The Crime Archive

The office was locked from the inside. Somebody had another way in.

The Crime Archive is a story-driven noir detective game. Every case is a self-contained crime scene waiting to be picked apart. No waypoints, no hand-holding: just the scene, the suspects, and whatever evidence you're sharp enough to find.

A note on the art: the backgrounds, portraits and evidence images were made with AI image tools and then edited by me. Every case, clue and puzzle is designed by hand.

How a case works

• Explore. Search each location for hidden evidence. Some hotspots hold real clues. Others are decoys meant to slow you down.

• Find. Spotting an object doesn't hand you the answer. Each clue is locked behind its own investigation puzzle: reassemble a torn page, wipe away grime to reveal a mark, spot the one wrong line in a printed log, sweep a magnifying glass over a coffee cup.

• Analyze. Build your case file and track how much of the picture you really have.

• Interrogate. Question each suspect in the interrogation room. Some answers only open up once you've caught someone else in a lie.

• Accuse. Name the killer and back it with evidence. Get it wrong, and the real killer walks free.

Six cases

• Closed for Business: a co-founder found dead at his desk in a locked office. (Free in the demo.)

• The Last Supper: a wealthy host poisoned at the head of his own dinner table.

• Opening Night: the star of a comeback show strangled during intermission.

• The Silent Station: a stationmaster's death staged to look like a train accident.

• The Inheritance: a patriarch's fall down the grand staircase that wasn't a fall.

• The Last Light: two deaths at one lighthouse, 27 years apart. Two cases, two killers, one finale.

Features

• Six hand-built mysteries, from a tutorial-friendly opener to an extreme two-timeline finale

• Six kinds of evidence puzzles, so no two clues are found the same way

• Branching interrogations where suspects' stories unlock each other

• Red herrings, staged scenes and lying witnesses in the harder cases

• Real consequences: a wrong accusation ends the case in failure

• A noir case-file look with moody, lamp-lit scenes and original music