Who poisoned the tonic? Why did the thief burst into flames? Put your deduction skills to the test in The Case of the Golden Idol, a charmingly macabre puzzler set in the late 18th century. Scour crime scenes for incriminating letters, ritualistic daggers, and other evidence—all while tracing a mysterious golden idol’s trail of mayhem across four decades.

What we love: Pulling together reams of evidence. Cross-referencing newspaper clippings, servant schedules, and our own keen observations (this window was clearly broken from the inside) makes you feel like a brilliant, old-timey detective.

Quick tip: Watch for red herrings. In the Murder at the Little Mermaid chapter, “REVENGE RR” is scrawled in blood near a corpse, pointing to escaped convict Robert Redruth as the killer. But Redruth can’t read, which means the message must have been planted by the real culprit. Whodunnit?

Meet the creator: Before The Case of the Golden Idol blossomed into an award-winning fan favorite, Latvian brothers Ernest and Andrejs Klavins—collectively known as Color Gray Games—kicked it off as a small pixel-art project.