Our First Birthday

Continuing on from last week, John and Andrew dive into the four expansions to the Rise of the Golden Idol. These juicy cases provide about the base game again worth of cases, with lots of head scratchers and a good variety of puzzle types. We talk about our favorites, which bits we didn’t like, and the limits of the UI.Spoiler zone: 6:55 to 41:53Game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2716400/The_Rise_of_the_Golden_Idol/Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

We are back to the classics, with The Rise of the Golden Idol base game. Andrew and John dive into this sequel, talking about what’s new, what’s the same, and where our tastes differ. This deduction classic offers a heap of new cases, characters, and deaths to unravel. We really enjoy this one, and think you should try the demo if you have any level of interest for it!Spoiler zone: 14:25 to 38:20Game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2716400/The_Rise_of_the_Golden_Idol/Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Today we delve into the case of The Incident at Galley House. This 2026 game from William Rous and Evil Trout is the voice acted and graphical interface adaptation of William Rous’ 2025 Type Help. This mystery has you uncovering the events surrounding a mansion where everyone dies, and you have to piece together what happened scene by scene. Type Help was the first timeline mystery, and this is the most approachable one yet! We really enjoyed it, with John keeping true to form and staying up all night.We received free press copies of the game ahead of release from the developers.Spoiler zone: 11:00 - 30:27The Incident at Halley House: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3641000/The_Incident_at_Galley_House/Type Help: https://william-rous.itch.io/type-helpDiscuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Today John and Andrew buckle up for a double header of Archive Dives: “A Hand with Many Fingers” and “Another Night at the Archive.” Both games are all about combing through archives to solve a mystery, but have different systems, and different ways of presenting the problem. We compare and contrast the games both before and after spoilers.Spoiler zone: 18:05 - 25:55A Hand with Many Fingers: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229030/A_Hand_With_Many_Fingers/Another Night at the Archive: https://korbohned.itch.io/another-night-at-the-archiveDiscuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Today we take a break to reflect on our first full year of podcasting, with a focus on everything besides the games. What went well, what we want for the future, and some random revelations.Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

John and Andrew change things up with a reverse detective game today! After committing a crime, we have to cover our tracks in Overboard!, from Inkle studios. This time loop game has you running around a ship, ferritin out other passengers secrets and using those to escape your crime. We also discuss the GDC talk given by Jon Ingold after the release of the game, where he talks about detective game storytelling in general, and Overboard specifically. Spoiler zone: 15:15 - 27:40Game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1546920/Overboard/Jon Ingold ’s 2022 GDC talk:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--3meejDM-U Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Andrew and John take a trip to the south west Pacific in 1941 with The Red Pearls of Borneo, from Bushmonkey Games. We talk about this timeline mystery in a superb historical setting on a plantation in Borneo 1941. You uncover the timeline of what occurred on that fateful day, with local and world events converging. Two additional stories let you follow the characters to the next part of their stories as well. We enjoyed talking about this game, and look forward to the next game, Green Mist over Portland.Spoiler zone: 15:15 - 27:40Game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4488860/The_Red_Pearls_Of_Borneo/Bushmonkey’s previous game What Happened to the Crew:https://bushmonkey.itch.io/what-happened-to-the-crewBushmonkey’s Upcoming game Green Mist Over Portland:https://store.steampowered.com/app/4727340/Green_Mist_over_Portland_Demo/?curator_clanid=46017011Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Today Andrew and John get cozy with Little Problems, the 2025 game from Posh Cat Studios. This cozy detective game utilizes the Golden Idol formula of dioramas with mad-libs style sections to fill in, but offers some interesting variations and innovation that caught our attention. We also chat a bit about cozy crime in general after the spoiler zone.Spoiler zone: 8:00 - 18:15Game on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2653470/Little_Problems_A_Cozy_Detective_Game/Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Andrew and John lay out their best de-duck-tions with Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, Happy Broccoli's 2025 sequel to The Secret Salami. The second game continues the misadventures of Eugene McQuacklin into another series of crimes to be investigated. More wacky characters populate this bite sized adventure, which hides some serious deducting behind the cute cast.Spoiler zone: 8:00 - 25:34Game on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2714620/Duck_Detective_The_Ghost_of_Glamping/Since we recorded, Happy Broccoli Games announced their next project: Apple Crumble! https://store.steampowered.com/app/4110770/Apple_Crumble/?curator_clanid=35570796Discuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music

Jeremy Johnston and Robin Ward of The Roottrees are Dead, and soon The Incident at Galley House join Andrew and John for our first developer Interview. We discuss their work on the Itch version of Roottrees, the Steam version, and what they are doing next!General Roottree Discussion 0:00- 57:40Spoiler Roottree Discussion 57:40 - 1:23:50The Incident at Galley House talk 1:23:50 - 1:34:40The incident at Galley House releases on July 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3641000/The_Incident_at_Galley_House/Obra Dinn Developer commentary video:https://youtu.be/90vqCKEEj3s?si=pcCKh1bsxjJsImbhMentour Pilot’s Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@MentourPilotUniversal Hint System’s sitehttps://www.uhs-hints.com/The Roottrees on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The_Roottrees_are_Dead/Eviltrout’s website and Socialshttps://eviltrout.com/https://bsky.app/profile/eviltrout.comDiscuss this episode or any other detective games on our Discord: https://discord.gg/j5JrCZyAHQPodcast edited by Peter CrevierPodcast art by Lalita Gross https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalitagrossMusic by Atonic Music https://soundcloud.com/atonic-music