you're a detective, and a frog, and it's time to solve a mystery. also there's a wizard.

game title: frog detective #2: the case of the invisible wizard
​developed by: grace bruxner and thomas bowker
published by: worm club
game trailer: watch the trailer
release date: december 2019
genre: short, simple, point-and-click, comedy, mystery
platform(s): steam
player(s): single-player
for fans of: ooblets, lil gator game, phogs

This sequel gave me more of what I loved about the first frog detective game and added a bit more gameplay variety. For instance, now Frog Detective gets to carry around his own handy dandy notebook. This allows the player to keep track of what they learn about each animal as they are questioned and to see what items they are currently carrying in their inventory. I thought it was hilarious that I could even mark animals as “suspicious”, stamping a giant purple label over their profile photo in my notes.

​The witty dialogue humor kept me fully entertained for the duration of this bite-sized mystery and I’m looking forward to helping frog detective solve his next case soon!

When an invisible wizard moves into town, the villagers of Warlock Woods decide to throw the wizard a welcome parade! Unfortunately, someone trashes all of the parade preparations in the middle of the night so it’s up to Frog Detective to figure out whodunnit!

If you’re someone like me who doesn’t particularly love being jumpscared to death in games but still enjoys creepy stories and atmospheres, this is the perfect “spooky, not scary” game to play when October rolls around.

The entire world for this game was limited to a few self-contained locations. I really appreciated that this time we got a glimpse into the detective agency where Frog Detective works. The majority of this game takes place in a forest town called Warlock Woods, a place inhabited by a handful of animals.

The residents live in a quaint cul-de-sac surrounded by gloomy pine trees. breaking up the monotony of homes is a general store, owned and operated by a zebra that lives in town. The general store was actually one of my favorite things about the village since it contained a number of throwback items from the first game, like the smiling starfish you see on the island beaches.

​The same jazzy soundtrack from the first game was back, so you can expect to hear the same laid-back sleuthing tunes that you may be familiar with.

The characters I met in Frog Detective #2 were more polarizing for me than they had been in the first game. I either loved them, or I pretty much glossed over them. Each animal had a simple item fetch quest for me to complete, and while these tasks were basically spoon-fed to the player, the quests did give me a little more of a personal connection to each animal which I appreciated.

What really surprised me was that there were some moments in this game that genuinely made me feel uneasy. My first encounter with the invisible wizard was way more suspenseful than I had expected plus I found an easter egg while exploring that gave me the feeling that I was being watched.. in fact, I hadn’t realized what I saw was an easter egg until I googled what had happened out of paranoia!

This one hour mystery-adventure retails for $4.99 on steam. This feels more than fair for the silly, spooky experience you'll have questioning these animals and cracking the case.

You can also purchase all three frog detective games as a bundle for $13.47 on steam. If you haven’t played any of the games before, I would recommend waiting until the bundle is on sale just to save some extra money!

If Frog Detective #2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard Sounds interesting to you, please support the game developer(s) and add this game to your steam wishlist!

If you’ve already played, I would love to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments below!

you're a detective, and a frog, and it's time to solve a mystery.

game title: frog detective #1: the haunted island
developed by: grace bruxner and thomas bowker
published by: worm club
game trailer: watch the trailer
release date: november 2018
genre: short, simple, point-and-click, adventure, mystery
platform(s): steam
player(s): single-player
my total playtime: 70 mins
for fans of: ooblets, lil gator game, phogs

Even though the “puzzles” were easy fetch quests, I still loved talking to all of the characters and exhausting all of the dialogue options. I can’t even count the number of times I genuinely laughed out loud at the stuff that these animals were saying to me.

Honestly, the characters were the star of the show here. That being said, I think you could take this cast of goofy characters and throw them into any story regardless of how in-depth it is and it would be a fun time.

The game world was restricted to a small island in the middle of the water but despite both the island and the art style being so minimal, there was a good amount of detail sprinkled around!
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I loved the goofy little faces on the starfish and bugs and couldn’t stop laughing at one of the little easter eggs I found while looking around. The jazzy soundtrack also really helped to set the noir mood while I explored.

There is a surprisingly large cast of characters crammed into this tiny game and I feel like nearly all of them had distinct, memorable personalities that stood out despite only interacting with them for maybe 5-10 minutes each.
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The character dialogue and animation was so silly to me that I found myself laughing out loud over and over throughout the entire game. I also took SO MANY screen grabs of funny reaction images that I may or may not be spamming my friends with ever since I finished playing.

Frog Detective #1 The Haunted Island took me 70 minutes to complete. ten minutes of my play time was likely from me pausing to take screenshots every so often, so I would guess that this game would take ~1 hour to play through normally.
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Over on Steam this game is priced at $4.99. Personally, I would wait for a sale and buy all three of the Frog Detective games as a bundle but overall I feel that the original price is still worth the silly little experience that this game was.

If this game sounded interesting to you, please support the developer(s) and add this game to your steam wishlist! If you’ve already played Frog Detective #1 The Haunted Island, I would love to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments below!