Guilty HourWhat is a murder sudoku?
A murder sudoku, also called a detective sudoku, is a logic puzzle where you place suspects instead of numbers. Once everyone is where they stood, you know who the killer is.
How it works
- You get the floor plan of a place, a house, a train or a hotel, split into squares and rooms.
- You get a list of suspects and a few written clues: "Nora was in the kitchen", "Ted was not in the same row as the piano".
- You place every suspect on a square: one per row, one per column and one per room. Nobody stands on furniture, except sitting on a seat.
- When the plan is full, the victim appears. Whoever was alone with them, in the same room, is guilty.
How it compares with sudoku
| Sudoku | Murder sudoku | |
|---|---|---|
| What you place | Numbers 1 to 9 | Suspects |
| Board | Always 9×9 | 5×5 to 12×12 in Guilty Hour |
| The rule | Each number once per row, column and box | One person per row, column and room |
| What you are given | Some numbers already in place | Written clues |
| At the end | A full grid | A full plan and a killer |
The logic is the same: rule out what cannot be until one option is left. The difference is that here every deduction tells part of a story.
One solution, no guessing
A good murder sudoku has exactly one solution and never makes you guess. In Guilty Hour every case is checked by a program before it ships: only one arrangement fits every clue, and you can reach it by reasoning. You do not even need to know where the body is: it appears at the end.
Is it the same as killer sudoku?
No. Killer sudoku is a number sudoku with sums: groups of squares whose total must match a figure. There are no suspects and no crime. A murder sudoku uses no numbers at all.
The other mode: The Interrogation
Guilty Hour has a second kind of case. The Interrogation has no floor plan: every suspect was somewhere, had a motive and sometimes a weapon, and you cross the clues to work out who did it, where and why. How to solve it.
Where to start
Two new cases every day, the same for everyone. Free, with no forced adverts.
