Demo offers first access to The Granny Detective Society 

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Full version of "cozy and quirky" mouse deduction mystery coming to Steam early next year

When you think of grandmothers, you probably picture kindly older ladies who dote on their grandchildren, pinch cheeks, and insist on giving clothes for Christmas every year instead of fun stuff. You probably WOULDN'T imagine the ones in The Granny Detective Society, an upcoming mystery deduction game by indie French developer Team Empreintes.

One distinct difference about the grannies in question here is that they're all mice. Anthropomorphic mice, but mice all the same. Like Madeleine, who has retired from a life so full of adventures that she didn't have time for a family of her own. She hasn't lost her inquisitive spirit, however, and so she contents herself with observing the "youngsters" (which, at her age, means pretty much everyone) through the window overlooking her street, as if "watching a teleseries." That way she can learn all their habits and even secrets, which comes in very handy when she is "contacted by a mysterious sisterhood of spy grandmothers." They inform Madeleine that "everyone in the neighborhood is living a double life... especially the grannies."

Inspired by games like Return of the Obra Dinn and Duck Detective, The Granny Detective Society is presented in a lovely hand-painted cartoon style and promises a "cozy, funny, and delightfully quirky" experience, all from the comfort of the protagonist's own home. Fortunately she's equipped with a high-powered camera that can be zoomed in and moved horizontally via keyboard and mouse controls, which allows Madeleine to "watch the street, take photos, track suspicious behavior, and gather clues." But this is much more than a cute rodent version of Rear Window. Players must take everything they've learned and document it all on the apartment corkboard, drawing connections between clues and assigning names, jobs and other information on Post-it notes for each photo she adds. 

Even that is just the start, however, as Madeleine's multi-tabbed, jam-packed journal includes a variety of "grandma-style" minigames to help her remember details, such as word searches, crosswords and nonograms holding vital clues, with the option to simplify hints if necessary. She also has the ability to rewind time in order to go back and revisit other parts of the street at different times of day. But her sleuthing group is called a society for a reason, as Madeleine is just one investigator on the case. Over the course of the same looping week, players will unlock several other "Grannytectives, each with unique abilities and perspectives (enhanced hearing, night vision, occult sense...) to observe the street from a whole new angle." Slowly but surely, their combined observations and deductions will expose what's really going on behind the seemingly innocent neighborhood facade.

The full version of The Granny Detective Society won't be ready until sometime early next year, but you can get started snooping ahead of time through the playable demo already available on Steam for Windows PC. 

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