I remember about 10 years or so ago playing a whodunit style mystery game on the pc. The mystery took place in either a mansion or a hotel (I forget which), and the murderer was generated randomly. The graphics were 2D semi-realistic and pretty bad but not cartoony (like, say, Hugo), and there was no paranormal nonsense in it. I tend to think it was a free game offered on the website of an indie guy who was fairly well known (though I can't be certain of that).

Anyone have any ideas? I remember liking it, and was curious if it ever went any further in terms of development. I really like the idea of the randomly generated murderer and trying to clue out who he was.

Thanks!

First things that came to my mind:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/clue
http://www.mobygames.com/game/clue-murder-at-boddy-mansion
The second one fits better because it's closer to 10 years old range and it does have a word "mansion" in the title ;)

Makes me think of Murder!, though that's definitely not it. For one thing, it's more than 20 years old. It was a fun game though.

Thanks. No, it definitely wasn't one of the Clue games. Nothing so big name as that. Murder! really does look similar, but it wasn't quite that old, and it was color. I do wonder if someone was doing a PC remake of that, though, because it looks similar. I'm going to dig into that a little bit.

There's also Murder on teh Zinderneuf, which is even older (30 years now), so it's unlikely to be the one you're looking for. But it shows how old the genre is. Basically, these games are "heavily inspired" by the board game "Cluedo/Clue", which was first published in 1949. There are probably lots of free games that copied this board game more or less faithfully.

You could also try asking on Cluedo fan forums, or at Boardgamegeek. But I think finidng a particular free version that was released 10 years ago might be tough.

My first inclination was to say Sleuth - but that's too old and was purely in text mode, so that can't be it.

No, not Sleuth, but I do like that game! Thanks for the thoughts, folks. You're right, Psyringe, it's probably a lost cause. Just thought if there was any group of people to ask, it would be here. I'll check out the Cluedo forums, too.

On a side note, as I was searching today, I stumbled across Murder at Masquerade Manor Murder . Free download, and pretty fun. It's totally Clue, except that the murderer will kill you if you get stuck alone with them in the same room.

I love a good mystery, and while point and clicks are awesome, and have your brain working on puzzles, they rarely actually have you solving the mystery. The story takes care of that aspect.

I don't know about your game,but thanks for the free indie game suggestion, it seems interesting.

Sure thing! They say they did that on the quick and are working on a more commercial version now. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with it. I rather like it. It's a bit creepy, but mainly I like the Clue feeling it has.