Mysterium and Decrypto collide in this forensic science murder mystery game
A Glitch in the system.
Attempt to solve a murder whilst avoiding being tricked in Glitch Squad, a board game about forensic science.
Taking place in a forensic laboratory, Glitch Squad is an upcoming board game that has players splitting into opposing teams and trying to discover the truth behind a crime. With similarities to both Mysterium – in that it’s a game about solving a murder using clues – and Decrypto, with its password discovery gameplay, Glitch Squad challenges players to find the answer to their mystery by careful deduction and clever thinking.
As the titular Glitch Squad, the players will be tasked with analysing the clues given to them by their teammates in order to identify the right passwords and find the solution to the crime. However, players will have to be careful as Glitch – the laboratory’s clumsy and mischievous cat – has tampered with some of the evidence, meaning that one of the group’s clues is not what it seems.
The game begins with every player getting their own secret password which they must decode. Every round will see one teammate selecting a piece of evidence and three clues to help their allies figure things out. An opponent from the other team will then take on the role of Glitch the cat and will alter one of the clues, without revealing which one is the false clue. The team then gets their clues and must attempt to guess which pieces of evidence make up the solution, whether that’s the location of the crime, the weapon, the victim’s hobby or the perpetrator’s profession.
Each team then has 20 seconds to figure out which piece of evidence their three clues hints towards, whilst keeping in mind that one of the clues is a fake. Should players successfully guess their evidence, they’ll get part of their password for that game – which they can then attempt to complete themselves, if they want to. However, should the players fail to guess their evidence then their opponents unlock part of their password. If a teammate manages to guess their password, then they’ll help to unlock one of their allies instead.
Whichever team guesses all their passwords first is named the winner of the game.
Glitch Squad was co-created by Mary Fanagan – CEO of the game’s publisher, Resonym – and Max Seidman, who have previously worked together on other board games such as the deduction title Phantom Ink, previously known as Ghost Writer, which has one player becoming a spirit and the others mediums trying to communicate with it.
Resonym collaborated with LabX – a public engagement testbed at the National Academy of Sciences - and Tiltfactor, a game research laboratory in Dartmouth College, in order to create and publish Glitch Squad.
The Kickstarter campaign for Glitch Squad is live until May 21st, with a pledge of $25 (£20) getting backers a copy of the game in January 2023. Alternatively, a print-and-play version is available for a pledge of $3 (£3).