Background, responsibilities & credited work
The person behind the casework
Karan Hamilton is a puzzle designer, game tester and player-experience contributor across the Hamilton Digital Media puzzle network. A co-founder of Sudoku Online Puzzles, she helps shape ideas, instructions and the practical details that determine whether a puzzle feels clear, fair and worth returning to.
On Detective Puzzles, Karan reviews a case from the player’s side of the desk. She tests whether the first move is understandable, whether a clue says what the engine expects, whether a difficulty label feels honest and whether the final accusation follows cleanly from the evidence.
Her interest in strategy and family games grew through game nights and rule-driven classics such as Risk and Stratego. That background feeds into new concepts that combine familiar play with an original deduction layer—Dedoku, a mystery clue game crossed with Sudoku-style restrictions, is one example.
A puzzle can be technically correct and still be awkward to play. Karan’s role is often to catch that gap: improving wording, testing the route through a case and asking the questions a first-time player is likely to ask.
Assigned responsibilities
What Karan brings to Detective Puzzles
Puzzle ideas and game feel
Helps judge whether a concept is understandable, distinctive and satisfying after the first novelty has worn off.
Player testing
Works through cases as a real solver, looking for unclear rules, unintended assumptions and difficulty that does not feel fair.
Instructions and wording
Reviews clue language, labels and explanations so a new player can see how to begin without losing the pleasure of discovery.
Family-friendly cases
Helps keep the mysteries inviting and suitable for mixed ages while preserving enough depth for regular puzzle solvers.
Notes from the desk
How the work is judged
- 01
A puzzle should feel inviting before it asks the player to do something difficult.
- 02
Instructions should make the first move possible without solving the whole case for the player.
- 03
Testing must catch confusion and misleading expectations as well as technical bugs.
- 04
A fair mystery gives beginners and experienced solvers the same complete set of evidence, even if they use it differently.
Work on this site
Case credits
Detective Word Search
Clue clarity, staged case flow, family-friendly language and overall playability.
→Testing & reviewDetective Crosswords
Alibi clarity, evidence instructions, difficulty feel and player-facing case language.
→Design & writingDetective Puzzle Guide
Co-developed the player-first solving advice and standards described across the site.
→Brian Hamilton
Puzzle site creator, web developer and publisher
Publisher & contact
Part of the same puzzle network.
Detective Puzzles is published by Hamilton Digital Media Limited alongside a wider portfolio of puzzle websites, games and books.