Picture a game where players examine a crime scene and find three clues that each point somewhere different. They interview a suspect who lies smoothly about two things and tells the truth about a third. They have to figure out which is which. When they do, it unlocks a new line of questioning that reveals something about a different suspect entirely. The puzzle is layered and the pieces are human.

Summer Engine helps you design that puzzle through conversation. Describe the crime, the suspects, the web of secrets, the evidence system. The AI helps you build a deduction architecture where players genuinely solve the mystery rather than exhaust dialogue trees until the story moves forward.

Detective games fail when the investigation is just clicking through dialogue until the plot advances. They succeed when the player genuinely reasons their way to the answer. Design the suspects to have specific lies rooted in specific reasons. The truth should be discoverable by logic, not accident.

• Narrative designers who want to build a mystery game where the investigation is genuinely playable.
• Writers with a crime or mystery concept who want to adapt it for an interactive medium.
• Teams building a game in the tradition of Disco Elysium, Return of the Obra Dinn, or Her Story.
• Solo devs who want to build a tight one-case detective game for the narrative game market.

• Single Case Mystery

  A focused 2-4 hour mystery with one crime, a cast of 5-8 suspects, and a deduction mechanic that requires genuine reasoning. Every piece of evidence eliminates possibilities.

• Multi-Case Detective Series

  An anthology of connected cases with a recurring detective protagonist. Each case is self-contained but threads connect across the series.

• Social Deduction RPG

  A mystery with a full RPG layer: detective stats for intimidation, charm, and observation. How players invest their character determines which clues they can access.