By Giga Beruashvili for Investor.ge
When a group of friends created Damnashavis Logika (A Criminal’s Logic) as a class assignment, they had no idea it would turn into a successful startup that inspired spinoff games and a new generation of mystery fans.
The game, which empowers players to take on the role of detective, forensic scientist and prosecutor to solve a mystery, has tapped into Georgians’ growing love for board games.
“Board games have this ability to unite people and take them out of the virtual world,” notes Mariam Buadze, who created the game in 2022 with her five GIPA classmates—Anano Chikhladze, Anuki Shatakishvili, Mariam Khukhunashvili, Mariam Lazaria and Nuka Koridze.
“They bring people together for hours at a time, and it’s a great bonding opportunity as well.”
Even though no one on the team was a hardcore game lover, they found themselves drawn to the idea the more they thought about it. The assignment had to be something physical, and they wanted to create something that connected people in real life, not online.
As a child, Mariam always loved playing classic board games, like Monopoly and its Georgian counterpart, Manager. Soon the team found they shared an interest in mysteries, too.
Once they decided to integrate this shared love for mystery and make the game about being a detective, they quickly determined there was a gap in the board game market in Georgia. There is little available statistical data on companies developing Georgian language board games. Globally, the board games industry is growing and is expected to be worth $12 billion by 2028, according to the Global Board Game Market Overview 2024-2028.
Creating a new world
Each A Criminal’s Logic game comes with a criminal (mostly murder) case, and can be played by one or multiple players. The box contains everything needed to solve the crime: suspect photos, witness testimonials, map of the crime, fingerprints, evidence, etc. To win the game, players have to solve the case. Each game includes a QR code to check if the solution was correct.
The learning curve was steep for the team as they developed the game. No one had any experience with law enforcement or criminal law, so they mined their social networks and families for professional contacts to sound out ideas and give them tips. The first production also coincided with the pandemic, so searching for supplies and printers was complicated—as was making sure they could generate ₾1000 in income from the first batch, one of the stipulations of their assignment, with their initial budget being just ₾750.
For the first batch, they decided to create 50 units for the price of 39 Lari a piece, so they could recover their costs. The batch sold out in the first couple of days.
The first sense they got of success was when they started to hear from satisfied customers on social media. Parents would write how happy they were that their children were off their phones. Players would rave about being fully captivated by the game, excited by the chance to “be Sherlock Holmes.”
Since the group was still in college, they weren’t sure it was worth continuing—until they saw the demand when they presented their board game at the Caravan, a small business promoting event in Tbilisi. “We have no idea how we even ended up there, to be honest,” Buadze says. “We were running on fumes in terms of our product stock, and we had only half of the stall filled, but we were there.” That led to a feature article on them in a TBC Bank publication about startups.
“We realized that this wasn’t just homework anymore, and that what we were doing mattered,” Anano says. “People have told us that playing our game has helped them pick their future professions, that they’ve found themselves, which is reason enough to do this.”
A Criminal’s Logic has been on the market for more than two years now, which is evidence in itself of its success. “Despite the fact that we’re still newcomers on the market, and, judging by our social media analytics, we’re not household names yet, everywhere we go we meet people who have heard of our game,” notes teammate Anuki Shatakishvili.
Globally, the board games industry is growing and is expected to be worth $12 billion by 2028, according to the Global Board Game Market Overview 2024-2028
The games can be purchased online, and most sales are through social media. In person events, like Caravan are great for the startup. “When the games are presented physically on market stalls, the sales are significantly higher comparable to online sales when our content goes viral on social media platforms like Tiktok,” Mariam explains. “There have been days when we’ve sold up to 120 units when they were displayed at live markets.”
Today, A Criminal’s Logic is on its fourth series, and preparing for the fifth edition. The case ideas are very loosely based on real life criminal cases, movies and documentaries, as well as the team members’ imaginations. “When we start working on the case, we’re like ‘I have this idea, let’s see how this works out’ and then we all work around it, making it up as we go, and making sure it all makes sense,” Anano says.
The creation of each case is always the same process as the first: research, research and more research. Even though the concept of the game is roughly based on the American “Unsolved Cases,” they had to completely remake the concept based on Georgian laws, customs and practices. As a result, the team constantly relies on law student friends, relatives in the medical field, parents and other acquaintances who work in law enforcement, medicine and forensics, for help.
Today, the team is developing a new, different game to address fans’ complaint that A Criminal’s Logic can only be played once. The Secret 187 will be a more classic board game experience, inspired by “Mafia” type games, but defined by the style the team has developed across its four A Criminal’s Logic games.
The experience has been complicated by the fact that everyone on the team has graduated and is developing their own careers, although they remain committed to building their gaming company. Co-founder Mariam Buadze notes that through A Criminal’s Logic, each member has developed new skills and interests. For instance, she built the website for the game herself, while teammate Anano became the de facto graphic designer for the game—an experience that inspired her to think about it as a potential profession.
“This business nudged us in different directions and helped us see what we wanted to do in the future, for our professions,” she says.
Teammate Anuki Shatakishvili adds, “If we could do this, what can’t we do?”
By Giga Beruashvili for Investor.ge
