This VR murder mystery game is for four players. Each player will take one role.
The goal of the players other than the murderer is to find and vote for the right murderer. They win if the murderer gets the most number of votes at the voting session taking place at the end of the game.
The goal of the murderer is to hide his/her murderer identity. The murderer wins if he/she does not get the most number of votes at the voting session taking place at the end of the game.

INformation FOR all PLAYERS

A song-writing lover who dreamt about performing on around-the-world cruises, an award-winning pianist who aspired to become a top music producer, a Bass player inspired by Claire from much-loved Taiwanese pop band Oaeen, and a drumming fanatic who set his sights on the best drummer in China come together and form a band named Light Blue Voyage (LBV) in spring 2015. An abandoned small room behind the hall just enough for four people and their musical instruments became their favorite spot after school. They sang, they composed, and they improvised.

After graduating from Huangcheng high school, they went to the same college and they never stopped writing and practicing songs. Soon came the life-changing moment for the band. In the 2017 Taihu inter-college song-writing festival, LBV’s “Light Blue” shone through the competition. CEO of Zhe’s Musical Studio saw their potential and outcompeted other music companies to sign LBV. With huge support from Zhe, LBV released their first album in July 2017 and it was a huge success.

The band received lots of attention for their warm and ingenious songs and its vocal, Wanchu Mo, gained a large group of fans for her ethereal appearances and soft singing style that were rare among band. LBV members’ lives were soon packed with performances at music festivals and livehouse and their excitement gradually faded and became tiredness. As the band gained popularity, fans started asking for music styles, performance styles, and more interactions during performances that were not pursued by the band. The band started to receive more criticism as they failed to meet some audience’s expectations.

The band was confronted with a difficult choice–to cater to the market or to be determined in your original pursuit. Though Wanchu knew that she would definitely not cater to the market at the expense of giving up her pursuit in music, she nevertheless started to feel anxious about the future–with such a busy schedule and high popularity, can she and the band have the chance to slow down, to travel around the world on cruises and perform and compose at their own pace?

Unfortunately, what Wanchuwas afraid of came true. Ceaseless performances have made Wanchu exhausted and she became weary of the life she was living. Her request for fewer performances was rejected by Zhe. Meanwhile, Zhe required Wanchu and the band to write songs that would go viral on short video platforms. Wanchu’s firm rejection only got her menace from Zhe that if the band failed to comply to his requirement, the band would breach the contract. They would be responsible for the compensation and they would no longer be able to sing songs they have composed for commercial purposes as the copyrights of their songs belong to Zhe’s Music Studio. Wanchu became extremely helpless and she started to suffer from depression. Zhe went further to disseminate rumors about Wanchu, which resulted in cyber violence against Wanchu. The pressure from the internet, Zhe, and her band members as well as the inability to pursue her music dreams finally destroyed Wanchu.

On August 15, 2018, she committed suicide.

LBV disbanded. Six months later, Zhe and Wanchu’s twin sister Wanhong persuaded the three former LBV members to regroup the band to prepare for performing on cruises–the dream that Wanchu had when she was alive–as a remembrance of Wanchu on her one year death anniversary.

On the day of performance, Zhe was found dead in his room.

Who killed Zhe? What happened exactly a year ago? How was each band member related to Wanchu Mo and her death? What choices have they made …As the cruise ship sails and vibrates, they go on a journey of discovery and choice with their balance constantly tilting between personal pursuit and market demand, dream and reality, self and others…

INformation FOR Each PLAYER

Wanhong Mo

Bio & Relationship With Wanchu Mo

You are the older twin sister of Wanchu. You and Wanchu have both been music lovers since you were young–Wanchu played the guitar, you played the Guzheng, and both of you were choir members from grade 3 to grade 8. However, your and Wanchu’s lives started to diverge when your parents strongly demanded the two of you to pursue careers in law or medical science. You resisted as you did not like these two fields but eventually you followed the path your parents had paved for you. Wanchu, on the other hand, did not surrender to parents’ demands. She grouped with three students from the same high school to form the band LBV and since then took control of her life.

