Our ongoing project to update our games to our latest format continues with Davy Jones’ Locker and Way out West. Davy Jones’ Locker We completed this earlier in the year but forgot to mention it here on our blog. Davy Jones’ Locker is our shipboard game of pirates in the Caribbean. The Libra is sailing from Tortuga to Florida – but with so many...
Freeform Games murder mystery blog
Looking back at 2022
2022 felt like the pandemic was finally behind us. While COVID-19 is still around, it’s not the terror it once was, and the world (or at least, our part of it) is on the road to recovery. From our perspective, that means people are gathering in groups – and where there are gatherings, there are murder mystery parties! The recovery that started in...
Casting Murder on the Istanbul Express
Using a Google Form to help cast Murder on the Istanbul Express murder mystery game.
Freeform Games newsletter November 2022: Vanished in Vegas
Our newsletter featuring a new game and some updates to older games.
Post-party feedback
After a murder mystery party we like to get feedback from our players. We primarily do this to improve our games, but I’ve started asking for stories. As well as celebrating the party’s success, stories are the only way I get to discover what happened. (As host, I am often the last person to find out what’s going on.) Post-party feedback So after...
Kumospace tips
In our last post, Mark R told us about Kumospace, a spacial chat app he used to host Death in Venice. So I thought I’d try it out and successfully ran Reunion with Death using Kumospace. Reunion with Death on Kumospace - the pop-out map showing the whole floor is on the right So here are my tips for using Kumospace: Names: Ask everyone to change...
Virtual murder parties – Kumospace review
Mark R recently wrote to tell us about Kumospace. In Mark’s words… We did Reunion with Death back in 2020 using Zoom. The game was great, but Zoom is a bit clunky since the host must admit people to rooms. Kumospace layout I just bought Death in Venice. I'll use a different service this time: Kumospace. I haven't used it yet (other than to play...
Murder mystery party games you can simultaneously host and play
Our murder mystery games require a separate host because we include items and money and abilities like pickpocketing and rules such as combat and arrests. We find a dedicated host helps the game run smoothly. However, the games we developed during lockdown (Reunion with Death and Death in Venice) are more straightforward because we designed them...
Updating Happy Birthday R.J.
We’ve recently updated Happy Birthday R.J. to our latest format. Happy Birthday R.J. was originally published in 2003. It was our fifth game and was written by Lisa Butler (who later wrote Snow Business and Casino Fatale). Next year it celebrates its 20th birthday! Taking place on SouthSpoon Ranch in 1980s Texas, Happy Birthday R.J. is full of...
Adding fighting and poison to a murder mystery party
One of of our customers recently wrote to us asking which games have combat in them.
We realised we hadn’t made it easy for our customers to work out which games have combat and which ones don’t, so we have added icons to each games’ page to make that clear.


