''Detective Grimoire'' is a series of detective mystery video games developed by

SFB Games SFB Games Limited is a British video game developer based in London. The studio was established in 2002 by brothers Tom and Adam Vian, who, as "The Super Flash Bros.", produced browser games and animations in Adobe Flash for websites such as Ne ...

. The series currently consists of three titles, with a fourth in development. Additionally, the soundtracks to ''Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp'' and ''Tangle Tower'' have been released.

Games

Detective Grimoire (2007)

''Detective Grimoire'' is a

flash game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on co ...

developed by

(formerly The Super Flash Bros.) and published by Armor Games on their website and Newgrounds in 2007. According to one of the developers, this game is considered as a prototype for the later games, and it is not considered part of the series.

Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp (2014)

''Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp'' is a

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

point-and-click Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and cli ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

developed by

and published by Armor Games, which was released on

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

platforms on January 2, 2014. It was later released on

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

, PC, Mac,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

and

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

by SFB Games.

Tangle Tower (2019)

''Tangle Tower'' is a

developed and published by

. It is a sequel to the 2014 game ''Detective Grimoire''. The game was launched with the

Apple Arcade Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched on September 19 ...

service on September 19, 2019, and was later released for

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

and

on October 22, 2019. Tom Vian noted, "While the game hasn't set the world (or our bank account) on fire, it's been a solid success for us". ''ScreenRant'' praised the "logical, cleverly designed puzzles", the "distinct, entertaining personalities" of the characters, and "unexpected twists and turns" of the story. ''Nintendo World Report'' described it as "the closest to a brand-new Layton game you're liable to find in 2020". ''Tangle Tower'' won the 2020 IndieCade award for Best Performance. Additionally, it was nominated for the 16th IMGA.

Untitled sequel (TBA)

In March 2020, SFB Games announced they were in the process of writing the next entry in the series, which wouldn't be called Tangle Tower 2 as it would be a brand new story with new characters.

Soundtracks

Tangle Tower soundtrack

SFB Games released the soundtrack to Tangle Tower on June 13, 2020 on services including Spotify, Google Play, and Apple Music using the

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that "C ...

service. Tom Vian commented, "It's made us almost no money, but it's just nice to have it out there!".

References

{{game-stub Video game franchises introduced in 2007 Indie video games