An online detective game for two: how to solve a case together
· 5 min read
An online detective game for two is a case you work together: one of you questions a witness while the other reads through the messages and notices the times don't add up. No box, no game master, nothing to download — the case opens in your browser, and you can argue about the suspect from the same sofa.
How it differs from an escape room or a board game
In an escape room you hunt for keys and solve puzzles against the clock. A detective game has hardly any puzzles: it has people who are hiding something, papers that contradict each other, and a question you have to answer yourselves. It's closer to a good crime novel, except the reader is the investigator.
Boxed detective games work in a similar way, but you have to buy them, lay them out and pack them away. An online case opens in a minute, and your progress is saved: start on Friday, finish on Sunday.
How a Red Threads case works
You get a case file and a map of a real city. Where to go is up to you: the hotel, the café, the neighbour's flat, the police station. In each place you can talk to people and ask them about the evidence you've found. Photos, receipts, messages and documents collect in a shared file.
At the end you answer the questions of the final report and name the culprit. Your answers are checked, and the team earns points and a place in the detective rating. Getting it wrong is part of the fun: the debrief shows exactly where you took the wrong turn.
How to split the work between two
A simple split works best: one of you runs the interviews and decides where to go next, the other reads the material and notes the contradictions. Swap after half an hour, and each of you will see the case differently.
Make one rule: before accusing anyone, each of you says why you do or don't believe that person. Half the fun of a detective game for two isn't the right answer — it's the argument about it.
You can play on one laptop or each on your own phone: the team's progress is shared, so whatever one of you finds, the other sees at once.
How long it takes
The trial case, Room 412, takes about 40 minutes — enough to find out whether this is your genre. Full cases run about two hours, the biggest up to three. You can pause at any point.
If you get stuck, the game has hints. They never hand you the answer, only point where to look, and each one costs a few points — so the case won't solve itself.
Which case to start with
Start with Room 412: Anna finds a key card to a Paris hotel in her husband's pocket, and Mark swears he spent the whole evening at dinner with clients. The case is entirely free, with no cut chapters and no card required.
If you like it, next come a murder in a gallery on Rue de Turenne (Private Viewing), a family secret and a forty-year-old letter (A Letter with No Return Address), or a horror case in a house on the bayou (Covered Mirrors), best played with sound on and not alone.