-I felt like I began to get an understanding of Conor, which is good, but I also felt like his character was a bit stock. He had a Sherlock Holmes vibe and didn't do enough to distinguish him from that. He did make a lot of jokes, but that felt more like it was coming from you rather than the character. Mentioning the portal behind the cabinet, for example, is what I assume is a reference to the Simpsons episode where Homer enters the third dimension (or it's a similar reference that I'm not getting). Considering Conor's age, his references might generally be older than that. Another example was when he checks the mounted deer head and says that he's fighting off a pun, but that pun isn't really clear to the audience (or maybe it's a more common pun outside of Texas that I'm not familiar with). Again, it felt more like it was coming from you rather than the character.
-This is a smaller issue, but Conor is a name that I associate with kids, so it was a bizarre choice for your protagonist. I'd also consider giving him a last name since you're dealing in a more realistic setting, and that fits with the history of the genre you're working with.
-Part of the problem with this game is that you don't telegraph the goals to the player very consistently. Getting into the butler's room was pretty well done, I think, but, after that, it was more about just checking things for the sake of checking them.
-The worst offender was checking the axes. The fact that you could check them earlier and see that they're askew, but check them again with no extra knowledge that would change how your character would react to them was pretty problematic. There should be a reason why Conor knows he can check those again.
-The dog was a smart idea, but I think he could have done more to relay hints to the player. Having Conor say something like, "You look just like a ghost!" when the dog was coated in flour would have worked, for example.
-I think that a big issue is that you're at the mercy of the RTP. Because of this, you can't really have things catch the players' eyes as the RTP is designed to mesh really well. If you dip into the adventure genre, you'll need to find a way to show areas of interest to the player so they're not just checking everything. You could do that by putting shiny spots on important items, but that's probably going to take the intrigue of the search away.
-I also would have liked to actually use the items instead of having them used automatically. Like, I know that I need to use the flour on myself to convince the butler that I'm a ghost, but if I hadn't figured that out and tried to open the door, that feeling of figuring out the puzzle could have been robbed from me. Getting away from some of the default systems could have helped this, but you're probably still learning the engine. Look into using pictures to create a basic HUD or an item ring. I made a horror/adventure game last year that also had automatic item usage, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite, but it's something that I didn't know how to get around at the time.
-This game was definitely way too short. As a "get your feet wet" kind of game, that's fine, though. For a full release of something, I'd be really careful with cliffhangers like that. The possibilities of that cliffhanger could change the entire dynamic of the game, so that was a crazy note to end on.
-It's okay to do a traditional murder/mystery (although the ending could obviously throw a wrench in the works), but, if you do that, your writing needs to make the characters really interesting. Relying on stock characters like the stuck-up, seductive heiress, for example, aren't going to provide much intrigue.
Anyway, you've already read my review, so you know basically where I stand, but, as a first game, I think this one does show a few bouts of cleverness, but I think you're going to need to familiarize yourself more with what rpg maker can accomplish so that you can bend it to your genre. After that, writing and graphics are important as well; there's a lot that goes into making a game, and it's better to learn sooner than later that every aspect is important. Design should be your top priority, but even the best designed game in the universe could get completely ignored if the graphics don't catch someone's attention.
