off-putting aura.
Eliot, a conniving copper with a flair for the dramatic but schemes of his own.
Pippa, a gossip-loving information broker with a distaste for any kind of discomfort.
Harley, a strange journalist with a whimsical nature and mind of his own.
Dr Dasari, a humourless pillar of his community with a low tolerance for anything criminal.
Fairweather is designed to be absolutely brimming with life. From the main cast of characters to every side character that works in the city, populating the day-to-day life of Fairweather! Everyone has a home, everyone has a job (unless they’re jobless, which is treated as a job really…) and everyone has a group of people they call friends. That is the essence of Fairweather.
Contact Me
This game is being solely made by me and I'd be happy to receive any support or kind words. To get in touch with me to find more or wish me well, check out the links below!