Tag: MadPea Games

Blood, lust, letters and sleuths as MadPea go adult

Posted on by Inara Pey

posterSamantha Mason, blonde, beautiful, sexy, provocative … deadly. A woman with an appetite for lust – and for murder. “The Mantis” they called her, someone in whom “evil never looked this sexy.”

It didn’t matter whether her victim was male or female, the pattern was the same: seduce, lure, kill. Before being finally apprehended, she had been responsible for no fewer than eight gruesome deaths. Tried and convicted, she was locked away, and society breathed easy once more.

But now, a year later, the murders have started again. Sadistic and twisted, each a measure of erotic savagery wreaked upon a helpless victim. It seems that perhaps someone is picking up where “The Mantis” had left off. But just who is responsible, and where will it end….?

This, in essence (and with thanks to Kess Crystal from the team for the press release) is how the scene is set for the latest hunt to come from the folks at MadPea Games – Blood Letters.

Starting on Saturday, November 1st, 2014, and running through until the end of that month, Blood Letters is billed as the first adult-themed hunt to be run by MadPea – and it is also somewhat timed-based, which makes it a double departure from past events, something which has “Queen Pea” Kiana Writer, who heads-up MadPea, pretty excited. And everything hinges on a series of letters – the Blood Letters of the title.

“Participants take on the role of a private detective,” she tells me as we discuss the new hunt. “And they have their office. Every day a letter will appear at the office; this letter reveals a part of the story, a quest that leads them to a location. And when they solve that day, they will receive a prize from that store.”

Participants in the hunt take on the role of a private detective, operating out of the offices of Checkmate Inc
Participants in the hunt take on the role of a private detective, operating out of the office of Checkmate Inc

In all, 25 creators and stores are taking part in the hunt, each one a destination for those joining the hunt. But finding the daily prizes are only part of the story. The name of the game is finding the killer.

“Once they have visited all locations, on day 25 the big end game begins,” Kiana says. “So they’ll have to be good little detectives, because there are clues to be discovered throughout the 25 days. They truly need to check all the locations and make sure they’ve collected everything to solve the case!”

With a touch for the noir about it, Blood Letters is in some respects a further step down the investigative storytelling route for MadPea, a path they so successfully trod in 2013, with Room 326 and Mad City, and which this time takes a more narrative flow.

Like all of MadPea’s games, Blood Letters is HUD-based, the HUD in this case being used to reveal the contents of each day’s letter. Vendors for the HUD will be available outside the office of Checkmate Inc., the same office in which the letters will make their daily appearance. Located in a suitably shabby corner of R3volt’s home region (R3volt being one of the stores participating in the hunt) and which is also the home of MadPea’s new satellite store, the office is intended to be a focal-point for those engaging in the hunt. “We thought that would be nice to have a central location where people can meet each other. A base of operations,” Kiana notes.

Take on the role of a private detective in MadPea Games slight nior-esque adult murder mystery hunt starting on Saturday, November 1st.
“The name’s Bullit. Traci Bullit…” – Take on the role of a private detective in MadPea Games slight noiresque adult murder mystery hunt starting on Saturday, November 1st.

And the adult aspects? Well, the team are staying tight-lipped about that; there should be some surprises, after all. However, the promise of “sexual content and gore” isn’t an idle one, so participants had better be ready to engage in some careful sleuthing and be ready for a shock or two as the mysterious and deadly killer taunts them with his or her Blood Letters, leading them across the grid and towards the final end game…

Blood Letters launches at 12:00 noon SLT on Saturday, November 1st. For those Private Eyes who like to party before taking a case, there will also be a special “Kinky Killers” themed launch party at !Exodus! Rock Club, starting at 13:00 SLT the same day.

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Return of the Silent Peacock

Posted on by Inara Pey
MPC-5c
I was sharing a personal moment with Jack D when the ‘phone rang. It was the Governor’s aide. Another 15 people had gone missing from Room 326 at the Silent Peacock Hotel & the Governor wanted me down there. Funny how I’m always wanted when things can’t be handled through the proper channels. But then, that’s the nature of my work. Bullit’s the name. Traci Bullit, and PI work is my game; you want it found, I’ll find it – for L$100 a day plus expenses. Grabbing my hat and coat and pausing only long enough to pick-up Mr. Redemption on the way out, I headed downtown.
By the time
The Silent Peacock Hotel. I thought the place had been condemned and pulled down after the last time 15 people disappeared from Room 326. But when I got downtown, there it was, like a corpse raised from the dead, the same broken sign above the front doors winking at me through that same hard rain that marked the last time I’d been here. Turning my collar against the downpour, I crossed the street, the strangest feeling of deja-vu haunting my steps…
Room 326
Room 326 hadn’t changed either. The same fading wallpaper and same tired carpet. The same smell of stale cigarettes and that cheap cologne popular with so many male members of the city’s constabulary. I flipped open the file a local gumshoe had left behind and started reading the notes. Fifteen people missing. All of them from this room, and all of them with the door to the corridor outside firmly locked, and no sign of forced entry or struggles. File in hand, I headed back downstairs.
It
It was still raining when I stepped outside, so I rolled the file up and tucked it into an inside coat pocket, where it would be safe, right alongside Mr. Redemption, who was cosied in his holster under my right arm. The case had many familiar hallmarks as the last time mystery had roomed at the Silent Peacock. But my gut was telling me that things wouldn’t be a simple open-and-shut retread. Somewhere out in this rain-sodden city were answers, and I was going to find them. And somehow, I knew I wasn’t going  to be the only one doing so…

