Killer Clues

Killer Clues is a small browser game from Nick's site Blame Nick. Every day it opens one new case: a single sentence, written like a cryptic crossword clue, with the length of the answer in brackets. Somewhere in the wordplay is the killer, which can be a murder weapon, a poison, a cause of death or something stranger.

The answer can hide in several ways. It may be an anagram of some of the words, a word tucked inside the letters of the clue, a double meaning, a word read backwards or a well-known saying. The game's own worked example shows the idea: in "Even omens couldn't save him. (5)", the letters eVEN OMens give VENOM.

You type your accusation into the letter boxes and press Accuse, and you can guess as often as you like. Three hints are there in turn for a stuck player. The first names the kind of wordplay (on 27 October it said the clue was an anagram), the second picks out the key words and the third gives the first letter. Solving with no hints earns the rank of Chief Inspector, then Inspector, Sergeant and Constable as hints are used. A case you give up on is marked as gone cold.

A new case opens at midnight wherever you are, and a countdown shows the time to the next one. Your played count, streak and best streak are kept in the browser, with no account. The whole site wears pumpkins in Halloween week, and a button switches them off. After the daily case you can share your result or challenge a friend, and play community cases written by other players, or write one of your own.

It suits people who like cryptic crosswords but want a single clue rather than a full grid, and it is a gentle way in for anyone learning how cryptic wordplay works, since every answer comes from a short list of killers.