The Man with the Invisible Trousers: Who's the murderer?

There are several games made in the noir setting. Most of them are quests or RPGs. But what would you think of the noir detective physical puzzle and platformer? As for me, I liked it lots! I contacted the game's developer, RadicalDog, and he agreed to give an interview. You'll know how will this story continue, what is the role of the invisible trousers and much more!

In the Man with the Invisible Trousers flash game you play as a member of the team of five detectives who fight crime everywhere they can find it. But suddenly one of them is dead and the other four are suspected. To solve the quiz you should, first of all, use your head, and run around much looking for the clues.

The game levels are the Esher-styled rooms with the walls everywhere. You objective is to get to the exit door. As you glance at the corners, you'll see that some of them are rounded, and some are not. Try walking to the rounded corner, and you'll be surprised: the detective will be standing on the wall! And by moving on, you'll be able to walk even on the ceiling. But keep in mind that to complete the level you should be staying upright next to the exit door.

Then you'll encounter the only-directional walls. They are transparent if you move through them in one direction, but are solid preventing you to move otherwise. Later on you'll find the pits with spikes. Sometimes the level is quite large and only the small part of it is shown on the screen. Hold the Down button to see the whole picture.

From time to time during your wandering you'll meet your colleagues and discuss, who's the murderer. The dialogues add much the game athmosphere, as well as the music theme. Another nice game's feature is that the murderer changes each time you play it. By the way, try to stay in the initial room for a while – you’ll be surprised.

And finally, as I promised, here's the interview with Thomas Knight (Radicaldog) the developer of this thrilling puzzle.

Thomas Knight: "What better way to make use of my laziness, than to make it a feature?"

- What inspired you to create The Man in the Invisible Trousers?

- TMWTIT was made as a part of National Novel Writing Month, where people aim to write a novel in November. I've done it in previous years, getting both the 50,000 word target, and doubling it, so it felt like time to mix it up. I set out to make a '5000 word game', and sculpted an idea around a murder mystery.

Having a murder mystery where the murderer changed on each playthrough just sounded like a really cool idea, since it really uses the interactive medium in a way that films and literature just can't do. This was the really exciting idea that motivated me for this one, and it worked well enough; the game was fully playable after 32 days of the challenge, and that was after a personal-life break in the middle and all.

In the in-development sequel, the big idea is to make a game where the story is both funny, but also really gripping and makes the players feel kind of chilled, because casual games aren't supposed to be emotionally affecting. Playing with player emotions just sounds like a great way to develop. We'll see how well that one goes.

- As there were different murderers in TMWTIT, will there be different main heroes in its sequel, The Girl with the Invisible heart?

- Unfortunately I have to lock it down to a single character, the official murderer in the first game is Jenny, who spent 20 years in prison - but, she didn't commit the crime!
The game is a mission of revenge for her, seeking the true motivations behind Johnny's death, and exacting her revenge. It's much darker than the first, and hopefully will give players a good feeling when they get to see where each of the detectives has ended up, after 20 years.

- Ah, I see, interesting, I'm looking forward to see it :) And what detectives do you prefer to read or watch?

- Hmm, James Bond is cliche, but still very good. It has an air of class you don't see often - Bond's relentless addiction with gambling, tuxedos, beautiful women and explosions are easy to get drawn into. The sequel is hopefully a step closer to that sort of... downright cool.

- As for the invisible legs of the detectives - I asume that originally this interesting game feature was implemented to avoid complex animation of their movement along the curved walls. Am I right?

- What better way to make use of my laziness, than to make it a feature? :)

- Indeed! :) So, have ou already evolved your style in the game development or are you still experimenting?

 -Oh, I definitely haven't stopped changing. I mean, I wouldn't even want to stay with the same series too long - there definitely won't be a third 'Invisible' game, for example. Mostly, I'd be bored if I let myself get complacent.

I always look at other developer's great games as a positive thing; it means I have to be always improving and evolving, since that's the only way I can be sure to stay at the top of the game.
Anyway, it's about narrative. I'm a storyteller, and there's no point in wasting time that could be spent telling a new tale.

- And what would you advise to the beginner flash developers?

- I say, make the best games you can, do whatever it takes. But don't get wrapped up in money - if you're worrying about money, you'll not make the best game you could. Care about how much fun people are having - if they're having lots of fun playing your games, you're doing your job well.

Perhaps don't be too ambitious, if you ever want to finish!

- Great! thank you very much!

- My pleasure.

And now, here's the game itself, enjoy!

And here's the walkthrough, shot by the developer:

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Categories: interview, physics, platformer, puzzle, quiz, story