Yes, Madpea are back with another of their grid-wide hunts and this time, for the first time ever, they are re-running a hunt they’ve already featured in-world: that of Room 326, which ran back at the start of the year, and is making a return by popular demand, this time sponsored by NY Healthscape.

With fifteen people missing, it’s time for you to turn sleuth and follow the clues in this point-and-click grid-wide mystery and find out what really happened in Room 326. Fifteen envelopes must be found and collected if you are to reach the final gameplay area where – as the immortal line goes – “all will be revealed” and you will be rewarded with 15 high-quality prizes.

The hunt is open now, and runs through until August 31st. So, if you fancy you can beat “Traci Bullit” in solving the clues, get yourself over to Mad City, and pick-up a game HUD from the entrance to the hotel (L$150) and make your way to Room 326 so that the game may truly be a-foot! Full instructions on using the HUD are available on the Madpea blog.

If hunts aren’t your thing, Mad City offers the in-world shopper with streets to roam and shops to browse, while beyond it lay the streets of New York and the home regions operated by NY Healthscape, all of which offer places to discover and things to do.

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“It was raining in the city…”

Posted on by Inara Pey

It was raining in the City — a hard rain — almost hard enough to wash the slime from the streets. But it never does. When the rain stops, the boulevard dries and the snakes once again slink from their holes. That’s when my door opens and the helpless, the desperate, walk through with a heart full of hurt and a pocket full of nothing.*

"It was raining in the City -- a hard rain ..." - The Silent Peacock Hotel, starting-point for a grid-wide investigation of Room 326
“It was raining in the City — a hard rain …” – The Silent Peacock Hotel, starting-point for a grid-wide investigation of Room 326

My name is Bullit. Traci Bullit. I’m a private dick without the di – well, you get the picture. My bosom buddy is Mr Redemption, because he’s helped me out of some tight scrapes and spends time in a holster under my right arm.

The rain was still falling when my door opened, only it wasn’t the helpless or the desperate who walked through. It was the Governor’s special assistant. He had instructions for me to get down to the Silent Peacock Hotel where the local gumshoes were tripping over themselves trying to sort out a spate of disappearances. I don’t usually do requests, but Governor Linden is a good egg, and I figured there’d be no harm in doing her a favour. Besides, girls should always stick together...

"The lobby was like the name of the place: silent" - Room 326
“The lobby was like the name of the place: silent” – Room 326

So might begin the mystery of Room 326, the latest grid-wide hunt from MadPea Games. I was actually hesitant to blog this piece, as I visited Hoshi Island last week and tried my hand at following some of the clues (I don’t as a rule “do” hunts), prior to abandoning things due to other pressures – and then Honour McMillan brilliantly covered the setting (I swear, one day I’m going to have to superglue her shoes to the floor to stop her getting to all the fun places ahead of me…. 😉 ).

MadPea routinely produce grid-wide hunts as a part of their broader résumé of games, and all are both imaginative and cleverly themed. Room 326 runs through until the end of the month and involves players becoming sleuths attempting to unlock the mysterious disappearance of 15 people who stayed in the titular room at the Silent Peacock Hotel. The mystery can only be resolved by following a trail of point-and-click clues across the grid.

Room 326
“The room wasn’t that bad, other than the smell of cheap cologne and cigarettes – a sure sign the local gumshoes had been over the place. That, and the file they’d managed to leave behind…”  Room 326

The game is HUD-based (costing L$50 from the vendors in front of the hotel entrance). Your first task on purchasing it is to activate it, which requires finding Room 326 and the information inside.

Once you have found the required information, your HUD will activate and reveal the 15 missing people, clicking on a photo will provide you with information on a person and – importantly – the location of the clue associated with them. Clues take the form of envelopes which must be found and clicked on. Unlike other hunts, the envelopes don’t themselves give out prizes. Instead, players must collect all 15 envelopes; only then will they be given instructions on how to proceed to the final gameplay area where, as they say in the time-honoured tradition, “All will be revealed…”

Room 326 runs through until January 31st. Even if you’re not into hunts, it’s an entertaining distraction.

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*Quote from “The Big Goodbye”, scripted by Tracy Torme