For my project I was going to be making a game based off of H. H. Holmes’ murder hotel. In the game the player would be acting as a detective trying to find evidence around the hotel by looking in different rooms and finding clues. However I made the mistake of not checking what evidence was used to convict him until I started writing this blog post. After doing some research I realised that the game I wanted to make isn’t possible based on the evidence that was used to convict him. There was no evidence found in the hotel that was used in his case as he was convicted on a completely different charge.
Due to this discovery I am now back to square one, and am trying to think of a new topic to do for my thesis. With my new found information I started thinking about my next steps and if I wanted to do the same topic but change the crime or start from scratch. With that being said I am starting from square one and starting to brainstorm new ideas. At the moment I don’t really know what to do in place of my old project but Design your Life is always saying not to get stuck on your first idea so I’m viewing this change in a positive light.
Hi Georgia!
I still love your idea for your Senior Thesis involving H.H. Holmes and his hotel. I think you could possibly still make it work, if you tweaked the premise/idea bit. I think one way you can still keep it H.H. Holmes, is instead of trying to “solve the mystery”, just have the player be the first person to escape from the murder hotel. Since each of his rooms led to different rooms or had secret entrances, you could have the player have to find these places. Or, maybe the player has to find different objects in the room to be able to escape . The player can make use these different objects to create gadgets or something too! If you want, you could maybe even put riddles into the game to give players direction on how to escape a certain room!
Also, if you didn’t want to overstep on a non-fiction event, you could just use H.H. Holmes as an inspiration for your game still! That way, you can tweak it to fit your needs as you’re making the story for the game. That would give your creative liberty to do what you wanted! Overall, I think you still have an interesting idea that you could possibly use!
You can always make it a fictional story that is inspired from true events.
Hi Georgia!
I don’t think you necessarily completely need to throw away the idea. Instead of making the game follow the history of the murders 1:1, you could use it as more of an inspiration. This could give you a lot more creative freedom, and allow you pick and choose which aspects of the history you want to use and which you want to change. You could also add some twists and turns that that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to, and keep players that already know the story curious as they play. Focusing on narrative could also allow you to maybe add some new characters completely from scratch, which could be fun.
It’s up to you though, I wouldn’t recommend continuing with the idea if your hearts not in it!