CrimeFiles

CrimeFiles is an interactive detective game designed to run as a recurring event. The concept is to provide players with one new case every month. Each case remains active for 7 days, during which players investigate, interrogate suspects, and unlock clues. At the end of the 7-day period, the identity of the killer is automatically revealed using blocklock technology. Blocklock encrypts the real killer for a specified amount of time and only decrypts after the time (block number) has passed. The blocklock contract has already been written and committed in the repository and is part of the roadmap. For the demo, the priority is to show how the game runs end-to-end. Blocklock integration on Polygon inspiration taken from here: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/28/3089389/0/en/Randamu-s-dcipher-Launches-on-Polygon-Unlocking-Scalable-Conditional-Encryption-for-Web3-Developers.html

When a new case begins, players are presented with a detailed background story, a timeline of events, and multiple suspects to investigate. Each suspect is powered by ASI agents that allow for interactive conversations. Players can both read and listen to the suspects’ responses, which creates a more immersive interrogation experience. The goal is to analyze the information, connect the dots, and figure out who the killer is before the case closes.

Hints and clues are an important part of progressing through the case. Currently, all hints are unlocked only through micropayments, enabled by Polygon in combination with x402. This gives players the choice of investing small amounts to gain quicker access to investigative advantages. These payments also form part of the economic loop of the game.

Before entering the flow of the case, the system uses self xyz to verify players. This process restricts access to anyone younger than 18, blocks participants from disallowed regions, and helps filter out bots to keep the player base fair and compliant.

As players investigate and reach their conclusions, they can lock in their final verdict by voting on the suspect they believe is guilty. For now, all fees collected through entry and hints are directed to the project’s account with the help of x402. After the case ends and the killer is revealed, rewards are distributed to the winners from this pool.

In short, CrimeFiles is structured as a series of timed, story-driven cases. Players dive into immersive AI-powered interrogations, purchase clues when needed, and compete to correctly identify the killer before the case concludes. With one new case every month, the game is designed to create a cycle of fresh, time-limited challenges for players to return to regularly.

CrimeFiles is built as a mix of onchain and offchain components and shows how a detective game can be run transparently with blockchain-backed economics. The frontend is built with Next.js and integrates wallet connectivity through RainbowKit and Wagmi, which makes it easy for players to join the game using their preferred wallet. Self Protocol is used right at the start to verify that players meet the required compliance rules, like being over 18, not coming from excluded regions, and helping filter out bots. This ensures the player base remains fair and compliant before the game begins.

The suspect interactions are powered by Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (using uAgents and Metta), which provides agent orchestration and rule-based reasoning. This setup allows each suspect to stay consistent with their personality and backstory while producing structured outputs like Leads and a Consistency score. The deterministic reasoning via Metta rules complements the dynamic ASI LLM responses, ensuring both reliability and depth in conversations. Chat history is managed through a SQLite database, which remains lightweight and efficient for fast reads and writes.

For the payments layer, we used Polygon along with x402. This lets us build trust-minimized micropayments into the game, so players pay small amounts for things like unlocking hints, paying the entry fee, or locking in their final verdict. x402 was especially helpful here because it handles the seller side middleware, facilitates payments directly from the player’s wallet. the fees collected from players is then sent into a pool which is then distributed among the winners.

On the blockchain side, we used Blocklock, a smart contract that enables time-locked reveals of case outcomes. The contract is already written and included in the repository, and is part of the roadmap for future versions of the game. For the demo, the main focus was to show the complete end-to-end flow of playing a case.

Altogether, the project brings together AI for suspect realism, micropayments through Polygon and x402, and verification for compliance. The integration of Polygon, x402, and ASI was essential to creating the smooth flow of the game: ASI ensures suspects feel alive and consistent, x402 handles frictionless micropayments for actions like entry and hints, and Polygon provides the underlying settlement layer. This combination allowed us to design a detective experience where players can naturally move from verifying their eligibility, to investigating suspects, to unlocking hints and submitting their verdicts — all without breaking immersion. In short, CrimeFiles integrates multiple partner technologies into one cohesive system that makes the mystery-solving experience both fluid and engaging.