In Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island, the stereotype of a hard-boiled detective becomes a friendly frog investigating a ghostly noise. Developed by Grace Bruxner while she was still studying game design, this first game in the Frog Detective trilogy turns detective fiction into a silly, kind-hearted adventure.
It borrows from screen mysteries like Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989), using familiar music, camera angles and episodic structure. But the mystery is deliberately low-stakes, and the detective is polite, enthusiastic and apologetic when suspicious. Through comic dialogue and absurd interviews, Bruxner finds humour in making noir softer, stranger and much more charming.
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In ACMI's collection
On display until
30 July 2027
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The Story of the Moving Image → Games Lab → GL-03. Cluster 3 → GL-03-C01
The Story of the Moving Image → Games Lab → GL-03. Cluster 3 → GL-03-C04