Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division news & patch notes

Whoops, did not mean to do that!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Disable Dev Window

More bug fixes! Notably fixed the bug where Linux builds of the game were missing SQLite functions.

Next update will focus on quality of life improvements such as preserving progress if you get a case wrong.

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Reduce assistant's thinking time before and between hints

• Bring up Steam Deck virtual keyboard when an input field is clicked

• Improve how default table names are generated

Bug Fixes

• Fix missing SQLite functions on Linux

  • Huge thank you to neattaken for helping out with this!

• Fix unsaved tables not having syntax highlighting

• Fix Webtrotter achievement not unlocking

• For the 8th case (LZU):

  • Fix attendance dates not matching with class schedules

• For the 10th case:

  • Fix inconsistency with naming of production materials

• For the 7th case (wiki level):

  • Remove non-bard from Bards Only guild

  • Use player's payup name instead of player name for transactions

Thanks everyone for submitting your issues through the feedback form! Many more fixes to come!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Add a few additional, more direct hints from your assistant

Bug Fixes

• Fix Ctrl + Enter not saving new tables

• Add UNION as a keyword for syntax highlighting

• Fix multiple Web Browser taskbar buttons having the same number

• Fix volume slider in settings not affecting the Startup screen

• Increase character limit when searching for traders on broker.com

Minor Clarity Changes

• For the 7th case (wiki level):

  • Fix damage stat for the Electric modifier in the wiki combat page

  • Changed wording in the forum post regarding the rarity of a certain weapon

• For the credit sequence:

  • Make dates consistent

Casually adding time travel in the game: now you can go back to cases you've already unlocked at any time!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Added new option in the assistant dialogue to travel through time, allowing you to switch between cases.

• Also, your assistant should stop bothering you if you tell them you don't want to retry a case.

Bug Fixes

• Fix floating point formatting causing occasional crashes during the 9th case.

Minor Clarity Changes

• For the 7th case (wiki level):

  • Modified description of Skeletal Warriors to make it clear they have the same base stats as a warrior

Wanted to get this out quickly to fix reports of crashing on Linux during syntax highlighting.

Update Notes:

Bug Fixes

• Optimize syntax highlighting for column names to prevent crashes on Linux

Minor Clarity Changes

• For the 7th case (wiki level):

  • Changed wording for what qualifies as a premium member

  • Ensure rent payments are consistent across players

Bringing the demo up to date with the full release!

There are a lot of changes and bug fixes introduced in this version, so this isn't a comprehensive list of what's been added, but should include some notable differences.

Update Notes:

Some Notable Changes

• Added login screen

• Added custom parser support for CONCAT and IN

• Improve Undo/Redo hotkey functionality

• And many more!

Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division is Available Now!!!

That's right! You can now play all ten cases in Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division! By the time you complete this game, you should be familiar with the basics of SQL, comfortable with grouping columns and joining tables! The entire game should take at least 8 hours to complete.

This is a project I’ve worked on by myself for the past five years and I really, really hope you all enjoy the full experience. If you enjoy the game, please leave a review! It helps a lot.

I apologize in advance if there are any bugs or any other issues, if you see any let me please know here and I’ll try to get it fixed. If you get stuck and need any help, you can join the game’s discord server here and go to the office hours channels and I’m sure there’ll be people who’ll help out (like me!)

As for the demo, it will continue to stay up and updated!

The Desktop Detectives bundle is also available now!

This bundle includes Desktop Explorer and Lost Wiki: Kozlovka, two brilliant detective games that also take place in a fictional operating system! With this bundle, you'll be able to pick up all three games at an additional 10% off. You can view the bundle on the game's Steam page and also through this link here.

The Future???

As long as bugs and issues exist in the game, I will be fixing them. As for everything else, I’ll see what people want!

I would like to localize this game (especially for Spanish and Portuguese) but this will take some time and a lot of effort, as this game wasn’t built with localization in mind (since I didn’t think that many people would be playing it!) Some specific cases would also be quite difficult to localize.

Custom level support is also something that’s on my mind and will be much easier to implement, although it would be difficult for some parts of the game to support that (such as websites, for example). 

