The Next Big Cozy Video Game Franchise Might Already Exist on Netflix

“Cozy” games have gone from a niche genre to one of the most reliable forces in gaming in the past few years. Titles like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley were very well received and even helped define a shift in what gamers were looking for. As that format grows, some movies even begin to feel like they have all the makings of the next big cozy game. Mystery-driven narratives, contained settings, and a “solve it together” viewing experience is becoming increasingly popular across streaming and party-style interactive formats. One particularly popular franchise is Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series.

Starring Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, Knives Out has revitalized the movie mystery genre and introduced the world to a new private investigator. While only three movies have been made so far, the series has provided a foundation for a franchise that could survive for decades to come. With Dead Man’s Party: A Knives Out Game available on Netflix, the Knives Out franchise has branched into party games as well. However, Dead Man’s Party fails to live up to the movies’ standards. The franchise would be better served by pivoting to the cozy mystery genre and could easily become a classic cozy game.

What Kind of Game Is Dead Man’s Party: A Knives Out Game?

The current game for the Knives Out franchise, Dead Man’s Party: A Knives Out Game, fails to deliver on the franchise’s premise. Dead Man’s Party is a social deduction party game, similar to titles like Among Us and One Night Ultimate Werewolf. The game requires at least four players and can be played for free with a Netflix subscription, but unlike Jackbox Games, each player is still required to download an app rather than just use the website. The plot of the game is simple: one or two of the players is the killer, and the rest of the players have to figure out who committed the murder. Players can swap items or peek at other players’ current items during gameplay, while other players answer questions about each other in the “gossip” mode, which has a very limited selection of questions to ask.

While the mystery element still exists in Dead Man’s Party, the focus is more on the players to solve the murder. The plot is too simple. Who are the characters? Why are they at the party? Why is Benoit Blanc depending upon them to solve the murder instead of just solving it himself? If Benoit Blanc knows who the murderer is, as he claims in the game, why does the murderer get away if the players fail to come up with the correct solution? All of these questions go unanswered. The game, despite its great art style, feels empty, with Benoit Blanc just tacked on to cash in on the Knives Out franchise. Ultimately, while Dead Man’s Party: A Knives Out Game does have some potential, there is ultimately a mismatch between the franchise’s genre and the social deduction party game it tries to be.

The Knives Out Franchise Is a Revitalization of the Cozy Mystery Genre

As a cozy mystery, the Knives Out franchise fits into a specific gaming genre. Cozy mysteries usually star amateur detectives who are not members of the police force. The core mysteries often involve murder, but the murders are less gory than those in procedural dramas and crime thrillers. Many of them take place in small towns or communities with a vibrant cast of friends for the detective to bounce off of as they work their way through the mystery.

Benoit Blanc is not as much of a small town cozy mystery detective. Throughout the Knives Out films, he has famous friends, appears on shows like The View, and generally is a celebrity in his own right. His celebrity status actually allows him to be called upon by the secondary stars of his movies to solve a murder that personally affects them. These clients usually serve as his sidekicks, working to solve the murder alongside him and providing the audience with a viewpoint character who does not give away the plot of the mystery too early.

Blanc’s fame may seem to exclude him from the cozy mystery genre, but his notoriety actually connects him with one of the most famous cozy mystery television series: Murder, She Wrote. Angela Lansbury played Jessica Fletcher, a high school teacher turned world-famous author, who solves murders. While many people assume that Murder, She Wrote mainly took place in her hometown of Cabot Cove, Jessica Fletcher was not limited to Maine, living in New York part-time and going all over the globe to promote her work, visit friends, and, of course, solve crimes. In many ways, Benoit Blanc is a spiritual successor to Jessica Fletcher, showing that cozy mystery detectives are not confined to small towns and small crimes after all.

Knives Out Could Stand Amongst Cozy Mystery Game Classics

Since the Knives Out movies are comforting, light-hearted mysteries, the gaming side of the franchise could easily fit within the “cozy” category. Cozy games are less action oriented, and while many gamers may associate the term with farming sim franchises like Stardew Valley and life sim games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy games actually span multiple genres and methods of gameplay. The FMV (Full Motion Video) genre could work extremely well for the Knives Out franchise, especially since it is based on a movie series.

FMV games are particularly suited to mysteries, and an FMV Knives Out game could allow players to become even more immersed within the role of Benoit Blanc or his client. One major example of a similar, cozier mystery in the FMV format is Contradiction, where players control Detective Jenks as he tries to solve a murder in a small town. Similarly, many players consider the Ace Attorney series a cozy mystery series despite the focus on murder investigations. The visual novel format could easily work for a Knives Out video game as well. Players could take on the role of Benoit Blanc or his sidekick for the game, exploring evidence and finding inconsistencies that could point to the killer.

However, the Ace Attorney games are not the only cozy mystery games that could provide a blueprint for the Knives Out franchise. For example, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami uses puzzles and phrases as the core of its gameplay. Players interrogate subjects and use the clues to track down the guilty party. This puzzle style could easily be translated to the Knives Out franchise as Benoit Blanc uses his interrogations and insight to solve the murders. Duck Detective is really close to the point-and-click genre, which could also work well for a Knives Out game.

While many other cozy mysteries, like Frog Detective and the Murder, She Wrote franchise, have utilized this format, the most well-known cozy mystery franchise to use the point-and-click format is the Nancy Drew: Mysteries video game series. With 34 games currently released, the series has proven its lasting staying power over the decades. In these games, the player controls Nancy as she gathers evidence and solves crimes in various locations. While some of the games do skew more towards the paranormal and horror, with Nancy possibly dying due to the choices the player makes, the core of the franchise, Nancy Drew solving crimes, remains the same.

These mystery games show that Knives Out should branch into a different type of video game. These games could even work within Netflix’s gaming system, since many cozy games like them are already in the platform’s library. Ultimately, the Knives Out franchise should embrace its cozy mystery roots more, developing a game that takes full advantage of Benoit Blanc’s charm and builds a world that players can return to time and again to solve new mysteries. It could be a huge hit.