Crafting Crimes

Crafting Crimes - Episode 2: The Wonderland Murders
Crafting Crimes - Episode 2: The Wonderland Murders
Crafting Crimes - Episode 2: The Wonderland Murders
Crafting Crimes - Episode 2: The Wonderland Murders
Crafting Crimes - Episode 2: The Wonderland Murders

A TRUE CRIME PODCAST, REIMAGINED IN MIXED REALITY.

True crime is the most popular non-fiction genre across all media—TV, podcasts, series, and more. We wanted to bring it into the immersive space without crossing into graphic territory.

The breakthrough came with the idea of combining miniature worlds with true crime, inspired by Frances Glessner Lee, the ‘mother of forensic science,’ who built crime scene dioramas to study violence at a distance. Pairing the genre with dollhouse-like miniatures felt like the perfect way to make these stories immersive, thought-provoking, and respectful.

TURNING LISTENERS INTO INVESTIGATORS.

Crafting Crimes is the first immersive podcast blending true crime with interactive model-making. Each episode, hosted by miniaturist Carol Rasaphangthong, invites audiences to rebuild infamous cases in mixed-reality.

In each 20-minute episode, you place walls and furniture, with natural, intuitive hand-tracking gestures. The crime scene materializes in your hands, drawing you deeper into the story with every detail and letting you explore the investigation at your own pace.

Borrowing the episodic structure, voiceovers, and investigative pacing of podcasts, the experience invites users not only to listen but to build — turning them from passive listeners into active participants.

A MULTIMEDIA INTERACTION-DRIVEN STORY.

The project began with the writing of three pilot episodes spanning radically different worlds—from Victorian-era murders to 1980s drug-gang disputes, and the audacious theft of the Mona Lisa—to gauge audience interest.

To anchor the project in the podcast world, we cast Carol Rasaphangthong — a BuzzFeed viral miniaturist who has captivated millions — as the host of the series. Carol was filmed on set, and her handcrafted models were 3D-scanned to provide the foundation for high-fidelity digital twins.

Built entirely in Unity and optimized for the Meta Quest 3 family, Crafting Crimes was designed as a frictionless, snackable immersive format in mixed-reality, simple to enter and rooted in the tactile pleasure of constructing miniature crime scenes.

Interactions in Crafting Crimes are designed to be natural, intuitive, and emotionally engaging. All actions are performed using hand tracking only allowing for a seamless and tactile connection between the player and the narrative world.

To bring to life the crafty influence of the experience, the experience blends 2D and 3D workspaces in mixed reality :

The 2D media area — a virtual screen displaying all 2D content, including Carol’s to-camera host segments, crafting-technique videos, and archival materials telling the murder mystery story.
The 3D workspace area — a crafting workbench where miniature scenes are assembled. Models can be freely manipulated and inspected in full 360°, allowing players to explore the scene as they build it.

The player’s interactions, combined with TARGO’s award-winning documentary storytelling, gradually bring the maquette to life, allowing the player to reconstruct the timeline and feel emotionally connected to the unfolding mystery.

INTUITIVE, TACTILE HAND TRACKING.

Hand-tracking was our biggest challenge and ultimately our biggest win. It introduced unique UX constraints, and its demands for precision and gesture consistency pushed us to refine every interaction. It quickly became the defining feature of the experience — transforming true crime from a story you hear into a scene you build.

Miniature model-making proved to be an intuitive, playful, and universally accessible entry point into immersive media, allowing users to engage with investigations through simple, tactile actions. In the end, we created a strong, innovative, new hybrid format that blends audio storytelling, model-making, and mixed reality into a seamless and deeply engaging experience.

POSITIONING CRAFTING CRIMES FOR THE RIGHT AUDIENCE.

Non-gaming entertainment for Quest has traditionnally had a hard time competing against games, users always expecting a higher level of interactivity, giving a 1-star review and commenting "this is not a game".

By presenting the show as an immersive podcast, we have been able to set the right expectations from users.

Being able to reach 4.6/5 ratings on the store over 100+ ratings is a testimony to this perfect match between our audience and the content.

WHAT’S COMING NEXT: MORE IMMERSION, MORE ENGAGEMENT.

Our short-term roadmap includes two major updates designed to deepen immersion and player engagement:

1. Developing a Free Exploration Mode

As a reward, players will unlock a Free Exploration Mode that lets them roam through the entire miniature world — from a bird’s-eye view down to a first-person scale.

2. Implementing a Voting System

In the coming weeks, we will introduce a community voting system that allows players to choose the next case from a curated selection.

AN EVER-EXPANDING FREEMIUM WORLD.

Our vision is to turn 'Crafting Crimes' into the go-to app for true crime experiences on Quest. The launch of the first episodes introduces audiences to a world where true crime meets miniature model-making, laying the foundation for a long-term storytelling universe.

Our next step is to evolve Crafting Crimes into a full game series, expanding the experience into a richer, more replayable, and deeply interactive world. Early audiences have responded enthusiastically to the tactile, investigative nature of the concept — and they want more: more cases, more miniature worlds to uncover and build.

We aim to create an ever-expanding freemium universe, with new episodes, crime scenes, and model-making challenges released on a regular basis.