The Invention of Murder
Gamifying Local History
The Invention of Murder is a large-scale street game based on the death of Mary Rogers in 1841, which was one of the first widely reported murders in the popular press, helping to shape crime reporting for over a century. The game is the offspring of Clue and alternate reality games, with a touch of The Amazing Race: players visit locations, search for clues, and trade info with each other in a race to solve the crime. It uses coded stickers to establish a player’s absolute location.
The year is 1841, and players are working as cub reporters for the New York Herald, racing to be the first to uncover the truth behind the crime of the century - the murder of Mary Rogers, the beautiful cigar girl whose body had been found floating in the Hudson days before. As they visit the places Mary might have been on the day of her death, they call in to the news desk to check their suspicions against the mounting evidence, and search for other players to determine which of the possible murder weapons have been found.
