Detective Grimoire (Flash)

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*For the titular character, see Detective Grimoire (character).*
*For the second instalment of the series, see Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp.*

## Detective Grimoire

### Genre

Point-and-Click
Detective/Mystery
Adventure

### Release Date

July 5, 2007 (Newgrounds)
November 23, 2007 (Armor Games)

### Reception

4.5/5 (Newgrounds)
81% (Armor Games)

### Sequels

Secret of the Swamp
Tangle Tower

### Links

Newgrounds
Armor Games

**Detective Grimoire** is a freeware flash webgame and the first installment in the Detective Grimoire series. It was developed by SFB Games and published by Armor Games on Newgrounds on July 5, 2007, and on their own website on November 24, 2007.

In 2022 Podcast, the flash game is considered non-canon to the series, treating it as a standalone prototype.

## Gameplay

### Summary

The game mainly consist in a three-steps formula; explore, investigate and interrogate. Grimoire must move in the Fairground using the blue arrows located at the corners of each scene to get to new areas, or simply using the map once the area has been discovered for the first time. There's a total of 12 scenes to discover, most of them with a character to interrogate.

In each scene there will be at last one clue to uncover from the background and five conversations with each one of the suspects that would only be unlocked by interrogating other suspects or finding enough clues.

The main mission is to find every suspect innocent bar one and return with the Officer James in the first scene to find out the truth about who was the murderer, how did he do it and what were its motives to get it behind the bars.

### Hub and Mechanics

The game hub consist in a row of four options located at the bottom of the screen, which includes the next functions:

* Clues: A space with information for all the clues found through Grimoire's exploration in the Fairground. It can also be used to get more information about certain characters.
* Suspects: A summary that includes the roles, locations and information of each one of the suspects that work in the Fairground. There's a total of 6 suspects, plus the victim.
* Map: The main method of transport in the game. It consists of a full drawing of the Fairground, sectioned in twelve scenes for practical uses. You can only transport to a scene only when you have visited it for the first time, though. After that, you will be able to get to that zone quickly every time you want.
* Notes: Includes general information about the suspects, the locations. and even has a space to read the tutorial. There can also be saved the game, in case that you need to close the web browser

### Interrogation

Grimoire uses an unique ability in this game that allows to detect if someone is lying during an interrogatory via eye contact. During a cutscene of this type, Grimoire will keep his eyes seeing up at the screen while making questions to the character he thinks is suspicious in the case.

The main mechanic is to control Grimoire's vision with the mouse pointer. To get pass this test successfully you have to stare at the background of the scene and wait to see a flashing light that indicates the right moment to stare bask at a character. Doing it in the wrong moment will result in a failure and you will have to start over the eye contact test.

## Plot

### Briefing

P.D.P.D file 054

Victim: Hugh Everton

Crime: Murder

At 10:28 last night, a body was found at the local Fairground that operates just outside of town. The cleaner, one Jerry Spears, discovered the dead body of his former colleague inside the Hall of Mirrors.

All the evidence points towards murder. The clown, Charles Ringer, who works at the very same fairground, is the main suspect. He seems to have some less than favourable links with the victim.

If this grim case remains unsolved, the Fairground Manager, Mr Gary Coils has stated he will have to "permanently shut down operations."

Private Detective Grimoire has been called in to clear things up. We've got one evening to find the truth about what happened last night. If Grimoire can't solve this mystery, no one can.

### The Beginning of the Case

Grimoire and Officer James are outside of Coils Co Fairground and Grimoire was briefed before starting the case. As Grimoire headed to the entrance, he found a little girl who is offering help to the detective on the case by giving Grimoire a map of the fairground.

He enter the fairground to find Charles Ringer, outside the fun house. He questioned the main suspect that Hugh Everton was neglecting the fun house which cause ire with older employees. During the case, he meet with the rest of the employees, Mandy Ferrier, Ricky Warrer, Pete Nubhat, Jerry Spears and Gary Coils.

## Characters

* Detective Grimoire
* Little Girl
* Officer James
* Hugh Everton
* Charles Ringer
* Mandy Ferrier
* Pete Nubhat
* Jerry Spears
* Ricky Warrer
* Gary Coils

## Trivia

* According to the Vian Brothers, the first entry into the series is a standalone story and is no longer considered apart of the games' current ongoing canon. The series' timeline now starts with Secret of the Swamp, which is officially referred to as Detective Grimoire.
	+ Despite this, Grimoire does mention remembering the Little Girl from Coils and Co. Fairground when first encountering her in Secret of the Swamp. He also mentioned Mandy in the Pause Screen. This discrepancy could be due to the original flash game's current non-canon status not being decided yet when the game was first released.
* The game was heavily inspired by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which had come out the year previous to Detective Grimoire's release date. It lifts multiple elements from the game, such as solving mysteries and interrogating suspects.
* Due to the discontinuation of Flash support in late 2020, the game is much less accessible to play. It is currently unavailable on Armor Games due to not being supported by Ruffle, a third-party Flash Emulation extension for web browsers. It is playable via Newgrounds, but requires the installation of Newgrounds' proprietary Flash game player to access the game.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 **Adam Vian**: "*As it stands, the first game, which is just called Detective Grimoire, is a flash game we released on Newgrounds and I would say it is definitely non-canon. It's just a thing that we made.*" (Memory Card's September 18th, 2022 Podcast episode, Untangled)
2. ↑ **Adam Vian**: "*[Detective Grimoire] came out in 2007 and it was very much just inspired by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which, I've looked it up and it came out the previous year...*" (Memory Card's September 18th, 2022 Podcast episode, Untangled)
3. ↑ **Adam Vian**: "*We were literally like, 'let's make a game where you talk to people and there's a mystery,' cause that was what we enjoyed in Phoenix Wright.*" (Memory Card's September 18th, 2022 Podcast episode, Untangled)