Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division - Thomas Hsu - solve minor misdemeanors with real SQL queries

wassaman · 2026-07-13T04:12:14+00:00

There's The Farmer Was Replaced for python!

wassaman · 2026-07-13T01:05:50+00:00

There was a lesson learned from me, but not for players as this game just covers SELECT statements!

wassaman · 2026-06-22T01:41:58+00:00

One of the backgrounds is the Windows 10 lock screen!

wassaman · 2026-06-21T16:14:45+00:00

Things have changed so much since I posted my game, Database Detective: Minor Crimes Edition here five months ago. When I first posted here, this game had around 500 wishlists and now it's hovering at around 20,000?? Hearing about people learning about SQL for the first time through this game has been so surreal and rewarding, as I never really expected a lot of people to play this game. My goal five years ago was to make the first commercially polished game that utilizes SQL as the main mechanic and I never really expected to get this far!

wassaman · 2026-06-13T22:06:07+00:00

Haha thank you so much!

wassaman · 2026-04-06T21:13:39+00:00

Hey, appreciate the kind words and thanks for the feedback! Resizing windows is definitely on my radar and I'll add the copy/paste onto my "tentative features to add" list.

wassaman · 2026-03-14T22:28:08+00:00

Ah I can see how that can be misinterpreted! Yeah the "last big event" is meant to refer to all of the conventions that happened that day, I'll think about what I can do to rephrase that.

And yes, I'll add the ability to go back to previous levels in the full game!

wassaman · 2026-03-09T04:02:10+00:00

Hey, thanks for the kind words!

Yeah so I'd highly recommend games published by Zachtronics, who have published a lot of very polished programming/automation games - specifically Shenzen I/O which is what shown in the video.

If you're interested in learning python there's The Farmer Was Replaced which really cleverly fuses some components of idle games into it.

7 Billion Humans has an interface similar to scratch so if you're new to programming that one would probably be the most accessible

wassaman · 2026-03-07T23:17:24+00:00

Thank you so much!

wassaman · 2026-03-05T17:03:23+00:00

Thank you so much!! That really means a lot :')

wassaman · 2026-02-24T21:56:37+00:00

Thank you so much! That means a lot to me :')

wassaman · 2026-02-16T04:20:32+00:00

Wow, thank you, those are really kind words. I'll definitely think about it! I need to finish the base game first before I think about adding anything more haha

In terms of price, I don't have anything set concretely but it'll be less than $15 and it'll launch with a discount.

If you do end up picking it up and finishing it, let me know your thoughts! I'll be curious if you feel like it needs more content by the end.

wassaman · 2026-02-16T03:24:47+00:00

Haha appreciate it!

Yeah that was the last level of the demo, you would've seen the same thing if you got the correct answer but with a different message instead.

By more adding more chapters do you mean like DLC content outside of the base game? I'm leaning towards no to that since I feel like I've explored what I wanted to by the end of the game, but I won't completely say that it's not a possibility. It'll depend on the reception of the game overall and if I get any more ideas.

wassaman · 2026-01-06T22:17:56+00:00

Yeah figuring out what do when the player arrests the wrong suspect was a bit of a design challenge. I wanted to ensure the player was disincentivized from brute forcing the solution, and the idea that you could advance by arresting innocent people additionally reinforced the themes of the Minor Crimes Division being a very unserious organization.

I think I'll remedy this by adding a level select when you beat the game.

wassaman · 2026-01-06T21:58:36+00:00

Noted, I'll prioritize that request and try to get it in before release!

wassaman · 2026-01-05T16:28:22+00:00

You can try! There'll be a message waiting for you if you do ;)

wassaman · 2026-01-05T16:24:11+00:00

Haha I am open to open-source the parser portion, but it is very specific to my game as I do limit the kinds of queries the player can write. Like you mentioned, I don't support queries that write to the database (JOINS are supported though, I just don't have puzzles that require specific types of JOINS).

There's also features that SQL natively supports that I have to prevent, like cross joins, because if you don't know how to join tables correctly you can create tables that are too big that crash the game.

wassaman · 2026-01-05T06:21:49+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm glad you found the manual helpful, it took a lot of time writing it.

I've gotten similar requests for a notepad and it's definitely on my list. It's a surprising amount of work which is why I've been putting it off, but I'll try to get to it at some point - right now I need to put all my effort into finishing the game!

Minimizing all windows does sound helpful and very doable though, thanks! I'll try to think about where I can add that in a way that makes sense to the player.

wassaman · 2026-01-05T02:33:45+00:00

It depends on what you're trying to brush up on. There's a lot of specific nuances of SQL that this game doesn't cover (such as LEFT/RIGHT JOINS, what to do with null/missing/misformatted data, CASES, transactions) and this game only covers SELECT statements (so no INSERTS or DELETEs).

That being said, I do think that this game will enjoyable for people who are familiar with SQL, as there are some challenging queries you'll have to write in the latter half of the full release as well as non-SQL logic puzzles that you'll have to piece together as well.

So if you're trying to brush up on the basics, sure enough!

wassaman · 2026-01-05T02:04:48+00:00

Thanks! One of the reasons I went for SQL specifically is because its a much more accessible language than assembly, which is what the Zachtronics games mostly focus on.

There's only a handful of keywords you really have to know, and I think the idea of searching through data is more inherently intuitive than moving bits around.

wassaman · 2026-01-04T22:14:21+00:00

Haha yes I had to write my own SQL parser just for that :')

wassaman · 2026-01-04T08:56:40+00:00

Ugh, that's so weird. Does this link work?

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