Meet Your Maker: Caitlin, Cyanide Mysteries // Interview

Meet Your Maker is a new addition to The Escape Puzzler! Have you ever wanted to know more about the creators of your favourite games? Do you crave more insight into the creative process of bringing a game to life? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll be featuring interviews with a wide range of well-known creators and shedding a spotlight on smaller independent businesses.

Our first interview is with Caitlin, founder of the UK-based murder mystery and puzzle game company Cyanide Mysteries. She talks about some of the obstacles in getting games made, how she continues to evolve her approach to new offerings, and the games she enjoys playing.

Can you start by telling us a little about yourself?

I’m Caitlin but I also go by Cait and I’m based in West Yorkshire (a place called Wakefield near Leeds, most known for the Wakey Wines TikTok account, its massive Category A prison, or Jane McDonald, but not much else!). So far it’s just me running Cyanide Mysteries and it’ll probably always stay that way, I work best just being glued to my laptop, shut away from the rest of the world!

I still work for a local charity doing social media and digital marketing, but I’m freelance and being able to work awkward hours is really beneficial for me; I’m the most productive on evenings and weekends.

How did Cyanide Mysteries come into existence?

I first had the idea at university when I was bored during lockdown and procrastinating writing my dissertation. I wrote a quick murder mystery game for my housemates to play and didn’t give it much thought until about a year after I graduated when I challenged myself to complete a fully-fledged game (I have a habit of starting many writing projects but never finishing them). I didn’t intend to sell it while I was creating it, but I thought I might as well put it on Etsy and I was so surprised at the response. It was just before Christmas and that definitely made a difference.

For anyone who hasn’t played one of your games before, why should they check them out?

I’m an avid reader and film-watcher and the thing that stands out to me the most in any media is the setting and atmosphere, and that’s what I try to inject into my games. So if anyone is interested in a game with an eerie atmosphere, wants to be transported back to the Victorian era or to a cruise ship holiday gone wrong, I’d recommend they check out my games.

I do months and months of research for any game, but it’s probably one of my favourite parts of writing. I want to make the settings for my games feel real, the plots feel thrilling and the characters have a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour, which hopefully adds to the playing experience for people.

What, if any, have been the main obstacles to getting your games to market?

I was really lucky at first that I could almost start with the bare minimum and still put my first game out into the world. I was printing them at home and I packaged the games up by hand; the biggest and only real outlay at the beginning was to pay for a yearly website plan and domain name. It’s been a learning curve since then, I get them printed elsewhere and the quality is much better than my home printer. I still hand-package everything, which includes melting fifty wax stamps in one go!

It’s almost two years since I first launched, and even though it’s not a long time in the grand scheme of things, I already feel like the market and the economy is much different to when I started and there will always be more learning curves to come!

The Vampire of Albert Dock is your most recent release; has the way you’ve approached creating your games evolved much since you released your first? If so, how?

Absolutely! I think my creative writing style has evolved since my first game and I feel like I’ve found my style more now. The feedback I’ve received from reviewers and playtesters has been really helpful in seeing what works well and what might need to be improved, and it’s informed my puzzle-making in my subsequent games.

What hasn’t changed too much is the amount of time it takes to write a game – usually around three months. I’ve been trying to get a bit quicker at completing the overall process, but despite always ending up knee-deep in fifty internet tabs focused on the smallest detail, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

I’ve played two of your games, The Curse of Little Witchell and An Arthurian Adventure which I really enjoyed! They are worlds apart in terms of gameplay – are there more plans to expand beyond murder mystery into other areas?

Thank you so much! I love murder mysteries and will probably always have some sort of fictional crime plot at the back of my mind at any given moment. However, I’m always inspired by what I’m reading and watching. I’ve been wanting to do something like The X-Files with paranormal and supernatural influences and a multi-layered mystery. I’d also like to do a puzzle book one day.

Are you working on anything new currently? Any teases?

I’m currently working on a commission for a 30th birthday party, but they have said that they are happy for me to put it on my website and Etsy after (with all their details changed), so that should be available either at the end of this year or beginning of next. I’ve also got another project idea that will involve the deep blue sea and all the mysteries of the ocean.

What is your favourite play-at-home experience? What have you played recently?

I have so many games piling up at home, I really need to get around to playing them! I try to find a time when my friends or family are also free, but it never works out and I think I need to start playing solo.

Last Christmas, I played Murder by Post’s Death in a Snowstorm advent calendar and Cold Case Investigation Unit’s Where is Nick Cringle? advent calendar and I loved them! I’ve also just gotten into Kickstarter and have backed Escape Envelope’s A Haunting in the Highlands, which I’m really excited for and an Escape Advent Calendar from Insync Games. It turns out I really love advent calendars!

Do you have any advice for others looking to create their own games?

Just have fun with it. Sometimes it can be easy to get bogged down in the details but it’s all a labour of love. I definitely have a bad habit of straining to make sure something is perfect and trying to please everyone. I have to remind myself that perfection is impossible; it’s definitely easier said than done though!

Thanks for taking part in Meet Your Maker! Any final words?

It’s been my pleasure to answer all these questions, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share more about myself, I think it’s fantastic that you’re giving this spotlight to small creators!

Follow Cyanide Mysteries online