The game follows TV actress-turned-detective Honor Mizrahi and her robot companion SCOUT as they find themselves involved in several murder cases.

Presented in a visual novel style, similar to the Ace Attorney series, players are tasked with questioning witnesses and suspects and investigating areas for clues.

Investigating brings up nonogram puzzles, which the player must solve to uncover a piece of evidence, which can then be presented to witnesses to advance the story.

Some sections will require the player to complete a series of smaller nonogram puzzles within a time limit and without using "empty space" markers or hints.

[5][6] Murder by Numbers was generally well received by critics on both platforms, according to review aggregator Metacritic,[7][8] and Polygon included it in their feature on the best video games of 2020.