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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Detective, a chat-based game, now open source

Contribute to stefanbohacek/detective development by creating an account on GitHub.

Detective is an open-source chat-based game available on GitHub. Players interact through conversation to solve mysteries or puzzles. It is designed for developers interested in contributing to game development or… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier. Detective, a chat-based game, now open source launched in 2016; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    Hi HN! Worked on this side project for a while and wanted to share it. It's free to play.

    2025 · detective.wiki · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    I built SQL Noir, an interactive detective game that challenges you to solve mysteries using real SQL queries. It’s fully open source, designed to give you a practical and immersive way to learn SQL while engaging with a narrative-driven mystery.

    2025 · sqlnoir.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3AM

    Hey HN, Michael and Scott here. We’re open-sourcing an interactive murder mystery featuring LLM-driven character agents. Solve the mystery by finding clues, taking notes, and interrogating agents. They all have distinct motives, personality, and can impact the game in different ways (attacking you, running away, etc). Try it out, it’s pretty fun! We’re also open-sourcing the framework that we used to make and refine the agents. The goal is to create an intuitive interface for storytellers to create, debug, and test game agents. We then take those game agents and expose an API beyond just…

    2023 · gron.games · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Hey HN! I'm excited to show off this really fun project I put together. I originally built this project 2-3 years ago, AI was already booming at the time, however voice AI agents were still very early. I loved my proof of concept at the time, but wasn't quite happy with it. I recently had the desire to check out the tech again, and know many of you will be interested. Interviews are speech to speech with OpenAI's gpt-realtime-2.1 over WebRTC. This model is... expensive, and because of that, I have to add some amount of restrictions, conversations are tied to a authenticated Clerk user id. I…

    Aug 2026 · whodunnitai.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    A game where you play detective and solve a mystery

    2023 · mysteries.ai · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    SQL Police Department is an online game where you solve crimes using SQL (and learn SQL in the process). Learn SQL while playing a game!

    2020 · sqlpd.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7
    OpenClawfree▲836

    The AI that actually does things

    Jan 2026 · openclaw.ai · its alternatives →

  8. 8
    Sherlock▲420

    Stop AI-assisted cheating in remote interviews

    2025 · sherlock.sh · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    A game of Detectives, Robots, and Impostors.

    2015 · fourtonfish.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    An murder mystery detective game, you ask suspects freely

    Jun 2026 · murdermysteryai.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Building the next generation of conversational AI

    2023 · character.ai · its alternatives →

  12. 12
    Sled▲388

    Run your coding agent from your phone, with voice

    Jan 2026 · toyo.ai · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Interrogate AI suspects and solve ever‑changing murder cases

    Jan 2026 · murdermysterygame.org · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    A series of open-ended, detective role playing games

    2015 · playsleuth.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15
  16. 16

    It's a web app that uses AI to turn any book into a playable text adventure. Your favorite book, but your choices, hence your story. You can even "remix" the genre like playing Dune as a noir detective story. Note: Work in progress. Suggestions are welcome.

    2025 · kathaaverse.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    AI chat features powered by Copilot

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Who is the robot and who is the human?

    2015 · detective.stefanbohacek.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    A Detective SQL Learning Game

    2025 · sqlnoir.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20
    Crew▲137

    A tiny crew of monsters for your Claude Code agents

    Aug 2026 · crew-deskmates.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Open-source AI agent video editor with a real timeline

    Jul 2026 · openchatcut.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Learn SQL while solving crimes! Climb the ranks of SQL PD.

    2020 · sqlpd.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    An amazing and intellectual investigation game...

    2016 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A humorous micro-adventure game investigating the occult

    2015 · spookydoorway.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →