The Atlantic, a publication more commonly associated with lengthy think pieces and earnest analysis, has decided to branch out into the business of murder - specifically, solving a fictional one. As part of its ongoing expansion into Games, the magazine today launches its first immersive-narrative game: Lemony Snicket’s Suspicious Incident in Dubious Park. The game drops players into a fictional scene written by the author Lemony Snicket himself, where they must solve a murder mystery.

For the first week, the game is exclusive to subscribers - because nothing says “reward for loyalty” like being locked in a park with a corpse and a bunch of suspicious characters. After that, it opens to the wider public on July 20, presumably so non-subscribers can also feel the thrill of accusing the wrong person.

The game is a hybrid of a traditional whodunit and a visual scavenger hunt. Players take on the role of a detective dropped into a locked-down park where someone has been murdered in broad daylight. They navigate an illustrated map, combing for clues and interrogating a cast of peculiar witnesses and eccentric parkgoers to reconstruct the sequence of events and catch the perpetrator, who is still hiding somewhere in the park. Because nothing says “fun” like a killer on the loose.

To create the game, The Atlantic worked with Lemony Snicket to develop the cast of suspicious and dubious characters, dialogue, and plot. The Atlantic then trained an LLM for each character based on their unique dialogue, motives, and background - so players can interrogate them directly, rather than just reading about their shifty behavior. The game is illustrated by Eisner Award - winning comic artist Michael Kupperman, ensuring the suspects look appropriately dubious.

This launch follows last year’s introduction of The Atlantic’s Games Hub, a destination for puzzles and play on TheAtlantic.com and in the app, which debuted with the popular word puzzle Bracket City. All Atlantic games are playable for the public, with full archives available for subscribers. Because after you’ve solved one murder, you might want to solve another.