I first learned about Quiet on Set from last year’s Steam Next Fest. There was a demo available for it that I tried out. As a fan of mystery stories and the novel idea it was built around, I was interested in its full release.

The setting is a historic manor that is being used as film set. It's a small play space with three floors that have about 3 rooms total on them. It has that classic English manor vibe, and the film stuff is mostly just stray cameras or lights laying around for ambience. There’s about 10 different mysteries all set in this location. The suspects are all members of the film crew, but the game does mix up who’s present for each murder. One mystery may have the director, PA, and cameraman present, but the next one will have the main actor, makeup artist, and boom operator in the manor. They all look like Sims 3 characters. The game overall goes more for that cozy, Angela Lansberry type murder mysteries vs a gritty, True Detective murder.

You can find the dead body in the manor, but there’s no evidence to gather. Instead, you have to solve the case solely by questioning the other crew members. This is where the crux of this game lies. You can ask any questions you want by typing it into the dialogue box. The game uses AI chat to process your request and return an answer. The characters are even all voiced, by text to speech programs. I always liked the idea of a game where I could say whatever I want. I remember the first game I saw attempting this was a game called Bot Colony, I think. AI is a rightfully divisive issue; I am not a fan of AI artwork, but I do enjoy the voice AI stuff. The game’s AI does a decent job of carrying on a decent conversation. You definitely have to figure out how to talk to the AI to get information out of them. Each character was given a little personality that the AI module uses. You can tell because a normal conversation goes,

“Who did you last see {the deceased} speak with?”

“I last saw them talking with the sound guy. But I have to keep focusing on my role. As an actor in Hollywood, if you aren’t hustling you get left behind. That’s showbiz, doll”

Basically, every conversation ends with the character repeating their long winded “personality point”. It can get a little tiring. Still, they usually respond correctly to questions. You collect clues in your journal and while you’ll never have an official confession, if you get enough clues, you can pinpoint whose name comes up the most and they are usually your killer. The AI can follow you if you talk about anything outside the murder case. I had a ‘conversation’ with the set decorator about film noirs.

One interesting choice in this game is every mystery is on a time limit. I don’t know if this is because the AI is only reliable for a short amount of time or because there’s no real big confession at the end of a case, so they use the time limit to end it and make you guess the killer. It’s a gracious timer. I had to keep on my toes and keep moving, but I didn’t feel overly rushed. The mysteries are usually easy to figure out, especially compared to the demo version. I think the AI was refined, because I could reliably guess the killer in the full version, but the demo version I was always taking a shot in the dark.

There’s a scoreboard system where you get points for asking questions that result in clues and collecting little trinkets spread around the manor. There’s also an exterior that has a spooky hedge maze that has a few more collectibles, but nothing else as all the NPCs are inside. I can’t really waste time exploring it when I’m on a timer to solve a murder.

All in all, there’s not much to this game. It’s much more interesting as a proof of concept for AI NPCs & not being restricted to dialogue choices in a game. it’s a low-stakes game that’s easy to pick up and you can play through a mission quickly. I find it’s a nice end of the night game when I just want to relax after work. Luckily this game is aware of its status as a novelty and isn’t too terribly expensive, under $10, so I can recommend it.