What Makes Animal Detectives So Popular?

The inherent appeal of animal investi-gators in mystery games.

Steam’s Animal Fest runs this week, featuring games all about animals.

One trend in mystery games that I’ve noticed is the use of animal detectives. Recent hits like Back to the Dawn, Duck Detective, and BROK the InvestiGator immediately come to mind. But even older games like Frog Detective and Aviary Attorney clearly demonstrate that animal detectives have always been a popular mystery game trope.

Even outside of games there are plenty of popular animal detectives, including Scooby-Doo (dog), Basil of Baker Street (mouse), or John Blacksad (cat). And in addition to some of our Mystery Game Jam entries featuring animal detectives, I’ve definitely noticed a trend of Next Fest demos using animal detectives as well.

So, let’s sit down in our thinking chairs Blue’s Clues-style and do our best to solve this mystery!

Image Credit: YouTube

First, let’s make a distinction between the different types of animal detectives. Some will have a human-like (anthropomorphic) design, while others just look like normal animals in real life. Some may be the protagonist of the story, while others remain as the protagonist’s faithful companion. Some may be able to speak in human language, or otherwise communicate with humans, while others keep their deductions to themselves. Maybe they’re the only animal in a story about humans, or maybe there aren’t even humans in the story at all!

So, there are many unique ways to utilize animals as a detective character.

And that’s not even getting into how animals can be used as witnesses (like the parrot in Ace Attorney), as clues (like the classic “dog that does not bark”), as the victim (like the disappearance of the horse in Silver Blaze), or even as the culprit. We’re just going to focus on animal detectives for right now, but don’t let that stop you from thinking about more creative uses for our furry friends.

With that said, let’s dive into the reasons why animal detectives are becoming trendy.