The Detective Agency turns parks and public spaces into immersive crime scenes. Players grab their phones, head to a real-world location, and work together to solve a murder mystery by hunting for clues, solving puzzles, and interrogating suspects along the way.
The Concept
Traditional escape rooms are great, but they're indoors, time-limited, and capacity-constrained. The Detective Agency takes that same thrill of collaborative puzzle-solving and brings it outdoors. Teams of 2-6 players explore a physical location, with the game guiding them from spot to spot as they piece together the case.
What We Built
The platform covers everything from marketing and purchase through to the live game experience.
It starts with a marketing website where players browse available mysteries and book their experience. Payment is handled through Stripe, and once purchased, the team receives a unique game code and briefing materials via email, all automated.
When the team arrives at the location and enters their code, the investigation begins. The game presents a mix of puzzle types including photo challenges, code-breaking, dialogue-based suspect interrogation, and location-specific tasks. Players work through clues that unlock new areas and eliminate suspects. There's a built-in hint system for when teams get stuck, with time penalties to keep things fair.
The real magic is in the multiplayer experience. Every team member sees the same game state in real time. When one player finds a clue or solves a puzzle, the whole team's view updates instantly. There's also an in-game chat system for coordinating when players split up to cover more ground.
The game builds to a finale where the team must identify the correct culprit, with different endings depending on whether they get it right.
For the business, there's an admin panel where new mysteries can be created, puzzles configured, and game analytics reviewed.
The Result
The Detective Agency delivers a polished, self-service entertainment product. Players can purchase, receive their game code, and play, all without any manual intervention. The platform supports multiple concurrent games across different mysteries, and new stories can be added through the admin panel without any development work.
