Creators
Write the brief. The engine builds the case.
Any player can write a case brief and get a free synopsis. Pay once and the same engine that builds our cases writes, tests and renders yours in Port Merrow. Then price it, publish it and earn credits on every copy.
From brief to earnings
Step 1
Brief
Free · Up to 3 at a time
Step 2
Synopsis
Free · 3 regenerations each
Step 3
Build
50–95 credits · ≈ $50–95 CAD, once
Step 4
Play with friends
Free · 3 attempts
Step 5
Publish
5–20 credits · private · unlisted · library
Step 6
Earn 15 %
In credits · of every copy sold
Step 7
Community pick
25 credits · + the front door
How it works
The brief and the synopsis — free
You can hold up to three briefs at a time. A brief is a form that keeps every field inside the game's bounds: a title, the era of the crime (present day, or an earlier era played as a cold case), a premise, 2–5 stars, the victim, weapon, method and motive from pick lists, one to four districts, tone sliders and up to four named characters — fictional only.
Submitting a brief writes a synopsis with the same engine: title, tagline, blurb, cast and a twist teaser — never the solution. You can regenerate it up to three times and edit the brief in between.
The build — once, by stars
| 2-star case | 50 credits ≈ $50 CAD |
| 3-star case | 60 credits ≈ $60 CAD |
| 4-star case | 75 credits ≈ $75 CAD |
| 5-star case | 95 credits ≈ $95 CAD |
The price covers generation, QA cold-solves at all four team sizes and document rendering. If QA fails, one regeneration is free. A build takes a while — you can close the tab; we email you when it is done.
Play, price, publish
Play your own case with friends first — three attempts, free (your own plays never count on a leaderboard). Then set a price inside the 5–20 credit band (≈ $5–20 CAD) and choose where it lives: private (your teams only), unlisted (anyone with the link) or library (listed in the Player-made tab). You can change the price and visibility later.
Earnings — credits only, never cash
Every copy sold pays you 15 % of the price in credits, the moment it sells. A 20-credit sale earns 3 credits. Credits are the whole reward: spend them on cases, on your next build, on Match teams. There is no cash-out, no payout, no exchange rate — not now, not later.
Once a month we promote one player-made case to the front door as the Community pick. Its creator gets 25 credits and a badge.
What we check before a case is published
- QA cold-solves at four team sizes. An automated detective plays the case from scratch as a team of one, two, three and four. Every route must reach the killer, every gate must open, every question must be answerable from the evidence.
- The content rules. Modern-day contemporary noir: mature themes are fine; no gore imagery, no sexual content, no child victims, no sexual violence, every character an adult.
- The real-name check. No real person, business or street. Named characters are checked at submit and again at QA. Port Merrow is fictional and stays that way.
- Age. You must be 16 or older to publish a case (or to post on the forum). You confirm this once, on your profile.
Who owns what
You own your brief. The text you wrote is yours; use it anywhere.
You license the built case to us to host and sell on Case Closed — non-exclusive for the brief, exclusive for the generated case, since the engine, the city and the documents are ours. You may promote your case anywhere you like: share the link, post the cover, talk about it.
We may unpublish a case for QA or policy reasons: a failed re-check, a content or real-name problem, or a report from players. You are told the reason, and the credits you have already earned stay in your wallet. The full text is in the Creator Terms.