Mystery Trails is a murder-mystery game played on foot. The Case is fictional. The street is real: walk to the pins, question the Suspects, pin it all on your Murder Board, and accuse.
Every Scene and every NPC is a pin. Get close enough and it unlocks. The walking is the game, not a loading screen.
A Case asks for about 150 metres of ground, never less than 80 and never more than 800. The streets you haven't walked stay under charcoal until you do.
Low Water at the Anchor is a Case on Bankside: three Scenes, four people, one evening. The distances are the real ones, measured between the pins.
Low Water at the Anchor
Nell Garrow kept the books for every lock-up under the Clink Street warehouses. Tonight she went out the back of the Anchor to settle up with someone, and was found at the foot of the loading stairs with the tide out.
Back to the board, then accuse180 m on foot
The Loading Stairs. Iron steps down from the kitchen door to the river path. Slick with the last of the tide.
Comb a Scene for Evidence. Evidence is harder to fake than a story, but it usually says less on its own. These are the stairs behind the Anchor, an hour past closing.
Nell's wristwatch, stopped at 23:40, its glass cracked against the bottom step.
The Anchor: the riverside pub, an hour past closing. Towels over the pumps, one coat still on its hook.
Start an Interrogation and ask what you know how to ask. Testimony is not fact: it can be true, mistaken, or a lie, and the game never tells you which.
WitnessIris PenhaleLandlady of the Anchor. Sees everything from behind the bar, or thinks she does.
Last orders at half eleven. Nell went out the back to settle up with somebody and never came in for her coat. Tobias was still at the bar.
She and Tobias had words about the lock-ups. He told her he'd sort it himself.
Silas Monk. Far end of the bar, same stool as always, till well after half eleven.
His brother, then. Abel wears the same coat and the same cap. I'd have sworn it was Silas.
Ask her something. She answers what she can.
Three people had reason to want her quiet. Find out which one was on those stairs.
Everything you gather becomes a card. Pin two up and the Link says what it claims: contradicts, corroborates, places at, or motive for. Tap two cards to try it.
No Links yet. Tap a card, then another.
Name the culprit and show the Links that prove it. The Case closes on your reasoning, not just your guess.
AccusationLow Water at the Anchor
Who was on the loading stairs?
One email when the Android app is on Google Play. Nothing else.
I built Mystery Trails because the best part of a detective story is the walking: the pub, the stairs behind it, the row of lock-ups under the warehouses. The Case is fictional. The ground is yours.
The game sends you into real streets, so it has rules about that. A Case asks for about 150 metres. A pin on private property or anywhere unsafe fails the Case before it ships. Walk safely, mind the traffic, and if a pin ever sends you somewhere it shouldn't, write to me.
There is no account, no email, no password. The app has no ads and no analytics. Your position goes to the server to place Cases near you, and nowhere else.
The game never tells you the answer. It checks your reasoning: the Links you drew and the Evidence behind them. You can be wrong, and that is the point.
Jimmy
Maker of Mystery Trails