How To Choose A Virtual Platform For Your Murder Mystery Game

Jun 16

Online murder mystery games are a great way to connect virtually with friends! Choosing the right platform to play murder mystery online is easy! Whether you live across the street or across the country, the right platform can make all the difference in feeling connected.

If you would like to play your Foulplay murder mystery game online, you will want to choose a tech platform before assigning characters and inviting guests. When hosting an online mystery game, the goal is to simulate--as much as possible--a way for players to play murder mystery together in character. Players will need to be able to seamlessly talk about general topics and happenings in their world, discuss clues and exchange information, as well as have opportunities to communicate privately to plot and scheme together.

We recommend using Zoom or Gather to set up your game if you are new to hosting a virtual experience, but you are free to use your own system or another platform you are familiar with! Feel free to email us at foulplaycompany@gmail.com at any time if you have questions about this method or its execution and we are happy to walk you through the process!

For the in-game items, evidence, solution, and goals and objectives, you can either email these items to your players throughout the game, set up a shared drive such as Google Drive or Dropbox and share it with your players, or use a Facebook group or a messaging app such as WhatsApp or GroupMe.

There are many video hosting platforms out there, each with its own pros and cons for hosting a virtual game. We understand that everyone has technological limits, and while we will make some recommendations of platforms below, we are not endorsing any particular one over the other. If you have a platform that you feel comfortable with and think you could use to run a game efficiently, then go for it!

Here are the Top 3 Platforms We Recommend to Host Your Mystery Party Online!

1.Gather. Gather is a fun, interactive platform that is basically an online multiplayer game meets conferencing software, and is free for up to 10 players. Players create their own little 8-bit character avatar, then can move around the map using WASD or the arrow keys, making it very intuitive for gamers! Video chat is based on proximity, so it feels very similar to a real-life party where you can walk up to a group and then begin chatting. Gather Town is an interactive video platform that is basically online multiplayer game meets conferencing software, and is free for up to 10 players. The most up to date pricing can be found here. You can use our pre-made templates or create your own for a customized game experience! Find out more about how to play your game on Gather!

Gather is a fun way to play with friends! Left to right: Foulplay Games’ WANDERSTAR, Cabin #5, and Behind The Curtain

2. Zoom. The free version allows you to have as many people as you want but limits the meeting to 40 minutes. You can work around this to build game breaks at the 40-minute increments and have people join back after they have a quick bathroom or snack break. If you have a pro Zoom account, you can host unlimited meetings with no time limit. Zoom also has a breakout room feature but only the host can control who moves where. To get around this, you can make everyone a co-host before you set up the party, and then each guest should be able to move freely between the breakout rooms on their own. You can also select the option to let people move between breakout rooms. If you use Zoom, be sure to set a password and use the waiting room feature to only allow your guests to attend! For more info, check out our blog post on how to host a murder mystery party on Zoom!

3. Discord. Many gamers are likely familiar with Discord. It is a free program where you can get up multiple channels and have places to play games with various groups of people. You can create channels for separate rooms so players can move from private area to private area, or all gather up in one location. The private chat features also make it easy to share materials with players! Check out our blog post to learn how to set up your game on Discord!