April 7 Dan Zen Expo Exhibit
Mysteries
Dedicated to Madeline Rose
It is whispered in the shadows that Dan Zen is none other than... the Moustache! Working with artist, Greg Rennick, Zen digitally recreated three of his offline mysteries - Lady with Brooch (1995), Kula Pu Idol and Baron Digbody's Castle (2000). This leaves The Violet Vale (Fortune Teller's Ball) and The Hungarian Hunting Lodge (Treasure Mystery) left to convert. It might be nice to see these mysteries updated for mobile. These mysteries and more are presented in this week's exhibit!
Moustache Mysteries ▲ Lady with Brooch - beatnik art theft mystery was the first of the offline and online mysteries by the Moustache. The mysteries from 1996 were one of the first interactive mysteries online. They were built in Macromedia Director and featured OSCI - Off Screen Character Interaction. Dan Zen won the Canadian New Media Awards Programmer of the Year for his work on these examples of Artificial Intelligence featuring a 13 level deep nested conditional! BEATNIK TIME
Baron Digbody's Castle ▲ was a laugh to play in real life. Each Mystery was played twice at parties of 8-12. Baron Digbody's Castle comes with booklets and instructions that you can print to host your own mystery. Would highly recommend it for a Halloween party! The mystery is as chilling as the best of Agatha Christie. Really worth a look. BARON DIGBODY
Kula Pu Idol ▲ A Hawaiian Bungalow mystery with the usual cast of crazy characters half of them in disguise and why not on the tropical isle! Character drawings by Greg Rennick (RIP) with backgrounds by Dan Zen which was the arrangement for this set of Moustache Mysteries. The interface is showing its age and will not work on Mobile. It would be good to revamp these one day - perhaps as a movie if you are interested! KULA PU PLEASE
UTOPIA ▲ released on Spring of 1998, Utopia had over 4000 people lined up to play for a $500 prize. The site used micropayments (Dan Zen Stones) and an invite system to get into the first two days for free. The erotic mystery is set graphically inside snowflakes and features the fantastic drawings by a mysterious pencil. The original site featuring an interactive scope cursor to reveal the poetry still works but it may be easier for you to view the story on the Dan Zen Flickr site VISIT UTOPIA
ALTURA ▲ Dan Zen presents pseudo-interactive stories and in particular the Detective Fastbrush series. Quick, fun, mobile ready! What more can a person of action like you want in a mystery - oh... did I say, "set on a Hawaiian beach?" TRY IT!
Mood Mystery ▲ light mystery games with the novel idea of no plot - all mood in these social party games! Hundreds have played - why don' you try? MOOD MYSTERY
