If you've spent any time looking through Amazon's puzzle-book listings, you've probably noticed the problem. There are endless word searches, sudoku books and variations of the same ideas. People still buy puzzle books, but publishing another version of something they've already seen hundreds of times makes it much harder to stand out. At that point you're relying heavily on the cover, the price and your keywords.

That's what caught my attention with Shigai Royalty from Ike Paz and Luke Bowes. It creates Murdoku-style mystery logic puzzles. You still get the deduction side of a logic puzzle, but there's a murder-mystery wrapped around it. I reviewed their Kuro Nazo whodunit software earlier this year, and some of my readers went on to publish books with it. So when I saw what they were doing with Shigai, I wanted to get inside it and see whether it was actually different or just another puzzle generator with a new name.

The Mechanic: How A Murdoku Puzzle Actually Works

Before getting into the software, the puzzle itself needs a quick explanation. Imagine a mansion laid out as a grid. There are suspects, rooms and a list of clues. Every clue is a true statement, so the player works through them and figures out where each person belongs. One room contains the victim. Once everybody has been placed correctly, the person left alone with the victim is the killer.

I also wouldn't brush past the single-solution verification. If a logic puzzle has two possible answers, readers will find it. And if you've published a whole book full of generated puzzles, checking every one manually isn't realistic. Shigai checks the puzzle logic for you, which removes one of the bigger risks with this type of software.

What Exactly Is Shigai Royalty?

Shigai Royalty runs in the browser, so there's nothing to install. You choose the difficulty, grid size, cast and scenario, then the software generates the puzzle, clues, hints and the step-by-step solution. There's also a KDP page designer and bulk generation, so you can build a complete book instead of creating every page separately.

The $19 front end includes 5 difficulty levels, with Dragon 🐉 at the top, and grid sizes from 6×6 to 16×16. You can create custom casts, upload photos, change the rooms and choose between Murder Mystery and Heist scenarios. PNG exports are unlimited and PDF exports are capped at 100 per month on this level.

One feature I think is easy to overlook is the custom cast. You can upload photos and use real people as the suspects. That gives you another angle beyond ordinary puzzle books: personalised whodunits for birthdays, families, groups or gifts. I would definitely test that rather than only pumping out generic KDP titles.

Two Income Rails From One Tool

Another thing I wouldn't limit this to is Amazon. The same puzzles can be packaged for two different types of customer:

I like having both options because you're not tying the entire idea to one marketplace. A puzzle you create for a paperback can also become part of a printable pack.

How It Works — 3 Simple Steps

A Closer Look At What's Inside

The Offer — What Each Tier Adds

There are four products in the funnel. You can use the $19 front end on its own, so you don't have to buy every upgrade. Here's what changes as you move through the funnel:

I would start with the $19 version and actually make something with it. If you find yourself hitting the PDF limit or wanting the extra variants, then PRO becomes easier to justify. ELITE is harder to justify for a beginner at $187. Genten is really a separate decision based on whether you want to enter the education market.

My Real Take

I've published 37+ books on KDP, and the question I keep coming back to with these generators is simple: would I have a reason to click this book instead of the ten similar books around it? A lot of low-content software just helps you produce more of the same material that's already everywhere. Shigai has a better chance of standing out because the puzzle format itself is different. You're solving a logic puzzle, but you're also trying to identify a killer. That's more interesting to me than another batch of word searches.

I also have some history with the vendors. I covered Kuro Nazo earlier this year and I've seen readers of mine use it to publish. Their communities contain posts from members sharing royalty dashboards and their own results. Those screenshots are worth looking at, but I wouldn't treat them as a prediction of what you're going to earn. They're individual results. Buying software doesn't create royalties by itself; you still have to choose sensible topics, publish good books and keep at it.

The main weakness I see isn't really in the puzzle generator. It's what happens before you use it. Shigai can create the book, but it doesn't tell you whether the topic you're about to target has enough demand or whether the competition is too strong. You can still build the wrong book very efficiently. That's the reason I paired this offer with Diorasis, my own KDP research toolkit.

What Could Be Better

Who Should (And Shouldn't) Get This

My Bottom Line

After going through Shigai Royalty, I think the $19 front end is good value for someone who already wants to publish puzzle books. The strongest part is the Murdoku format itself. It gives you something noticeably different from another word-search or sudoku interior, and the built-in verification is important if you're going to generate puzzles in volume. I also like that the output isn't locked to KDP; you can reuse the same work for printables. I wouldn't buy it expecting automatic royalties, and I wouldn't jump straight into the expensive upgrades. But as a puzzle-creation tool, there's enough here on the front end for me to recommend testing it.