I’m also open to adding additional content, possibly dealing with more advanced SQL concepts. Just know that it might be a while before this happens (if it does).

Overall, no concrete plans and promises but just know that I’m not going to be walking away any time soon. I do have new ideas for another detective game but I like the idea of Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division being something I come back to in moments of inspiration.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for making this possible.

Wanted to get this update out there since I noticed that some Twitch VODs were being muted due to a song in the Royalty Free Music Player.

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Remove song that was causing Twitch VODs to being muted

• Table cells now highlight when hovered over

• Decrease tab size (I didn't notice how long tabs were in the demo!)

Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division is releasing on July 17th!

That’s less than a month away!!!

Thank you all for sticking around so far! I’m so excited for you all to play the full game when it releases. So much work has been put into this game and I really just hope it meets (and possibly even exceeds) your expectations!

The full game will include...

• 10 cases (including the 4 cases in the demo), the latter half having cases that should take an hour to solve.

• More than 200 webpages within 40 websites to browse!

• The opportunity to learn how to write more complicated queries, including column grouping and self joins.

I hope you check it out when the time comes! In the meantime, join the game's discord server here!

I've noticed that most people didn't realize that when you click on your assistant after asking for a hint, he'll give you more hints! I've improved this so that you can cycle through hints when you simply ask for help once.

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• You can now click "Next" when asking for help to get more hints!

• Add a clearer parser error when query is just SELECT FROM

• Made selected book chapters a different color than unavailable locked chapters

Hey everyone! I finally made a discord page, which you can join by following this link!

If you're interested in the development process of this game, I'll be posting some dev logs on there documenting how this game came to be. Also, if you want a drawing of yours to be a part of the game, I'm doing like a little art contest thing through there? But it's not really a contest? Check it out, it'll be fun!

Also I think it'd be nice to have a little community around this game and also the other future games that I'm a part of! :)

Oh and also a small update adding something some of you have been asking for!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• You can now resize the "Search Tables" panel! Just click and drag the bottom right corner!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the credits table being duplicated numerous times.

Squashing some more bugs - thanks all for reporting these issues!

Update Notes:

Bug Fixes

• Prevent soft lock when a wrong suspect is arrested twice

• Fixed notepad issues that might have caused some weird behavior

• Parser: add backtick (``) and square bracket (\[]) support for identifiers (table and column names)

• Parser: fixed issue where a valid column alias of a subquery cannot be used

With InterfaceX26 fest here, I wanted to get in an update that addresses EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED!!!! (almost).

The contents of this update comes from your bug reports and feature requests, so thank you for letting me hear your thoughts on this matter! If you have any more feature requests or bug reports, please let me know!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Added support for additional hotkeys.

  • Ctrl+Enter for submitting queries

  • Alt+c for closing window panels

  • Alt+w for switching between window panels

  • Add Undo/Redo (Ctrl+z/Ctrl+y) functionality for Notepad

  • These can now be in the newly updated Settings panel.

• Increased the line limit of a query from 10 -> 24

• Added the ability to copy text from a table by clicking a cell directly

• Added support for the concat function in parser

• Allow for tab indentation

Visual Changes

• Minor changes to one of the clues in the final case of the demo.

  • Specifically, the date in the back of the photo.

• Clarified that clicking on the options in the end of demo popup will close your game

Bug Fixes

• Fixed CRT filter for Mac and Linux! Now you can sear your eyes on all devices!

• Fixed window panels dragging on double speed if you hold both left and right mouse buttons

• Remove umlauts from characters in Search Tables window panel

• Fixed issues related to caret and text positions being misaligned (hopefully)

• Optimized level loading to hopefully reduce slowness issues when transitioning to new levels

Just wanted to thank everyone for playing the demo and for reporting these issues! Couldn't have done it without you <3 <3 <3

If any of you have more issues to report please let me know!