You felt happy for Wanchu when you saw that her band had achieved considerable success with their first album. You envied and admired that Wanchu could pursue a career that she has chosen for herself and that she really enjoyed. In early 2018, Wanchu shared with you her struggles. She was confronted with a difficult choice–to meet and cater to the demand from the audience at the expense of sacrificing personal pursuit or to continue to be determined in original pursuit. Reflecting on what you had suffered after following a path chosen by someone else, you advised Wanchu to make the choice that would allow her to do things that she enjoyed.

You were studying as an undergraduate sophomore in Law school at NYU when you are being notified that Wanchu had committed suicide. You were deeply saddened by the loss of Wanchu. Wanchu left you a letter. You felt guilty as you thought that your advice might have contributed to Wanchu’s suicide. Meanwhile, you were angry at Zhe and the cyber violence that caused your sister to suffer from depression and commit suicide. You were determined to find out exactly what had happened to Wanchu and to bring justice to the person that was responsible for creating and spreading the rumors about your sister.

You returned home and took a gap year. You began investigating Wanchu’s suicide. It was a difficult process as her band members and boss seemed to only tell part of the story and you realized that Wanchu’s suicide might be more complicated than you had thought of. You realized the only way to obtain more information was to get closer to Zhe and the band members. You then proposed to Zhe in April 2019 to organize a cruise performance on Wanchu’s one year death anniversary. You proposed to get the former band members back to reform LBV and that you to join LBV and take the position of the vocal. Zhe accepted.

In June 2019, you received a call from Shengxue Wang (bass). Shengxue admitted to you that she had told Wanchu to leave the band in early 2018 as Shengxue was concerned only about the money she could get from band performances and she felt Wanchu’s resistance to busy band performances and composing songs that meet the audience’s demand could have caused the band’s income to drop. She apologized for not helping Wanchu and for giving her more pressure. She mentioned that she regretted what she did and wanted to do something for Wanchu. She tried to rebut the rumors about Wanchu and speak for Wanchu in the past few months. One significant thing she mentioned was that she found that the drummer, Binglong Liu, might be the person that fabricated and spreaded some of the rumors as the profile picture Binglong used for his Douban account was the same as the account that produced rumors about Wanchu. Shengxue mentioned that she had questioned Binglong but Binglong denied he had produced those rumors.

After persistent investigation, you found the suspect, Zhang, that had helped Zhe to spread the rumors. You used your professional knowledge about the law to get information from him and convince him to provide evidence of Zhe paying him to spread rumors of Wanchu.

On August 15, 2019

At 3:25 p.m., you received a message from Zhang. Zhang sent you screenshots of his chat with Zhe and transaction records.

You immediately went to and arrived at Zhe’s room at 3:30 p.m.. You found him lying in the bathtub filled with water and blood. You spotted turquoise hair on Zhe’s bed which you immediately recognized as belonging to Shengxue. You recalled that Shengxue told you that she regretted what she did to Wanchu and wanted to do something for Wanchu. You thought that Shengxue might be closely related to Zhe’s death. But you did not want her to be sentenced and jailed if she was really the murderer as she had regretted and tried to speak for Wanchu. Therefore, you picked the hair up and took it out of the room. Then you went to and arrived backstage at 3:35 p.m., 5 minutes later than the meeting time (3:30 p.m.) to prepare for the performance at 4:00 p.m..

Zhehan Chen

Bio & Relationship With Wanchu Mo

You are a talented and award-winning pianist and have a huge passion for music production. You aspired to become the top music producer in China.

