Profitable murder mystery games
The murder mystery parties here on Great Murder Mystery Games are for domestic (ie, home) use only. They're aimed at people hosting parties for their friends and families, and doing it in their homes.
If you do want to charge an entry fee to your party, then things are a little different: you will need a commercial licence.
I can think of several occasions when you might want a commercial licence.
Murder mystery nights
I've seen pubs, hotels and restaurants advertise murder mystery nights - and it's this kind of arrangement where a commercial licence is needed.
Creating a themed party night is rather outside my field of expertise, but the advantages of getting a commercial licence for one of the parties on Great Murder Mystery Games is that you can get an in-house member of staff to organise it.
(Failing that, you need to get somebody in to organise it for you - more on that below.)
If you do decide to go this route, I suggest you have a look at my tips for hosting. While I've written them with a domestic market in mind, they apply equally to a commercial event.
My tips include:
- Adding characters to a murder mystery game: Maximise your income by adding extra characters
- Creating a memorable atmosphere: Ideas for creating an atmosphere for your party.
- Finding the perfect murder venue: Tips for choosing a venue for your murder mystery party.
- Party Introductions: How to introduce your party so that it starts with a bang instead of a fizzle.
- Planning your murder mystery party: Here's my suggested schedule for planning your party.
- Preparing a Murder Mystery Party: Hints and tips for preparing a murder mystery party.
- Prizes: Prizes are a great way of finishing off a murder mystery party.
- Reporting the News: Tips and suggestions for journalists to report the news.
Click here to read my tips for hosting murder mystery games.
It's also likely that you'll want to maximise your return and therefore aim for a larger murder mystery. Click here to read my tips on hosting large murder mystery games.
Become a professional host
Or you may find that you really enjoy hosting murder mystery parties and want to hire out your services to other people.
There are all sorts of things that you will need to consider
- Marketing - how will you spread the word of your services?
- Website - I can't imagine doing business as a service provider these days without having a website. (My choice would be Site Build It!, which is what I use for Great Murder Mystery Games.)
- Insurance - you will need insurance, just in case something goes wrong. (Depending on your laws, you might need it legally as well.)
- The scope of your services - are you just organising the game, or will you organise the venue, catering and everything else?
- Your target audience - domestic or commercial?
Plus, of course, the type of murder mystery game you want to host. (If it was me, I'd be doing the interactive ones - but I doubt that's a surprise to anyone reading this!)
By the way, if you run murder mystery games professionally and would like me to include you in my list of murder mystery party organisers (click here), please contact me and we can discuss it further.
Charity Events
Events raising money for charity are slightly different again. I've always found the publishers very happy to allow their games to be used for charity work (although you must ask first).
I should point out that the publishers tend to be a bit wary of giving their games out for free for charity work. Instead you should regard the cost of the game as part of the cost of hosting the event. (And it's likely that the cost of the game will be one of the smaller costs - food and hiring the venue may well be more expensive.)
I've written on charity events before - click here to read Fund Raiser Ideas.
Commercial licences
Commercial licences are available from all the publishers, but they all have slightly different terms and conditions. You can either contact them yourself, or if you let me know which games you are interested in then I can contact them on your behalf.
This article may be re-published as long as the following paragraph is included at the end of article and as long as you link to the URL:
Article by Steve Hatherley. Find out more about hosting interactive murder mystery games for your friends and family at http://www.great-murder-mystery-games.com.