Tin Man Games has collaborated with Every Cloud Productions to bring the Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher to life in Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze - an interactive adventure story set in 1920s Melbourne.
Replicating the iconic characters and beautiful musical styling of composer Greg J Walker, players uncover clues, interrogate suspects and solve a key murder – not to mention unlocking new outfits for Phryne to wear.
Neil Rennison from Tin Man Games tells us more about this exciting new project.
Where did the idea came from and who has been involved in this collaboration
A few years ago we developed a superhero, comic book detective game called Appointment with FEAR, based on the old Fighting Fantasy gamebook from the 80s. We had designed a “clue” system within the game and we began to think about using it again to create a full-on murder mystery game. During a conversation, one of the team mentioned how much they loved the series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and after few phone calls with Film Victoria, we were able to organise a meeting with Every Cloud Productions. It happened all very quickly!
Initially we hired Luke Miller, best known for his self-published game, My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant, to help design and write the interactive script. Luke, Tin Man Games and Every Cloud Productions collaborated a lot early on to flesh out the storyline and make sure we were on the same page regarding the world and character design. We even received blessing from the original author of the books, Kerry Greenwood, which was very important! Tin Man Games then cracked on with the development and consulted with Every Cloud Productions when we needed sign off on the script, artwork etc.
Did Phryne inspire the game or did you have the idea for a mystery adventure game and thought Phryne would be the perfect fit?
After the initial, “wouldn’t it be great if we made a murder mystery game”, the design then became all about Phryne and 1920s Melbourne. So much so that we decided to throw away our traditional text-based gamebook format and move to a more aesthetic visual novel format. We had to find some way of showing off Phryne’s amazing clothing!
Was this your first time working with a production company to develop a game? How did you find the experience?
Yes! We’ve worked with licensors behind popular books, comics and board games in the past, but never a TV production company. Overall it’s been a great experience and Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox have been fully supportive of a lot of our creative decisions.
Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze is now available to purchase on iTunes.
