Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division

This is the first time I'm leaving a steam review but I enjoyed it so much I need to recommend it even though I haven't finished yet haha I think started the demo at around 7:30pm and then went to bed at 5am because the game is so fun. I really appreciate how there's not just one way to come up with the correct answer and how the complexity slowly ramps up with each case. The overarching plot and world building is really interesting!! With amount of care put into all the art and the little funny details I'm continuously noticing something new and giggling.

I used to hate SQL and databases, I love them now. 10/10 I'm coming for your job Larry Ellison

Esta bueno el juego, si bien te pide saber algo de sql no es nada terrible, tambien trae un manual que explica todo lo que necesitas saber para hacer consultas y se entiende bien. El juego esta en ingles pero no es muy complejo, se puede entender

I'm dropping the game sadly. The game is clearly done with lots of love, but after chapter 5 it becomes more about assuming clues than writing SQL queries. The in-game hint system is useless, not having tabs or history on the browser is so annoying, some puzzles are plays on words that if you are not English native you won't get (plus the clue system doesn't anticipate this?) some other puzzles are literally you assuming that something is unique, or happened in a time frame, I was just guessing, not deducing before reading a walkthrough and seeing the mental hoops that the guide had to do to justify reasoning. Sadly, I think a more direct mystery game with more spotlight on actually using SQL would have been better

W game, honestly. Super educational and helpful—highly recommend if you're trying to learn SQL from scratch

It would be nice if the developer would remove the artificial constraints, and allow all features of the database that backs this game. Apparently this is SQLite. So please don't stop us from using Cross joins, recursion, CTEs, Full outer joins, natural joins, window functions like LAG and LEAD. And please use the date data type, instead of using integer for dates. Apart from that, it is a fun game. But being artificially constrained is not fun.

《The Roottrees are Dead》式的閱讀線索、網路文章→有了全盤思路再去進行真正犯人推理的推理遊戲，不過就差在本作的閱讀物料在讀完以後還需要用SQL query查表（是只有查表，架構等不在本作範圍內）的方式來縮窄、鎖定犯人。 遊戲本身是設置了一個反烏托邦式的浮誇搞笑世界觀，說到Minor那就是實際上就是我們世界觀底下不算罪的東西在這個lore中也同樣屬於犯罪行為，比方說大學生上課發訊息等。基本上關卡的設置其實也是如此：在clue中，像體育生是一定要超不經意露出白襪那樣超不經意露出網站→到了各路網站，閱讀一些lore設定上屬於世界觀規則的東西→有了頭緒和方向，然後以這些規則鎖定方向再去進行SQL查表。由於每局遊戲對某些數字的設置是隨機的，所以還是會要求玩家自行敲SQL來達到答案，無法那麼直白地抄答案。 時常做法是有兩、三大系的條件縮窄需要玩家花費功夫琢磨，性質上有常規推理的部分也有好比ranking puzzle、ordering puzzle、logic puzzle似的做法。閱讀時我會認為枯悶還是枯悶的，《Rotrees》的層面可能還能以“吃瓜之心”來閱讀材料，但到了本作真就是得看到底世界觀還有什麼荒謬設置了，不過對筆者來說因為《Rotrees》那種還不是我的興趣守備範圍，本作帶點《Cyanide & Happiness》色，又不至於無厘頭而是在嘲某些常見狀況的笑料——這件事還是相對地讓我的閱讀體驗比較好的。 基本上那種“好像邏輯上是明白的，但由於讀太多了、又不至於方向明顯到縮在成這個可能性上，摻雜了一些出題者的相當然在裡面（比如說，A線索提出某個計劃，而關卡內又只提供了B企業的狀況，所以meta地看也只可能是這個B企業正是目標所向；又或者是某關卡指出了A與B是同班同學，但在線上能看到的學員表只有那三節，所以meta地想只可能是這三節中正是目標對象。但我覺得這種思路其實各人各異，我很想說不是蠢的原因，而是有些情況下腦子在“沒有否定其他可能性的情況下無法接受唯一的答案”。你也可以透過去查閱表格來看這種可以數值之處，但當題目本身就是“以SQL query去調動表格”之後……實在很難再建立仔細去查閱而非篩選出來以後得結果……搞半天還要自己讀！ 結合上述好些種情況，到了好奇是會造就“哪裡好像跳了一兩步導致運行不下去”的點，這一點也讓人非常容易聯想到《Roottrees》。另一點也很《Roottrees》的是看漏證據、思路或SQL出問題的情況，很多都是不可被驗證的，《Roottrees》那邊是設置了“每回答正確幾個選項就給你鎖定答案”，而本作則是只能依靠某幾個網站上好比猜密碼、解答重設密碼登題目來作這些中段驗證。所以說如果一度放下遊戲再重開還是會有點吃力的，所幸本作分章節，規模也相對地少。 雖然這樣說了一堆，但對本作的體驗還是非常良好的，最主要是SQL的教學、元素利用做得非常好，確實是一步一步來，筆者在遊玩期間還是有挺大收穫的，頗有成功感，雖然保守估計本作對於單單是query的部分也就SQL中3-40%的內容（此數值是透過詢問GPT得來），可遊戲還是允許玩家使用某些（某些，而不是全部）不在教學內容內的手段和語法的，確實也是借SQL做了一定程度的解法自由度了。

INSERT INTO public.review (id, game_id, review) VALUES (uuid(), '3950130', 'Pretty fun I would say'); DROP TABLE public.users;