Murder at the Birch Tree Theater

This is such a delightful game, obviously made with love and care. The music is incredible, the puzzles are fun, and it's just overall a really good time. I found the difficulty to be significantly lower than most Golden Idol scenarios but I was drawn into the drama and had a great time piecing it all together. An incredible achievement for a solo developer <3

Among games building on The Golden Idol mechanics, this one surely stands out. While easier than its inspiration, it's not too straightforward either and provides plenty of amusement. I found the story and texts well-written and enjoyed the humour. Voiced-over messages and original musical score were a pleasant surprise, even though I don't particularly care for musicals. Drag-and-click can be a bit quirky at times, but it's nothing major. Looking forward to seeing more games by the developer!

This is a qualified recommendation, mostly if the game is on sale. The game has many good points. The artwork is fun. The gameplay is mostly high quality. The community theater setting is delightful, particularly if you happen to be a theater person. The negatives are: - The last chapter is overly convoluted, doesn't fit the personality of the main characters as established, and frankly kind of brings the whole thing down for me. - The voice acting is strangely bad. I was convinced that all of the characters were voiced by the same person, or at most two people, and the credits had a full cast. - It's fairly short. - There were some blocking bugs I had to work around. - As a theater person myself, I was way more delighted with the skewering of petty community theater politics and backstabbing before I realized the game designer works on Broadway. Then the humor started to feel like punching down. It's the same problem I have with the movie "Waiting for Guffman". YMMV on that one. All in all, yes it's a mostly fun game, but I would not recommend it at much more than $5.

The stakes have never been lower: nefarious plots and and incredible coincidences unravel in an average community theatre, and you have to figure out what happened, Golden-Idol-style. The game is absolutely fantastic and worth the wait: the attention to detail, the art style, the music, are all great, and it makes you scratch your head just enough to feel like a detective, but not so much that you feel lost. My only complaint is the last level: after figuring out what happened, I still had to google the solution, because there were so many slots that could be filled in several different ways and still make sense.

Really like this game! Very good story. The world is pretty well connected, with most of the cast having conflicted interests and motivations that pan out through out the story. Also a very good use of having the end of the story being at the beginning, with you learning the context of it as you go. However, I felt like the gameplay is pretty unpolished. This is basically a golden idol clone, but much more annoying in the gameplay aspect. The solving system can get really annoying when you figure out the premise of the solution, but are unable to put it into words. I found myself wishing that gameplay would be less clunky so that I could get back to the story. I also hated the last scene's overly complicated layout, with the way of gathering clues being so convoluted as well. Really wish that this game played smoother, but it was still a very fun venture.

This was a lot of fun - a mystery game in the style of Golden Idol, but set in a community theatre in the 70s/80s. It is delightfully over-the-top with fun music and a clear art style. The designer plainly has a lot of affection for musical theatre, and it shines through every case. The story is ridiculous (this is a compliment!! the subject demands High Drama, and the game delivers) an the characters are great. It's not a long game, and that's good: camp can overstay its welcome, but this game knows when to make its exit. Here's to you, Mason. By and large the gameplay is polished. The final mystery had me at least clicking around a bit more than I found enjoyable, hunting for hidden clues and then One Last Word clue. So, one sour note, but honestly a very minor one.

很不错的金偶像代餐。初见以为是个水浅王八多的无聊故事，展开之后发现情节与人物塑造还是很细腻的。美术和音乐都挺好的，10个短章节，解谜偏简单一本道，基本靠传纸条大声密谋（除了最后一章终于把复杂度提了一下，有点金偶像味道了）。主要是很久没见过熊得这么彻底的反派（每次扫黄都有他），通篇玩下来发现这何尝不是一个大男主剧本XD [spoiler] 以及我一般不喜欢作品塞LGBT元素，但游戏里的两对因（少量）描写过于正常而显得好磕，再次说明剧本的人物塑造能力是真的好。 [/spoiler]