Ultimate Murder Mystery Games - Who we are!
Welcome to our new blog page! We thought a good place to start would be to introduce ourselves. My name is Gareth Sammer and I am the main author and creator of Ultimate Murder Mystery Party Games. I live in London and have been writing murder mystery games since 2006.
As a teenager, I remember playing a murder mystery game at school, which was followed a few years later by a weekend murder mystery trip with my family. I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences, the fun of trying to catch people out, discovering those hidden secrets and trying to solve the murder.
Over the years, my family bought several murder mystery games to play at home, and although we still had a lot of fun, I felt there was something missing. The games ended so abruptly and lacked a certain spark. I was also frustrated by the knowledge that we could only play the game once before people would know who the murderer was. Spending all that money on a game that could only be played once didn't seem worth it somehow.
I began to think about creating my own game for my family and friends to play, one that would combine all the fun elements of a traditional murder mystery, along with that something extra. My first game, Murder at Ewe Tree Hall, came in late 2006. Not only had I devised a simple and effective way to change the murderer and victim each time the game was played, but I had also reduced the amount of boring scripts, given characters their own personalities to play to and introduced secret tasks to add another dimension to the game.
Ewe Tree Hall was an immediate success with my family and friends and after several revisions of the game, I began working on my next game, "Serving up a Murder". It wasn't until we were playing my third game, "Crisis at the College" that a friend suggested I tried selling my games. I was a bit reluctant at first, not knowing if they were good enough for the general public, but the feedback from everyone who had played the games so far was positive.
In 2008, I completed work on a fourth game, "Bet on Your Life?" and began selling all the games through ebay and through my own website. And just like that, Ultimate Murder Mystery Games was formed!
To date, we have now sold over 1800 games across the world, including America and Australia. We now have 9 murder mystery games in total with a 10th, New Years Eve themed party in production along with 2 children's themed games.
Although still a small operation, all of the feedback we have received from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive. We are looking to bring on board new writers this year and work more closely with party suppliers to offer our customers a much wider range of party options. So keep tuned for more soon!