Clues by Sam: daily other game

Clues by Sam is a daily deduction puzzle where you sort a grid of named suspects into the innocent and the criminal. Every clue you read is truthful, even the ones that come from criminals, and each solved suspect hands you the next clue to follow. The signature rule is that you never guess: the game only lets you make a move once it is logically certain.

What is Clues by Sam?

The core of the game is a grid of named suspects, laid out as four columns and five rows for twenty suspects in all. One suspect starts pre-marked with a first clue printed beneath their name, and following that clue lets you work out the status of the next suspect. That suspect then reveals a clue of their own, which points you toward the next deduction, and so the chain rolls forward across the whole board. You tap a suspect to mark them innocent or criminal, reading each new clue as it unlocks and using the truthful statements to eliminate possibilities one step at a time.

What sets Clues by Sam apart from most daily puzzles is the anti-guessing constraint. Wordle and its many relatives reward informed guessing, but here a behind-the-scenes constraint solver blocks any move that is not a forced deduction. As the site puts it, you cannot convict someone on a fifty-fifty hunch, so there is always a next step you can prove. A dead end is therefore a signal that you misread a clue rather than a flaw in the puzzle. A further twist is that even criminals always tell the truth, so a clue is reliable no matter who it comes from.

The game is the work of Johannes Ahvenniemi, a Finnish game designer, released under his studio Ad Artis Oy. Sam is not his real name: it is a short, friendly, gender-neutral pen name he adopted for his games, and the puzzles are credited on the site as by Sam. It launched as a daily puzzle in May 2025 and runs on a weekly rhythm, with a fresh puzzle each day from Monday through Sunday and difficulty building as the week goes on.

When you finish, the game reports your solve time and where you land against other solvers, with percentile rankings such as top one, five, ten, twenty-five, and fifty percent. You can share your result as text or as an image, with green, yellow, and orange emoji squares and circles standing in for the states of the board and for whether you used hints. Helper features keep the tracking manageable: spent clues dim once used, each card can take a color tag for holding a hypothesis, and any profession or name a clue mentions is auto-highlighted so you can spot the relevant suspects. There is also a two-stage hint system and an inspect option that clarifies clue terminology. The game is free to play, with optional paid Puzzle Packs and a newsletter that sends bonus weekly puzzles.

How to play Clues by Sam

Open Clues by Sam at cluesbysam.com to load the day's puzzle.
Find the suspect who starts pre-marked and read the first clue printed beneath their name.
Follow that clue to determine the next suspect, then tap them to mark them innocent or criminal.
Read the new clue that suspect reveals and use it to chain forward to the next deduction.
Rely only on logically certain moves, since the game blocks any choice that is not forced.
Continue until every suspect is sorted, then view your ranking and share the result.

Tips and strategy

Treat every clue as true, including clues attached to criminals, so you never need to second-guess a statement.
If you feel stuck, the answer is always provable: reread the clues rather than guessing, because the game will not let you make an uncertain move.
Use the per-card color tags to hold a hypothesis about a suspect while you test the clues that would confirm or break it.
Watch for the auto-highlighting of professions and names a clue mentions, which quickly narrows down which suspects a clue is talking about.
Dimmed clues have already been spent, so focus your attention on the ones still active.
Earlier weekday puzzles are gentler than later ones, so use Monday and Tuesday to get comfortable before the harder end of the week.

Good to know

Category: Logic and deduction
Board: Grid of twenty suspects, four columns by five rows
Resets: Daily, on a Monday to Sunday weekly cycle
Cost: Free, with optional paid Puzzle Packs
Guesses: No guessing: only logically forced moves are allowed
Modes: Single daily puzzle with weekly difficulty progression
Archive: Ongoing and previous week's puzzles, login-gated
Creator: Johannes Ahvenniemi (Ad Artis Oy)
Launched: May 2025
Feedback: Solve time and percentile rankings, plus text and image sharing

Clues by Sam FAQ

Is Clues by Sam free?

Yes, it is free to play. There are optional paid Puzzle Packs and a newsletter that sends bonus weekly puzzles, but the daily puzzle costs nothing.

How do you play Clues by Sam?

You work a grid of twenty named suspects, starting from one pre-marked suspect and their first clue. Following each truthful clue lets you identify the next suspect and mark them innocent or criminal, chaining deductions forward until the whole board is sorted.

When does Clues by Sam reset, and is there an archive?

A new puzzle arrives daily on a Monday to Sunday cycle that grows harder as the week goes on. Logging in lets you access the ongoing and previous week's puzzles.

Is Clues by Sam like Wordle?

It is a daily puzzle like Wordle, but it works the opposite way on guessing. Wordle rewards informed guesses, while Clues by Sam blocks any move that is not a logically forced deduction, so every puzzle is solvable by pure reasoning.

Who made Clues by Sam?

It was made by Johannes Ahvenniemi, a Finnish game designer, under his studio Ad Artis Oy. Sam is not his real name but a short, gender-neutral pen name, and the puzzles are credited on the site as by Sam.