Duck Detective: The Secret Salami | |
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Developer(s) | Happy Broccoli Games |
Publisher(s) | Happy Broccoli Games |
Designer(s) | Annika Maar |
Programmer(s) | Joni Levinkind |
Artist(s) | Caroline Buchmann, Jacky Vintonjek |
Composer(s) | Svyatoslav Petrov |
Engine | Unity [1] |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a 2024 adventure game developed and published by Happy Broccoli Games. It is a comedic detective story where players solve puzzles to progress through a mystery. A sequel titled Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping was announced in December 2024.
Players control a down-on-his-luck duck detective in a city where all the residents are animals. His latest case starts simple: figuring out what happened to a missing salami. Players solve puzzles in the form of phrasal templates where the correct words must be inserted in the detective's notebook. Players can guess words, but investigating the scene and talking to non-player characters gives them clues. [2] The game reveals how many of the chosen words are correct. Though the ultimate solution to the mystery is always the same in every game, players can make choices about how to proceed. After completing the mystery, players can see what percentage of people made each choice. [3]
Developer Happy Broccoli Games is based in Berlin, Germany. [4] It released Duck Detective for Linux, macOS, Windows, and Switch on May 23, 2024. [5] The game was officially translated into German by Marcel Weyers in September 2024, with other languages being offered as fan translations through the Steam Workshop. [6]
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | 79/100 [7] |
Publication | Score |
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Destructoid | 5.5/10 [8] |
PCGamesN | 8/10 [9] |
TouchArcade | 4.5/5 [10] |
Duck Detective received positive reviews on Metacritic. [7] Polygon praised its charm and humor, which they said made backtracking to find more clues fun. Given that it only takes a few hours to complete, they hoped Happy Broccoli would add more episodes. [2] Digitally Downloaded enjoyed the parody of hardboiled detective fiction, which was a good hardboiled story itself. [3] PCGamesN called it "funny, entertaining, and satisfying" that is a good value despite its short length. [11] Hardcore Gamer recommended it to gamers who enjoy indie games and crime mysteries, who they felt would not be disappointed by the short length. [12] Nintendo World Report praised the writing and art, though they said they wanted more cases to solve. [13]