Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division

I’ve been a Data Engineer for 5 years, and this game is wildly unrealistic. The data is clean. It’s available when you need it. The stakeholders know exactly what they want. Completely breaks immersion. Anyway, I’ve had more fun in one hour than in my entire career. 10/10 would quit job

As an complete SQL beginner, the game hand-held me through basic concepts and gives teaching scenarios that are engaging and practical. Trodding the (minorly) dangerous streets Los Zorangeles will have you nabbing criminals like the guy who stole the sandwich from the work fridge while learning a decently useful real-life skill. I put in roughly 15 hours during the playtest and only finished 3/4ths of the case levels, with the case levels towards the ends of the game increasing DRAMATICALLY in complexity. Depending on your existing SQL knowledge (and tolerance for corny jokes), playtime estimates range from about 10 all the way to 40 hours. To the dev: please make this Windows 95 compatibility, so I can be confused about whether I'm in-game or on my desktop

Most people don't know that a lot of police officers actually need SQL to do investigations. Google "40% of police" to learn more.

Really clever game, I've thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue. Game is melting my brain as a novice SQL-er. If the developer ever decided to expand this concept out to other programming languages they'd have me as a buy day 1.

This game is fire ngl. Wanted to train my sql knowledge and discovered a jewel of a game. You know sql? Go for it! You heard of sql but don't know anything? Go for it! A great manuel is here to help you learn step by step. You don't know why you're here or anything about sql? GO FOR IT! This is the kind of game we need, the humor of the dev and the hand-drawn graphics are really good and I hope this game will get the love it deserves. 10/10

Honestly great and pretty hilarious. Even if you are a SQL power-user, this is a good one in that you dont get to use some of the options you might normally use, like concat, coalesce, case statements, unions, havent tried CTEs. Its kind of a challenge mode in some ways! Puzzles start out incredibly easy but this isnt a pure sql coding game, there is a genuine sleuth/puzzle aspect to finding data dumps and understanding what they might be used for, in addition to the coding constraints. It's a GENIUINE delight. For example related to coding constraints: In the middle puzzles you are given a perpetrator list or easily find one, followed by filtering on various criteria. Later on you kind of have to construct one. I wish i had union so I could merge something like 12 different tables that display a list of players in an mmo guild. My first approach would be to put basically build a master player dimensional table, but... well there isn't a way to union, so you have to be a bit more smart about what you are doing :) RUNS GREAT ON STEAM DECK IN DESKTOP MODE!

I do this for work, I shouldn't want to do this for fun, and yet... 10/10 incredibly fun and addictive.

[h1] Great game if you don't already know SQL but many features are lacking to make this game a great experience I'd recommend [/h1] I feel like the devs could have easily implemented huge QoL features but did not think enough of the UX when developping the game. Here are my biggest pet peeves : [list] [*] Doesn't support enough SQL commands imo. Part of the fun of SQL is the variety of ways you can solve a problem. For instance, I was very surprised to see that BETWEEN and CASE WHEN are not supported. [*] You can only write 1 query at a time [b]AND[/b] you can't comment code. Makes writing complex queries very tedious. [*] [b]The browser navigation is laborious[/b]. No search history or bookmark feature. Many (if not all) of the websites lack a 'home' button or a sidebar menu to aid navigation. Instead you have to rely on the back arrow and modifying the URL by hand. [*] The Desktop can quickly become overcrowded with tables that you can't organize in folders or rename. [*] No level selection [*] No memory between game sessions of the tables you downloaded / generated. They're also reset when you try the level again after failing or doing a specific achievement like 'Arrest X' [/list] Overall a good game but the UX should have been a bigger focus point.

This game genuinely surprised me. I really hope the developer releases more cases, because it’s a lot of fun. I already had some SQL knowledge before playing, but I still picked up a few useful tricks along the way. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys solving mysteries, the SQL never feels like an extra chore, but rather a natural part of the investigation. I’d also recommend checking out the game’s Discord channel, since some of the in-game clues can be a little too general. Other than that, it’s an awesome game and I had a great time with it.

An excellent game and learning tool for SQL. I learned SQL in class but have not had many opportunities to apply it in practice, so this game has helped me refresh my knowledge and strengthen my skills in a fun, engaging environment. This is a great example of gamified learning done right.