We make Unsealed, so it's first. For each of the others there's a line on how it compares to SIMULACRA.
The list-
Unsealed: Cold Case Detective
Seven cases, 8 to 75 minutesIn 9 languages, German includedFree, hints with keys, no adsLike SIMULACRA, the whole case is one phone you were never meant to see. Unlike it, there's no horror: a client messages you, asks questions as you dig, and you answer with what you actually found. Seven cases, from a ten-minute first one to a hotel mystery that runs past an hour.
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Sara is Missing
by Kaigan GamesFreeIn German: NoWhole phoneKaigan's first found-phone game and the blueprint for SIMULACRA: one missing woman, her phone, and files you have to unlock to get anywhere. It's short and free, so it's the obvious next step if you finished the series and want to see where it started.
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Her Story
by Sam BarlowPaidIn German: NoVideo databaseSwap the phone for a 1990s police computer full of interview clips, and the feeling is the same as in SIMULACRA: you only see fragments and you build the story in your own head. It is all live-action video too, which makes it the nearest relative in tone.
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Telling Lies
by Annapurna GamesPaidIn German: NoVideo databaseHer Story's larger successor. Instead of one suspect you watch four people through secretly recorded video calls, jumping between clips by searching for words they say. Slower than SIMULACRA and much longer, for when you want one game to last a week of evenings.
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Duskwood - Detective Story
by EverbyteFreeIn German: YesChatIf what you liked in SIMULACRA was talking to the missing person's friends, Duskwood is built entirely around that. The whole investigation happens in a group chat, the friends react to what you tell them, and the story runs over several episodes.
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ColdTrace: Cold Case Mystery
by Saclic StudioFreeIn German: YesWhole phoneTakes SIMULACRA's phone-as-crime-scene idea and drops the supernatural. You get a dead stranger's phone, a death the police closed as an accident, and a timeline to rebuild from texts, photos, notes and voicemails.
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Stalkie · Mobile Detective
by Gregoire CollinFreeIn German: YesWhole phoneWhere SIMULACRA tells one long story, Stalkie gives you a series of shorter cases, each on its own invented phone. Good if you want the same digging without committing to a whole night.
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Suspects: Mobile Detective
by Bonus RoundFreeIn German: NoChatCloser to watching a crime drama than searching a phone: the story moves between several characters' chats, photos, videos and voice notes, and you follow it as it happens.
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An Elmwood Trail
by Sparsh TyagiFreeIn German: NoChatA missing-teenager story like SIMULACRA's, told mostly in chat with a detective rather than through the victim's phone. Huge on the App Store, and a good fit if the conversations were your favourite part.
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Peek a Phone
by FaintLinesFreeIn German: NoWhole phoneThe opposite of a long horror story: short missions, each on someone else's phone, solved in a few minutes. Works as a palate cleanser between the bigger games.