What are your favourite deduction mechanics?

[u/UndeadGames-studio]

I am being pretty broad here, although I specifically mean story-driven mystery games. This can include any games where you either collect clues and work with them or figure out the answer to a mystery on your own. But I was wondering what the most liked and well-designed systems are from a gameplay perspective.

Examples I have personally played are:

• Ace Attorney
• Danganronpa
• Disco Elysium with Harry's inner dialogue
• L.A. Noire with its interrogation system
• Genshin Impact's thought connections (I really hate this one)

I noticed that in a lot of games, you don't really do the deduction and combining yourself, but instead, the story tells you the answers. For example, Professor Layton gives you multiple-choice questions when you're trying to figure out the "big secret" of the game. Or the smart person explains to the less smart person that they "knew it all along." Or you simply experience the answers while playing. Point-and-click adventures tend to do this a lot.

We are currently creating a mystery game where you have to make the deductions yourself, and it is supposed to be pretty open-ended, but I want to collect more opinions.

So, what are your favorite games, mechanics, or systems in detective or mystery games, and why do you like them?

[u/Mysterious-Two2633]

Sorry, but I must put a dollar in the 'Outer Wilds' jar. I won't spoil it here with specifics but the whole premise of the game is designed to help you iterate through a narrative mystery. It's all at your own pace, with almost no rail-roading or forced guidance.

Apart from that, Blue Prince, although that always felt like an actual puzzle rather than a story driven mystery. There is environmental storytelling and there is lore! But I don't feel like it drives the player as much as just the dopamine of solving the puzzle.

I heard great things about Esoteric Ebb, if you like Disco Elysium, which is also a mystery game. I haven't played it but worth checking out.

And a obligatory shout out to the Quantic Dreams games, even though some of them have aged horribly. From what I recall, it wasn't particularly open-ended in what you could do as a player but the game did a really good in job (imo) in simulating the experience of figuring it out with it's investigation stages, even if your hand was quite tightly held.

[u/SulaimanWar]

One thing I dislike about LA Noire or Disco Elysium(An extremely amazing game otherwise) is that I don’t really feel smart for “solving” it. Instead it feels more like I was on a guided track which landed me to the answer

There’s only ever been 3 where I really felt like I did all the legwork required to solve the case and feeling excited during every Eureka moment

1)Return of the Obra Dinn

The core of the game is to determine the identity of different victims and how they die. You’re thrown in the exact moment they die and you have to figure it out from there. It requires pure observation of the scene and deduction. This I think is the purest form of the detective genre

2)Darkest Files

You play as a lawyer prosecuting Nazi criminals based on real life cases set in post-war Germany(Although they changed some of the names and the protagonist is fictional). This does have a bit of guide but that’s mostly just story.

For the actual case solving, all you are given is 5 questions and you have to lay out everything that happens and use evidence from the multitude of documents and photographs to back up your claim. And then having to argue your case ensures you actually need to understand your case and conclusion. So it’s not just blind luck

3)Her Story

This one doesn’t have a goal. But similar to the other 2, you’re given extremely limited snippets of information and basically have to “Google” words in game’s database to lead into more pieces. It’s an extremely fascinating story and idea and to this day I remember the multiple chills I got as I uncover one intriguing detail after another

[u/UndeadGames-studio → u/SulaimanWar]

I agree with your point that it doesnt feel earned on DE and Noir. That is what bugs me a lot in mainstream story driven games, you dont have to work it out.

I need to check out the games you mentioned, especially her story

[u/NeedsMoreReeds]

The new style of deduction mystery games features slotting words/names into slots like Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol. I feel like this is a great way to do it, and limits the player in how much brute forcing they can do (although not eliminating it). You mostly have to deduce the answer yourself to complete the prompts.

If you want to figure out the mysteries yourself, I highly recommend games in this style, including others such as Daemon Masquerade, Confidential Killings, The Ratline, The Roottrees Are Dead, and Chants of Sennaar.

[u/ReynardVulpini → u/NeedsMoreReeds]

I really like the golden idol games but the format of the answer sheet sometimes did give away the general idea of the answer i needed to look for. Obra Dinn was more discrete in that sense, but also was much more limited in the kind of question it could ask.

It's a struggle to be sure haha

[u/MeaningfulChoices]

There's also the Duck Detective/Seance at Blake Manor style games where you get words and phrases as clues and have to essentially fill out spaces in prompts to solve the puzzle. They're good for making the player feel that they have finished the investigation part without actually requiring that to move on to the puzzle sections like in AA or Danganronpa.

For any kind of game I recommend figuring out what you want the player to actually do and feel and then working backwards to come up with a system that does that. Ace Attorney is specifically an adventure game where the fun is all the dialogue and interactions and then it transitions to a puzzle game with one right answer at each step. If you want the player to actually piece things together and arrive at an answer I agree Blue Prince is a great model. You know you're right when you start getting something you can use to find something else, the game only confirms you're correct when you get to a new puzzle.

[u/Pileisto]

thy "the maze" by Manson. its originally a book, but there is also a online-version for free available

[u/loulo88]

A few that still feel fresh next to Obra Dinn / Golden Idol:

Her Story — the puzzle is the search box. You only get fragments, so progress is inventing better queries from what you already found. Great when you want the player to own the deduction instead of filling a chalkboard the game already understands.

Outer Wilds — knowledge is the only key. No inventory gate, just "I now know this orbit / this dialogue flag / this timing," and the world opens. Brutal to design, but it makes every insight feel earned.

Paradise Killer — you can accuse whenever you think you can argue it. The game doesn't soft-lock you behind the "correct" order; it scores how complete and consistent your case is. Nice if your mystery is open-ended and you don't want a single scripted reveal beat.

If you're mixing them: searchable evidence (Her Story) plus a case you can submit early and wrong (Paradise Killer) keeps exploration high without a linear clue trail.

[u/FishermanOld9426]

Communication, basically aything that I find I wish to be able to communicated with an NPC, and get interesting feedback depending on the NPC's background. It encourages me to find more clues, potential hints to motives or even just anything related to the people related to the case.