The Grown-Up Detective Agency
The only thing Bell Park likes more than a mystery is solving it on her own. But when a time-travelling 12-year-old version of herself lands face-down on her rented co-working desk, she'll have no choice but to take the displaced kid detective along on her latest case.
- Follow the trail of a missing heterosexual on the strange streets of Toronto!
- Investigate a quirky cast of drag kings, chicken wing enthusiasts, and women in elaborate cat make-up!
- Thrill in the pervasive ennui of your early twenties!
- Struggle to remember where your preteen self was at with the whole being gay thing!
Will Adult Bell make peace with the figurative and literal ghosts of her past? Can Kid Bell navigate the uncanny world of the 2020s and find her way back home? How's the chicken in that creepy basement food court? These questions and more will be answered in THE GROWN-UP DETECTIVE AGENCY.
A new interactive fiction from Brendan Patrick Hennessy, author of BIRDLAND, KNOWN UNKNOWNS, and BOAT PROM. Featuring art by Beck Kubrick.
Development log
- Bell Wins Best Player CharacterMar 09, 2024
- Bell Park's 10th AnniversarySep 30, 2023
- The Grown-Up Detective Agency Wins IFComp 2022!Nov 20, 2022
Comments
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HOLY SHIT MY FAV IS BACK WITH ANOTHER BANGER. brian i didn't think i'd be playing a new game from you in the year of our lord 2024 but HERE I AM AND I'M THRILLED. gonna dive in now omg omg omg
Just played this game - AMAZING! Quick question: What story format did you use to make this (Harlowe, Sugarcube etc)?
Thank you! I used Snowman.
Thank you so much. I'm creating a game for an assignment and I really love how you did the maps!
holy heck!!!!!!!!!! i was just on a binge replaying birdcamp and known unknowns... i was a wee teen when i first played birdcamp and now i'm in my 20's graduating college. it's honestly great to see the grown up versions of these characters i was obsessed with for a time. love this :)
This was sweet and fun! I really enjoyed it :) I liked the mix of detective shenanigans with personal relationships. The dynamic between young and old Bell was very cute <3
i loved it, it was so sweet! thank you <3
Love this story. 💜
Great IF! Enjoyed it.
Somehow I'm pretty late to the party; but wow, this was a really unique story, and probably your funniest game yet. It's really cool getting to see Bell Park again, both in her younger incarnation from the game that came out when I was a kid, and the version of her all grown up now but still figuring out what she wants her life to be like. The final confrontation with the cat burglar and the whole hostage chicken scene were both hilarious, the dialogue between the two Bell Parks was well written and fun to read, and even the dark comedy of Adult Bell trying to keep Kid Bell in the dark about the pandemic landed pretty well.
I get that it's beyond the focus of this story, but I'm just curious, do you have any ideas about what happens in the timeline Kid Bell goes back to?
The future, as the saying goes, is unwritten. :)
really lovely and funny writing here, a blast to play!
new game!
now a complete bell park trilogy :)
I truly, truly love your games, and this one is no different (and in fact may be my new favorite?). Of course, your writing is always incredibly funny and a delight to read, but also somehow these games always hit me square in the feelings in ways that I never quite expect. Your characters just feel so relatable to me... I feel such a weird sense of connection to what they're going through, but also it's kind of nostalgia laced with a certain melancholic wisfulness, because I didn't really understand my own queerness when I was in those stages of my life. I love Bell and Bridget with my whole heart, and feel so, so privileged to get to spend more time with them, particularly in how this game reveals more about where they've been and who they are (and what their future might hold). So thank you so much for making this!
Great game I just wish I knew how kid Bell got back home (unless she just stayed in the future forever)
Possible typo? “ADULT BELL:Can you give me a call if you see him? Or hear anything?
KEV JUNIOR:Oh, sure. Seriously though, needle in a haystack.”
This is Bell speaking to Kristee the first time.
Thank you! I just uploaded a fix. :)
You've done it again!
I'm so excited I can't even describe it. Thank you for continuing to make games :)
Hey! I'm really enjoying the game so far, but I got to a point in chapter 2 (I think) where it dropped me back to the Toronto map but there were no more places to choose to go to. I don't feel like I reached any kind of ending so maybe this is a bug?
Oh no! It definitely is! Can you remember what locations you visited before that?
Not all of them; I know I was at Bell's office with the Bells looking at Mark G's phone right before it happened. Other than that I saw the small park and Mark G's apartment that chapter, but I don't think that was all of them.
Dang, okay! Investigating the phone should have opened up a new link on the world map. I just uploaded a new version of the game with a fallback option on the world map if that logic breaks. That should at least get your save file unblocked while I investigate further. Sorry about that!
new BPH storytimes? Today is a good day!