Special Interest
SleuthLab
Players run a detective agency, taking on mystery cases that require real forensic science techniques to solve. Dust for fingerprints, run chromatography, compare fibers under a microscope, analyze handwriting, and build evidence chains to identify suspects. Critical thinking through scientific deduction.
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 20 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning. On-device AI personalizes the mentor's responses to your kid's progress — never connecting to a server, never collecting data.
Mentored by Inspector Vex
#FFA726 SleuthLab is a forensic science detective game where you run your own detective agency and solve mystery cases using real forensic techniques. Analyze fingerprints, test fibers under a microscope, compare handwriting samples, and crack the case before the trail goes cold!
Characters who teach
Meet the cast
SleuthLab's characters each teach one kind of forensic evidence or detective method. Loop reads fingerprints and footprints, Fiber studies hairs and threads, Drop runs chemical tests, Stroke compares handwriting, and Witness explains DNA and digital clues. Seal, Sketch, Tick, Branch, and Account cover keeping evidence secure, recording a scene before it's touched, building a timeline, testing other explanations, and how reliable memory is. Inspector Vex is the mentor who guides them.
Loop
Impression evidence — fingerprints, shoeprints, toolmarks (class vs individual evidence)
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Fiber
Trace evidence — fibers, hairs, paint, glass (Locard's exchange principle)
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Drop
Chemical evidence — chromatography, pH, spectroscopy (test-don't-guess)
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Stroke
Document analysis — handwriting, ink, paper (comparison methodology)
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Witness
Biological + digital evidence — DNA + digital footprints (statistical-match, not certainty)
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Seal
Chain of custody — bag it, label it, log every hand it passes through; a broken chain can't be trusted; otter with evidence bags + logbook
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Sketch
Scene documentation — record the scene before anyone touches it; the scene only tells its story once; heron with a measuring notebook
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Tick
Timeline reconstruction — put every event in order on the clock; the sequence is where the answer hides; mouse with a paper timeline
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Branch
Alternative explanations — ask 'what else could explain this?' and test each branch before choosing; squirrel with a whiteboard of possibilities
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Account
Testimony reliability — ask open questions and listen; memory is fragile and a confident witness isn't always correct; rabbit with a gentle notebook
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Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Crime Scene Investigation
Visit crime scenes to search for clues. Tap around the scene to collect evidence like fingerprints, fibers, and documents. Be thorough -- missing a clue could l
Lab Analysis
Take your evidence back to the lab and run real forensic tests. Use chromatography to separate ink colors, examine fibers under a microscope, compare fingerprin
Case Solving
Put all your evidence together on the evidence board. Connect the clues, rule out suspects, and identify who did it. Present your findings to close the case.
Mentored by Inspector Vex — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How SleuthLab handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages
For you, the grown-up
The grown-up side of SleuthLab on Spark & Whetstone, our free site for grown-ups: The Logic Grid. Deduction from clues: you set a case for them on paper.
SleuthLab runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
SleuthLab is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch
