Killer Inn is an upcoming multiplayer action game jointly developed by Square Enix and TBS GAMES. Players are dropped into a mansion full of weapons and split into two sides – eight wolves (killers) and sixteen lambs. In the manner of social deduction games like Among Us, players hide their identities while working toward their side’s victory.
For the wolves, victory means killing off the lambs while remaining undetected, and for the lambs, it’s working together to figure out who the wolves are and making it out alive. Players use voice and text chat to discuss their suspicions, sweep crime scenes for clues (like hair and fingerprints), and engage in gun and melee combat to survive.
Ahead of Killer Inn’s closed beta test (which ran from July 26 to 29), AUTOMATON talked to Killer Inn’s developers to find out more about why they settled on this unusual blend of social deduction, third-person action and RPG elements.
A murder mystery that you can solve over and over
Speaking to AUTOMATON, Killer Inn’s developers explain that the project is, in its foundation, influenced by murder mystery games. However, whereas murder mysteries are inevitably one-time experiences, concluding once all the tricks are solved and the culprit is found, Killer Inn aims to be a repayable murder mystery. “Our concept was to create a mystery experience that could be enjoyed over and over, with a system that creates different culprits and different outcomes in each playthrough.”
Why make it an action game, though? While classic social deduction games like Werewolf are purely a battle of wits, relying predominantly on verbal discussion and deception, Killers Inn’s developers decided to introduce action to make the experience of participating in a murder investigation more realistic. “In mystery fiction, it’s common for the culprit to be defeated easily, but in reality, simply solving the case doesn’t mean you’ve won. From the culprit’s perspective, a detective who has seen through their trick is nothing less than an enemy to be eliminated. Even if their crime is uncovered through genius deduction, they can still remove the threat physically.”
On the topic of combat, while Killer Inns’s recent beta test featured a relatively compact map, encouraging close encounters between players, the full game will come with some wider arenas, giving ranged weapons like sniper rifles an edge.
As for why Killer Inn pits 8 wolves against 16 lambs, the developers explain that this ratio proved to offer the most enjoyable match balance, giving players time to get a grasp on the gameplay and character skills. This setup gives lambs an average win rate of about 60%. At the same time, the developers are considering adding smaller match formats in the future.
If you’re bald, you won’t leave hair behind on the crime scene
Killer Inn lets you pick from a wide range of characters (25 during the beta) to play as, and they come with different unique skills. For example, some characters can move more stealthily than others, or be better at investigating murder scenes. An interesting detail is that playing as a bald character will give you the advantage of (logically) not leaving behind hair strands as evidence. On the other hand, this will also make you more likely to leave fingerprints, which makes being bald a double-edged sword.
Killer Inn also comes with a levelling system – as you play as certain characters, you’ll be able to level up and unlock passives. These passive skills can be useful in different ways depending on your role, but overall, the characters are designed to be versatile regardless of whether you’re playing as a wolf of a lamb.
In closing, Killer Inn’s creators describe it as an “an action game where you use both brains and brawn. While it takes inspiration from the Werewolf game and murder mystery games, discovering the killers’ identities doesn’t end the fight – it’s just the starting point of further thrilling twists.”
Killer Inn is currently in development for PC (Steam).
