Why Are Some Murder Mystery Games More Expensive Than Others?
10 min read
Murder mystery games vary in price. Not just on our website but also between us and our competitors online. It’s really important when comparing price to compare like for like. No one expects to pay the same price for a banana as they do for a side of ham. And in much the same way you need to be sure you’re comparing like for like to get a fair comparison.
Many companies offer murder mystery kits where participants become sleuths for an evening. However, not all are the same. They vary in quality, they vary in construction and they vary in support. For the purposes of this article I’m just going to discuss the diferences on these small dinner party style kits. As it’s important to understand how other companies shave costs, and what influences the price of our games.
Once I’ve covered us vs competitors, I’ll then explain why our own games vary in price between formats. So if that’s what you’re interested in – navigate to that part of the article directly.
Why prices for dinner party / Role play murder mystery games vary between different companies.
There are several factors which influence the cost, including the quality of writing, complexity of themes, availability of customizations, and the level of customer support provided.
Professional Writing and Fair Compensation
At the heart of any good muder mystery game is the story. Crafting detailed plots with engaging characters requires skilled authors. They have to understand their craft and know how to write games. Games take significant amounts of time to write, and on top of the writing, they also need editing, proofing, formatting, and in our case they need video creation, website support, customer support, printing on demand and occaisional customisation.
Some companies may offer games at lower prices by compensating their writers differently to us. Sometime websites pay their authors just once for a game. Authors may receive £100 or £300 or possibly even £500 to write a game, and that is the only fee they will ever see. Manufacturers will then sell the game as much as they can to make as much profit as they can fom that initial work. But the author never sees another penny.
Some manfucturers give authors a percentage of the sale price for every sale, this can be 5%, or 10%. We’ve rarely seen it higher than that.
Red Herring Games was set up by a writer. As a result she wanted to ensure writers were properly renumerated for their skill. Authors receive 30% of the sale price (after tax and excluding print costs). This commitment to fair compensation not only attracts top talent but also ensures that our games are of the highest quality. Authors are paid flexibly depending on the game size. So they earn more from a 16 player game than a 6 player game which is only fair as 16 player games sell less frequently, but witing them takes more effort.
Mass production and waste vs Specific production and customisation.
Many companies produce smaller variations of games but get them produced in larger quantities to take advantage of economies of scale. This means you can buy the same game NOW as you did 20 years ago from some manufacturers. They have giant warehouses and murder mysteries are just one part of their overall production. The games are fixed. The games are unsupported. The manfuacturers cannot answer specific questions on the games as they are effectively “sold as seen”. You buy the game if you want it. If you don’t want it because it’s the wrong theme, or the wrong size, or the wrong gender split, you don’t buy it.
Some companies, like Red Herring Games do – print to order and sell “on demand” – this means games are only printed as they are needed. This costs a little more per game, which is why our printed packs generally cost £25 more. Each game is printed as the order comes in, and hand packed and posted by a member of our office team. This requires a dedicated team, and staff costs are some of the most expensive costs in any production space. Hence the increased price of our printed kits.
Weighing in significatnly on the plus side of doing it this way is that they can be tailored to order. We know our games backwards and can make minor or major tweaks to the story to create a bespoke event for a fraction of the price. It also meas we aren’t cutting down more trees than we need to, and don’t have massive overhead storage costs. Because we print on demand, we can also maintain a bigger range. Which means rather than you trying to shoe-horn your party into a preexisting game, we cand tailor the game to suit your group. So you have a choice fo 6 or 8, 10 or 12, 14 or 16 players etc. You don’t have to use a game for 4-20 and find you have to discard and ignore 16 characters in order to play. Each game is specific to the guest numbers you have, so you can be sure of a really great experience with the right size party to suit.
Dedicated Customer Support
A massive factor in pricing is the level of customer support provided. Companies that mass-produce games may not offer any form of customer assistance, leaving you to navigate any issues alone.
At Red Herring Games, we prioritize our customers by having a dedicated team available to answer phone calls and emails promptly. This ensures that any questions or concerns are addressed swiftly, contributing to a seamless and enjoyable experience. We have a unique commitment to customer satisfaction which is supported by our no fun no fee money-back guarantee, which reflects the confidence we have in the quality of our games.