Update Notes:

Bug Fixes

• Taskbar Issues:

  • Remove player generated table taskbar buttons when tables are deleted

  • Add messages panel to taskbar when accepting call from call popup

  • Fix some panels not being minimized from the correct position

• Aspect Ratio Issues:

  • Fix the click and drag selection box offset with non 16:9 aspect ratio resolutions

  • Fix the arrest panel scaling weirdly with non 16:9 aspect ratio resolutions

• Parser Issues:

  • Fixed query parsing errors for players with Turkish localized systems

  • Fixed false positive parser errors when NULL is in the SELECT statement

  • Added more detailed parser errors when keywords are in the wrong place

• Misc UI Issues:

  • Decreased gaps between book pages to reduce scrolling dead space

  • Slightly increase the Search Tables window to reduce possibility of cursor offset

A HUGE new update for all of you DATABASE DETECTIVES!!!

Pretty much every feature request I've been keeping track of has been implemented in this update, such as a taskbar and the ability to minimize window panels!

There are also a bunch of visual improvements that make interacting with CopOS smoother and feel better than before!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Added a taskbar and the ability to minimize window panels!

• Added syntax highlighting for column names (they should now be colored red!)

• Added more polish to the Instruction Manual

  • Added more detail in chapter 4 regarding joining multiple tables together

  • Updated each query in the textbook to contain the new syntax highlighted column names

  • Use a different font for each table name or column name mentioned in the textbook

• Added the ability to click and drag to select multiple icons at once

  • Comes with the ability to delete multiple icons at once (if they can all be deleted)

Visual Changes

• Arrested suspect is now shown being jailed at the end of every case!

• Improved animations

  • Bouncier animations when opening window panels and saving tables

  • Added animations when opening the clue panel

• Changed the icon for the clue panel into a moleman

Bug Fixes

• Fix query parser being case sensitive (SQL should be case-insensitive)

Here's a small update that adds an optional CRT filter for those who wanted to get more immersed in the time and era of Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division

This filter is enabled by default, but if you find it hurts your eyes (such as when trying to read), you can disable this filter in the settings.

Here's a before and after with the CRT filter.

Before

After

You can also make the CRT effect even stronger if you want to burn your eyes even more!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Added an optional CRT filter!

• Added some more sound effects

An update just in time for DETECTIVE FEST!!!

The most notable change here is a new note taking app that you can use to write down whatever you want! There's even a dark mode setting on there!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Added a much requested notepad for you to take notes on each case!

• Changed the arrest icon to a moleman

• Added some new sound effects at various locations

Bug Fixes

• Fix icons placement at different resolutions

• Fix parser not allowing comment strings in query

Thanks everyone for reporting any bugs and issues you've encountered! Hopefully this update should fix a few of them.

Update Notes:

Bug Fixes

• Fix crashing on macOS when you get to the last level of the demo.

• Increase audio buffer size to hopefully fix the crackling audio issue.

• Assistant is now FORCED to dance at the end of every level!!!

• Query hints are no longer given out of order.

Hey everyone! Thanks for playing and for all the kind feedback so far! :)

This newest update should overall improve stability and make the goal of the last level clearer.

Please let me know if you have any more feedback!

Update Notes:

Gameplay Changes

• Update evidence in level 4 to clarify which conventions the suspect went to.

• Update textbook chapter 4 to clarify what is allowed when using aggregate functions.

• If more than one table is being selected, throw an error if not every table is joined together (prevent inadvertent cross joins).

  • This technically isn’t a requirement in SQL, but there’s not really a reason to do a cross join in this game. Even in practical real life circumstances it’s rare. Plus, it’s really easy to build up massive queries that crash the game, which can happen if you’re not careful with your join conditions.

• Remove song from music player that was causing YouTube copyright strikes

• Add a couple more royalty free tracks.

Fixes

• Increased audio volume from the messages panel.

• Made the music player volume slider less sensitive.

• Update to the newest version of Unity due to security vulnerability

• Added some optimization for the loading of table panels.

  • Table panels will now load more data once you scroll all the way to the bottom.

  • This isn’t really relevant for the demo but in the full release some tables get really large so I want to ensure the experience stays consistent.

That's right! Right now you can play the first four cases of Database Detective: Minor Crimes Edition!!

This demo should cover the basics of SQL querying, where you get to play around with concepts such as JOINS and aggregate functions.

Please let me know if you have any feedback! Thank you all :)