How would I make a randomized mystery game?

I have an idea for a murder mystery game where the characters, deaths, and the culprit is randomized. However, there are a few things I have no idea how to do (I apologize if this question is really broad):

• Randomized characters/ personalities (I think I know how to do personalities, but how would I randomize the appearance of the characters?)
  
• Playable character creation
  

If anyone has further questions or feedback, feel free to ask!

 

control variable is your friend here - it is probably one of the most powerfull commands in the engine.


One of the things it does is containing a randomizer, and you use that and then a series of conditional branches to check the result and give different change actor graphic commands depending on the result (just as one example).

 

Another way to do this is to make it a choose-your-own-adventure type thing with certain map events triggered based off of previous actions. For example, once you have established who the killer is, all the triggers for cutscenes that depict any other character as the killer are disabled. This way, it isn't technically random, but there can be many story outcomes depending on the player's conclusions.

 

How would I generate the character graphics? Would I have to create and save the graphics for every single possibility? Or is there an easier way?

 

You could make a set map event of one actor pushing another actor off a cliff, then use randomized variables to determine what sprite set to use for each actor. The sprite placements and movements would be the same each time, but the characters would be different.