You were in the same class as Wanchu in high school and you two were good friends. You knew that she sang well and loved song-writing. You two had lots of conversations about music. Wanchu would share songs she wrote with you and you would do musical arrangements for her songs and work on producing songs with her. Wanchu mentioned to you about her friend Shengxue who played Bass. Wanchu, Shengxue, and you would work on musical arrangements together. Wanchu shared with you her ambition to perform on around-the-world cruises. She said she loved the sea and loved to write what she saw and experienced in her songs as she traveled around the world. As your school’s biggest event of the year–Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF)–approached, Wanchu wanted to perform her songs in front of the school. Wanchu invited Shengxue to play the bass, you to play the keyboard and you accepted. You felt it was necessary to have a drummer so you invited your friend, Binglong Liu, from the soccer team. The four of you spent the time after school practicing for the MAF performance. The four of you worked with each other really well and the performance was brilliant. Each one of you showed great interest to keep the band and wished to have more fun playing music with each other. The four of you went to the same college and never stopped playing music together.

Wanchu and you were gradually attracted to each other. You wanted to confess to her. However, Zhe threatened that if you confessed to Wanchu and if your relationship with Wanchu was being found out by the public, Wanchu and the band would lose fans. At the same time, you knew that Wanchu was confronted with a difficult choice between catering to the demand from the audience or to continue to be determined in original pursuit. Your stand was finding a balance between both ends. You told her to try to write some pop songs that would go viral easily but also to write songs she pursued. You did not fully support her even though she was suffering from not being able to do what she really wanted to because first, you knew that Binglong needed money for his father’s medical treatment so your band had to keep performing; second, you were afraid that negative comments about your band would affect your pursue of graduate school in the future. You eventually chose not to confess to Wanchu for the same reasons. Wanchu was very disappointed with you and she talked much less often with you. You tried to help her when you knew that she suffered from depression but she refused your help.

You were deeply saddened by Wanchu’s suicide. You felt guilty that you did not give her your support when she was struggling and that you prioritized your future over her. You regretted that you did not confess to her. You were also extremely angry at Zhe after seeing the messages Wanchu left in her room.

When Zhe and Wanhong invited you to go back to the band and mentioned their plan of organizing a cruise performance on Wanchu’s one year death anniversary, you rejected with rage. Few days later, you received a letter that was written by Wanchu before she committed suicide. After reading the letter, you felt more sorry for Wanchu and were determined to do something for Wanchu to make up for your regret. You felt the only thing you could do for Wanchu was to kill Zhe.

On August 15, 2019

You brought sleeping pills with you and looked for chances to drug Zhe.

Zhe, Binglong, and you started playing pool at 2:00 p.m.. Binglong left for the toilet at 3:03 p.m., you put the sleeping pills into Zhe’s Vodka at 3:05 p.m. and saw him drinking the Vodka. Binglong returned at 3:10 p.m. when Zhe said that he felt uncomfortable and had to go back to his room. Binglong and you also returned to your rooms.

At 3:15 p.m., you entered Zhe’s room and saw him lying on the bed. You entered the bathroom and filled the bathtub with water. Then you took out the suicide note for Zhe you had prepared and put it on the table beside the bed. Then you carried Zhe to the bathroom and put him in the bathtub. In the process of putting him in the bathtub, Zhe’s head hit the bathtub. You feared that this might wake Zhe, so you speeded up and became anxious. You took out the knife, put it in Zhe’s left hand, gripped Zhe’s left hand and slitted his right wrist. Then you quickly left Zhe’s room at 3:22 p.m..

Binglong Liu

Bio & Relationship With Wanchu Mo

You had a below average family circumstance. Your parents divorced when you were 8 and you have lived with your mom since then. Your father rarely visited and cared about you. You wanted to prove to your father that you could bring your mom and yourself a better life.

You began learning drums on your own at 5. You have won several awards in drums competitions and you aspire to become a professional drummer that could earn money by performing and offering drums classes.

You were a teammate of Zhehan in the school’s soccer team and you two were good friends. Zhehan invited you to join Wanchu, Shengxue and himself for a performance during your school’s biggest event of the year–Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF). You accepted. The four of you spent the time after school practicing for the MAF performance. The four of you worked with each other really well and the performance was brilliant. Each one of you showed great interest to keep the band and wished to have more fun playing music with each other. The four of you went to the same college and never stopped playing music together.

