A detective mystery
HOLMES ABROAD
six cities · nine cases · one detective
Investigate the cases Sherlock Holmes left to you, on the actual streets of 1890s Vienna, Copenhagen, Amsterdam — or from your armchair anywhere in the world.
Coming to iOS — and later Android
What it is
A single-player detective game, built around the rhythms of the classic Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective tabletop format. Each case begins with a knock at your hotel door, a sealed letter from Holmes, and a city the size of an investigation.
You walk — physically, or in your imagination — to thirty or more real addresses in a real European city. You interview characters you find there. You assemble a case from what you choose to examine. At the end, you submit your answers, and Holmes, from Baker Street, narrates his own conclusions in five acts so you can measure your investigation against his.
Holmes solves the case in twelve to fifteen locations. You will almost certainly walk further. The score is the difference.
How it plays
Afoot mode
Go to the actual city. The app uses your GPS to unlock locations as you arrive on the cobblestones. Vienna, Copenhagen, Amsterdam — each case maps onto its real streets within a single walkable district.
Armchair mode
Stay home. Travel through the city by tapping its pins. Every location's narration, ambient sound, and clue is identical to the Afoot version. No GPS required.
Audio-led
Cases are narrated by a Holmesian voice over period soundscapes — gas lamps hissing, hansom cabs on cobblestones, harbour ice cracking. Plays in your ears as you walk, or quietly through your phone at home.
The slate
Vienna · Austria
Habsburg Empire · 1890sImperial twilight. Coffee, opera, and conspiracy under the Hofburg.
The Von Ehrenstein Affair
The Copyist's Hand
The Soprano's Understudy
Copenhagen · Denmark
Late Provisional Era · 1890sProvisional rule ending. Old ministries, ice on the harbour, the smell of jenever and coal.
The Provisionist
The Sanatorium at Ordrup
The Icebreaker
Amsterdam · Netherlands
Dutch Belle Époque · 1890sOld canal money in decline. Diamonds, jenever, and inheritance papers behind every facade.
The Cutter's Weight
The Lector's Voice
The Canal Bride
Prague · Bohemia
Czech Revival · 1890sA city of astronomers, alchemists, and golems — and the Habsburg crown that watches it.
Berlin · German Empire
Wilhelmine Era · 1890sBismarck gone, the Kaiser ascendant. Iron, Reichstag, and Junker dinners that don't quite end.
Venice · Italy
Fin de Siècle · 1890sCarnival masks, lagoon mist, and the first Biennale arriving with the foreign painters.
Privacy in plain English
Holmes Abroad collects nothing about you. No accounts. No analytics. No advertising. No tracking. No backend we operate.
Your game progress lives on your phone only. Your purchases are processed by Apple or Google — we never see your card details, name, or address. Your location, in Afoot mode, is checked on-device and discarded; we don't even know which city you played in.
The full version is here: Privacy policy →