Detective work in its purest form
Classic crime stories live and die on one question: how did it come to this? That's exactly what crime riddles are about — you know the outcome and have to reconstruct the chain of events.
In What happened?, it all starts with one to three sentences. A death, a strange accident, a crime that seems to make no sense at all. Like an investigator in an interview room, you ask questions — except here the answers are always honest.
The fun is in piecing it together. Every answer is a clue. You gather them, rule out false leads and build a theory until it accounts for every fact. And not every case is a murder: sometimes it's an accident, sometimes a crime — and sometimes something you'd never have seen coming.
How a case plays out in the app
You pick a story from one of the four packs: Everyday Life, On the Road, At Work or Free Time. Every story comes with its own woodcut-style illustration that captures the mood of the case.
Then the investigation begins. You type your questions or speak them out loud. The AI game master knows the full solution and answers with Yes, No, Partly, Irrelevant or "Not a yes/no question".
Each case has its key facts — the points you need to uncover to explain how it all happened. Once you've worked them all out, the case counts as solved.
With three difficulty levels there are cases for beginners and cases that will keep experienced armchair detectives puzzling for a while. 12 cases are free; further packs cost a one-time €2.99, or €7.99 for all of them.
Detective tips for crime riddles
Start with the basics: did someone die? Was it a crime, an accident or something else entirely? Was another person involved? These questions split the case into broad directions.
Ask about motive, means and opportunity — but don't stop there. Crime riddles often hinge on one unusual detail that nobody would look twice at in a real investigation.
Distrust your first suspicion. The opening situation is usually worded to point you towards the wrong explanation. Ask yourself: what assumption have I made that the text never actually states?
Sum up what you know at regular intervals. Saying the confirmed facts out loud makes it much easier to spot which piece of the puzzle is still missing.
Investigate together: a crime night with friends
Crime riddles are even better as a team sport. In the group mode of What happened?, one person takes on the role of game master: they read the solution silently and answer everyone else's questions. It works with no internet and no AI.
That turns an ordinary evening into a proper murder mystery night. The detectives can swap theories, nudge each other towards clues, or compete to see who cracks the case first.
The tone stays darkly humorous throughout: the cases deal with death, accidents and crime, but they're never explicit or gory. We'd suggest ages 12 and up. Try the examples below — you can solve your first case right here.
