Learning The Mystery Game Loop
Every mystery is a game, in any medium.
Every mystery is a game.
And this isn’t anything new. It’s been the truth of the genre since its inception.
In 1841, Edgar Allan Poe opened The Murders in the Rue Morgue — the first detective story ever written — by comparing the analytical skill involved in mystery-solving to games like chess, checkers, and whist. The murder investigation depicted in the rest of the story is framed as an illustration of that idea.
In one of the later Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle gave us four famous words: “The game is afoot.” He could have described it as a case, an investigation, an adventure, or even just a mystery. But instead, he chose to call it a game.
During the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, author S.S. Van Dine had stopped treating the word as a metaphor. Writing his Twenty Rules, he said it directly: “The detective story is a game. It is more — it is a sporting event.” Games need rules, mysteries are a kind of game, and so mysteries need to have rules too.
And finally, master of the locked room mystery John Dickson Carr titled his defining essay on the mystery genre “The Grandest Game in the World.” So mysteries aren’t just one kind of game — they’re the best kind of game you could choose to play!
These four influential authors were describing the same truth across a century of mystery storytelling: every mystery is, without question, a game.
Even in novel form, mysteries were games. Then came the movies, the live-action roleplays, the board games and card games, and last but not least — you guessed it — the video games! Mysteries have always been games, regardless of the medium.
And so, when video game designers treat their projects like a video game first and a mystery game second, it shouldn’t be surprising when the result turns out bad.
Story structure is not a game loop
The mystery game loop is the most misunderstood aspect of mystery game design. But once you understand it, you can instantly tell the difference between a mystery game that knows what it’s doing and one that only pretends. You’ll effortlessly spot which games are true mystery games — not just in terms of story, but also in terms of gameplay. And of course, you’ll have the knowledge to create a true mystery game yourself.