If you aren’t sure why you need customer support… well, you’re reading a blog now to find out more about our games. So my guess is you have questions. If you do – ask away -it’s what we’re here for. If you aren’t sure whether this support is worth the increased costs – try reaching out to another murder mystery seller. I lose track of the number of times people call us and are surprised we answer, or email us and are suprised we respond – some have even said “Wow… you pick up the phone – we’ve rung three other companies and no one has got back in touch.”
We are here for you pre and post sale. It’s our joy and our privildge to help you host the best party you can. Our authors have crafted some super games and we want you to be able to enjoy them. So if you have questions – reach out. That’s what we’re here for.
Bespoke Experiences and Minor adjustments
Because we support our games completely, we can make minor adjustments. Many firms save costs by outsourcing manufacture to another country and having “fixed files” that once created can’t be adjusted. We can amend anything to create a bespoke experience and design our games in such a way that you can have MSword versions so you can also amend to suit. We can customise stories to order, making minor tweaks to our games through to major adjustments, changing characters or setting to create a party that is both distinctive and memorable. Most other firms can’t do this. Having games you can adjust makes them more expensive, but it does allow you to create something more memorable. If what you see is what you buy (as it is for most game manfacturers) then if you want something new, then prices are significant, we aren’t talking minor tweaks of £25, but a whole new game creation costing £3000 or more.
Charity support
We made a decision early on in the company to support charity fundraising as much as possible. Not only do we regularly offer raffle prizes for charities, we also discount our event scripts and fundraising packs by 65% through to 90% to allow charities to fundraise using our games. A slightly higher price across the website allows us to maintain this support continuously. Which means when you purchase from us you’re also supporting a range of amazing charities around the globe.
Why are the prices so different between murder mystery games on your own website?
This question often arises as when people compare the price of our dinner party games with our large group scripts. There are again a few reasons for the differences in price.
Licensed by number of players
With a dinner party game – you host an event for 6 or 12 people – and those 6 or 12 will have played that particular game and will not play another for 3-6 months, and will never buy that particular title again.
With a large group script – you’re hosting a game for 60-150 people – and those 60-150 people will have played that particular game and will nto play another for 3-6 months and will never buy that particular title again.
More people at an event, means more of the general population who play games have been prevented from buying that particular title by that author again. So the authors need to be renumerated accordingly.
Undercutting our own Event services!
We are one of very few businesses that sell the SAME scripts we use to host events. Most event companies won’t allow you to purchase those scripts because then they’d never sell an event! Purchasing a hosted event (with actors) will often be 10 x the price of a script purchase. So while they seem expensive – its a saving of 90% on our event prices and I have never seen another event company offer to do this. So yes – it’s expensive. But its actually a massive discount on event services.
Cost of writing
It takes different amounts of time to write different types of mystery. Jo (who has written all styles of game we stock) is probably the only author proficient in all variations, and even she can’t write one style of game as fast as another. As a result prices are based on the sheer volume of hours it takes to write something AND the reduction in sales. We sell far less large group scripts than we do dinner party games, and large group scripts take far longer to write (about 10 times as long in some cases).
Conclusion
In every home there are a variety of items that you are prepared to compromise with and others that you pay for “brand prices” as you know the results are just so much better. In our house: Custard has to be Birds, Syrup has to be Tate and Lyle, Cocoa Powder has to be Bournville (Cadbury) and we’ll compromise on the rest. But I know others who prioritise Heinz beans and Andrex toilet paper and don’t care about the custard powder…
When it comes to a murder mystery, you have your own decision to make. Do you purchase a cheaper brand, hoping for a good experience, or do you buy from a more expensive brand knowing that it’s been designed to suit you. While it might be tempting to opt for lower-priced murder mystery games, consider what isn’t included as standard. Factors like professional writing, tailored sizes, customization options, and dedicated customer support contribute to a richer and more engaging experience.
At Red Herring Games, our pricing reflects our commitment to quality, fair compensation for our authors, and exceptional customer service, ensuring that every murder mystery event we support is a resounding success.