You have always enjoyed showing your drumming talent in front of the audience and hearing them cheering for you. After LBV became famous after releasing the first album, you were really proud of LBV and yourself as you started earning a considerable amount of money from lots of performances. Unfortunately, in early 2018, your mother was being tested for cancer. The treatment was costly and you knew that you needed to earn more money so that your mother could continue to receive the best treatment. At the same time, Wanchu was requesting to have fewer performances and refusing to write songs that would go viral easily. You told her your situation and pleaded with her not to have fewer performances. Wanchu sympathizes with you and said that she would try to do her best, but she also said that she could not promise anything. When you saw Wanchu eventually did not do what you begged her for, you became extremely angry and blamed her for being selfish. You felt that what Wanchu did put your mother’s life at a greater risk, so you decided to make Wanchu pay the price. You crafted and posted rumors that portrayed her as a selfish individual who was insouciant about her band member’s mother’s life and a girl who were in multiple relationships since high school on social media anonymously.

After several months of treatment, you ran out of money. You went to Zhe and asked if he could lend you some money. Zhe did not lend you money. Instead, he introduced you to gambling and told you that he had acquaintances in the gambling place that could help you to win money. You knew that gambling was dangerous but you had no other choice. You did win money for the first several times but eventually you lost all your money and owed a large debt. You went to Zhe again for help and he lended you money with a high rate of interest. One day you eavesdropped a conversation in the gambling place and heard that Zhe was one of the operators of the gambling place. You realized that Zhe set you up and decided to kill him so that you would not need to pay off the debt you owed him.

On August 15, 2019

You have attempted to kill Zhe with poison but failed. You carried poison with you all the time and looked for a chance to kill Zhe. Zhe, Binglong, and you started playing pool at 2:00 p.m.. At 3:00 p.m., you added poison to Zhe’s Vodka and excused yourself to the bathroom. You did not go to the bathroom but was observing Zhe outside of his view. You saw Zhe drank the poisoned Vodka. When you were about to leave, you saw Zhehan added something to Zhe’s Vodka. You took a photo to record what Zhehan did. You thought that you could make Zhehan the scapegoat of your murder. Thus, you hid the bottle you used to store the poison in the keyboard case in Zhehan’s room. You then returned to the pool room at 3:10 p.m. when Zhe said that he felt uncomfortable and had to go back to his room. Zhehan and you also returned to your rooms.

YOU ARE THE MURDERER OF ZHE. HE DIED BECAUSE OF YOUR POISON.

Shengxue Wang

Bio & Relationship With Wanchu Mo

You have been a big fan of the Taiwanese Band Sodagreen since 2009 when the band released their album “Fever”. You admired Sodagreen’s Bass Claire Hsieh and started playing Bass when you were 11. You dreamt about performing in large stadiums one day.

You have known Wanchu since elementary school. You two had been in the same class together from elementary school to middle school and both of you went to the same high school. Wanchu and you were close friends. You were always the first one to listen to her songs and she has accompanied you to numerous concerts of Sodagreen. Despite the close relationship between you and Wanchu, you were slightly jealous about Wanchu’s wealthy family and her outstanding appearance. You envied that Wanchu was the one that was always at the center of the spotlight.

You were the first to know that Wanchu wanted to perform her song during your school’s biggest event of the year–Mid-Autumn Festival (MAF). You volunteered to help her. After Zhehan and Binglong joined, the four of you spent the time after school practicing for the MAF performance. The four of you worked with each other really well and the performance was brilliant. Each one of you showed great interest to keep the band and wished to have more fun playing music with each other. The four of you went to the same college and never stopped playing music together.

After the huge success of LBV’s first album, you started earning a considerable amount of money and started to have fans that love and support you. You enjoyed the fame, love, and support that you have never experienced. But when you saw that Wanchu was still the one that received the most attention, you were not satisfied with what you had and you wanted more. When Wanchu shared her worry about the difficult choice of creating works that the audience would like or to follow the original pursuit, you told her that she should prioritize the popularity of the band and pursue her dream at a later stage. When Wanchu was requesting to have fewer performances and refusing to write songs that would go viral easily, you worried that your income and fans would drop. Therefore, you warned Wanchu to not be selfish. Even after Wanchu suffered from depression, you did not help her but told her to quit LBV so that LBV could continue with their performances.

