A Retrospective on The Making of Murder at the Cat Show

A Retrospective on The Making of Murder at the Cat Show

On Friday, November 12th, 2021, and I published Murder at the Cat Show (MATCS). Out of everything I’ve made throughout the years, this one feels the most complete. Perhaps because I worked with a very close friend of mine, Nephel, who made amazing art. Maybe it’s because I incorporated music that I still hum to myself (thanks to artists who allow their work to be used commercially on FreeSound.) Maybe it’s because I incorporated more UI and game mechanics than I have for any other game I’ve made. MATCS is a game I did not originally intend to make, and now it’s a thing I simply love with all my heart.

I started working on Murder at the Cat Show because I had a larger idea that I felt too intimidated to make. I knew that for the larger game, I wanted to work with an artist, I wanted to incorporate music and sound effects, and most importantly (to me, at least), I wanted to write a massive story with depth and loads of dialogue options. It’s an idea I’ve had for years and have never committed to because I’m terrified that my idea actually sucks. So I thought making a smaller game would boost my confidence, and help me toward making My Big Game.

I use Milanote for my vision boards! Various cats, for inspiration. All cat photos taken from The Cat Fanciers’ Association website

Murder at the Cat Show’s plot came from just chatting with Nephel and joking about having a cat be a murderer. There’s a cat in my previous detective game, Murder by Candlelight, that was at the scene of the crime during the murder. While it’s technically a suspect, you can’t accuse the cat of the time. That was really what pushed me to make a game about cats and their very strange owners.

“Game Idea: Ace Attorney but with Black People”

I also wanted to incorporate a wide range of characters. Ace Attorney is one of my favorite game series. Despite being a game about solving murders, the writing is so whimsical and fun. Phoenix Wright and his crew always take their jobs seriously, but at the end of the day, they’re just humans who are trying to have fun in between the harder moments.

With that in mind, I knew I wanted the Detective to be Black. I didn’t mean for the Detective to become a self-insert, but, well, here we are. Additionally, I wanted every character to be a woman. I did this for a two reasons:

1) I love writing different female characters. I don’t often silly female characters in games. Of course they exist, and I can certainly name a few, but I want to see more. The Strong Female Character is still in vogue, and while I understand why it came to be and its response to the overused damsel-in-distress trope, it’s become its own overused trope, and does not fully solve the big problem, which is that female characters need more depth. I just want to see some kooky girls!

2) I read once that people will often suspect women of the crime in a murder mystery, even if the story states that the woman is innocent. I cannot find where I read this because I read it during one of my murder mystery googling tirades, so who knows how true the statement is, but I believe it. You can’t instantly suspect a woman of ne'er-do-well when they’re all women!

Giant Illia says “Please, ma’am, I did not kill her!”

I love the character designs Nephel came up with. I relied on Nephel to really make these characters come to life. I gave Nephel a list of personality traits and ages for each character, and she literally just popped out these beautiful characters. I truly think they’re perfect. Working with friends has always made me nervous. It’s like how they say never become roommates with your best friend, or never get a tattoo of your partner’s name. But it is possible to work with friends! If you just communicate with each other, work with each other, and problem-solve together, then things should go smoothly.

My vision board of absolute awesome games and images. Click here if you want to see the links to all the images!

For the game’s look, I was inspired by Famicom Detective Club’s design. I wanted something sleek and clean. Jam and the Mystery of the Mysteriously Spooky Mansion by Res was also a huge inspiration in design. I love the black and white background contrasted with Jam’s poppy red color. I considered adding more backgrounds to MATCS, but I think having the characters be the only thing present makes the game feel more theatrical. It really is about the characters, and less so about what is around them. They are the true stars of the show.

Overall, finishing this game took about four months to complete. Murder at the Cat Show wound up being bigger than anticipated (when is this not the case when making art?), but despite the hardships, it was an absolute blast to make. I feel as though I have a little more confidence to make My Big Game. In a way, Murder at the Cat Show was a tool I needed to push myself toward my bigger project. It feels almost rude to say it, but it’s true. Regardless, I can say with my newly found confidence that I love Murder at the Cat Show with all my heart. It’s a game that still makes me laugh, despite playing it almost every day for four months. I hum along to the music. I’m proud of it, and I hope as many people in the world play it. This dev log is mostly for me, to make sure I never forget about this game. I know I will most certainly forget the articles I’ve written, even some of the games I’ve made, but I don’t think I will ever forget this one.

If you’ve played Murder at the Cat Show, thank you! I hope you enjoyed it. And if you haven’t you can play it here!