After Wanchu committed suicide, you were shocked and regretted what you had done to Wanchu as you felt that you contributed to Wanchu’s suicide. You wanted to seek redemption. You were aware of the online rumors about Wanchu and decided to rebut those rumors. One day you found that the drummer, Binglong Liu, might be the person that fabricated and spreaded some of the rumors as the profile picture Binglong used for his Douban account was the same as the account that produced rumors about Wanchu. You questioned Binglong but Binglong denied he had produced those rumors. You felt that you alone might not be capable enough to prove that those rumors were fabricated. You recalled that Wanchu had a sister who was pursuing Law and you had her contact. You called Wanmo and admitted to her that you had told Wanchu to leave the band in early 2018 as you concerned only about the money and fans you could get from band performances. You apologized for not helping Wanchu and for giving her more pressure. You mentioned that you regretted what you had done and wanted to do something for Wanchu. You mentioned to Wanmo about what you had found about Binglong Liu and that Binglong denied he had produced those rumors.

During the time when LBV was disbanded, you messaged Zhe and asked him to listen to a song you wrote and asked if he could offer performance opportunities. Zhe humiliated you by saying that Wanchu was the only reason why he signed the LBV and that you were worthless without Wanchu.

On August 15, 2019

You were walking towards the bar for a drink when you walked past the pool room and saw that Binglong was adding something to a drink at 3:05 p.m.. Then you saw Zhe drank that drink. You decided not to inform Zhe because he had humiliated you and because you did not want anything to disrupt the performance at 4 p.m.. You wanted to find out what Binglong was doing so you observed him. You saw Binglong left the pool table and looked at Zhe’s direction outside of Zhe’s view. After Zhe drank his drink, Binglong left. You tried to follow Binglong but lost him. Instead, you found one cigarette which is of the same brand as what Binglong smoked on the floor. You picked the cigarette up and put it in your pocket. You returned to the bar.

You finished drinking and were returning to your room at 3:25 p.m. when you walked past Zhe’s room and saw that the door was not closed. You knocked on the door but there was no response. You entered the room and Zhe was not in the living room and the bedroom. You looked inside of the bathroom and you found that Zhe was lying in the bathtub that was filled with bloody water. There was blood on the floor. You thought it was Binglong who had done this based on your observation of him earlier. As you wanted to do something for Wanchu and you believed that it was Binglong who had produced the rumor about Wanchu, you wanted him to pay the price. You put the cigarette under the bed, hoping that it would be the evidence that would prove Binglong the murderer.

Game Environment demo

I used Unreal Engine to construct the environment of one of the settings needed for this murder mystery game. I attempted to make the environment as hyper-realistic as possible to provide the players with highly immersive experiences. I looked at the images of luxurious rooms on cruise ships in the real world and searched for appropriate textures, materials, and 3D object using websites such as Pinterest, Adobe Stock, and Sketchfab to facilitate the construction of the game environment demonstrated below.

Bathroom

Zhe was found dead in the bathtub

Suite

Example of a clue

Product requirement Document for future development of “Voyage at Sea” VR murder mystery game

This project has lots of room for improvement on top of the current storyline and game environment. First, more game environment for settings mentioned in the story such as the bar, the stage, and Zhehan Chen’s room should be built. Second, interactive gameplay and user interface should be added to so that players can interact with other players and with clues as well as the objects in the game environment.

Therefore, I produced a detailed product requirement document that covers the directions for future development. The most important part of the document–section 4 Core Features and Main Functionality–covers the specific feature requirement and interface requirement for this game. Within this section, the largest emphasis has been placed on communication between players in this VR game (section 4.12).

The PDF to the product requirement document can be found through the link below:

“Voyage At Sea” Product Requirement Document For Future Development (1)