History Creator / ElephantGames

** ''The Case of the Dancing Men'' (currently in beta)

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* MagicMirror: A recurring element in the ''Cursed Fables'' games is the presence of these. In ''White as Snow,'' it is of course the stepmother's prized possession, and she uses magic to hide it from casual observers. In ''Twisted Tower'', Rapunzel also has one, and a note in her tower mentions that there were once seven such mirrors owned by seven queens.

** All of those who are chosen to be Book Travelers, in that series, are given special amulets. These not only identify them, but allow them to create portals which take them into the world of books.

** Anna, in some installments of ''Grim Tales'' and ''Detectives United'', has Richard - the ghost of her father, bound into his own skull, which she carries with her everywhere. Later in ''Grim Tales'', she instead has Anastasia, the ghost of her mother, whom she contacts through the use of a special piece of jewelry.

** Rick Rogers of ''Paranormal Files'' is this, though it seems like he doesn't necessarily ''want'' to be, at least at first.
** Anna Gray in ''Grim Tales'' is this, although the cases she solves (or at least the ones shown in the games) are somehow related to her own family.

The devs maintain a fairly active [[https://facebook.com/elephantgames Facebook page]] where players can participate in contests and discussions; they also release exclusive art pieces (such as a 2022 calendar featuring their most popular characters) and occasionally leak advance hints about upcoming games.

* ContentWarnings: The first installment of ''It Happened Here'' includes one of these during the opening credits, advising the player that the game contains graphic depictions of violence and "is not for the faint of heart."

** Rick Rogers is the series protagonist for ''Paranormal Files''. In ''Ghost Chapter'', however, [[spoiler:he disappears under mysterious circumstances, and his partner Rachel spends the next ''thirteen years'' trying desperately to find him. As of the end of the game, he's ''still'' missing, and the next game continues the search.]]

!!Tropes Commonly Seen:

* The ''Halloween Stories'' games may possibly be part of the same universe as ''Grim Tales'' and its relations, because a picture of Richard Gray appears in one scene of ''Halloween Stories: The Neglected Dead.'' However, the picture is only in the background, so it's equally possible that the ''Grim Tales'' games exist as fiction in the ''Halloween Stories'' universe.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The ''It Happened Here'' series is about a WidowWoman, Emily, who solves mysteries as her way of coping after the death of her husband. She is also a writer who runs a podcast. It's hard not to see her as a 21st century update on [[Series/MurderSheWrote Jessica Fletcher]].

* HauntedHotel: The settings of the ''Haunted Hotel'' games, of course, but these occasionally appear in some of the other series as well.

* GirlInTheTower: Rapunzel, in ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'', is one of these just like in her original fairy tale. She's not in need of rescue this time, though. [[spoiler:She's a soul-draining EldritchAbomination who needs to be defeated.]]

* LighterAndSofter: The ''Christmas Stories'' games are much more lighthearted than their other hidden object games, as they are mainly riffs on classic fairy tales and fantasy literature.

* MagicMirror: Seen in ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'', where it is of course the stepmother's prized possession. She uses magic to hide it from casual observers.

** The witches' coven in ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'' is reluctant to allow Genhalia (the PlayerCharacter) to join their ranks because her mother betrayed them twenty years earlier. However, the reality of the betrayal isn't exactly what they think it is.

** Each installment of ''Cursed Fables'' falls into this, as they are entirely distinct from each other and have zero connection other than each one being based on a different classic fairy tale.

** The agents in the Mystery Trackers (with the unexplained exception of [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep Agent Brown]]) are only ever identified by {{code name}}s. The player character of most installments, however, [[NoNameGiven goes unnamed]] all the way to the 16th game, ''The Fall of Iron Rock'', where documents identify her as "Agent A." In the next game, ''The Secret of Watch Hill'', her ID badge finally reveals that her code name is Agent Amber. Later in the game, the player finds a scientific award she received in high school, which confirms that her birth name really is Amber Edevane. It's never explained why Agent Amber and Agent Brown were allowed to use their real names as code names.

* FeaturelessProtagonist: Zig-zagged.
** The most you'll get from the [=NPCs=] in some games is a reference to your title if you're a detective, but other games will state your gender.
** Averted in the ''Surface'' installments ''The Pantheon'' and ''Game of the Gods'', where you play as the protagonist and her appearance is shown in the opening scenes.
*** In ''The Soaring City'' and ''Reel Life'', there is nothing stated about your appearance, but your gender is stated with voiceovers.
** You play as Fred, Scrooge's estranged nephew, in their version of ''A Christmas Carol''; nothing of your appearance is mentioned.
** The player character of the ''Haunted Hotel'' games varies with each installment. In a few installments, the player is James Blackthorne, in which case we sometimes see him in cutscenes and the like; but James more commonly appears as the player's friend, colleague, or relative, and when this is so, the most we see of the player character is their hands. Averted entirely in the installments where James is neither the protagonist nor a supporting character, as the player character of each appears onscreen during the course of gameplay.
** It's implied in the ''Mystery Trackers'' games that the player character is usually if not always female; ''Paxton Creek Avenger'' shows the character wearing high heeled boots and the coat's hem resembles a dress. In ''The Secret of Watch Hill'' and ''Fatal Lesson'', she has spoken dialogue and is definitely a woman. (In most installments, the player character is the same person, as evidenced by the presence of CanineCompanion Elf.) The 20th installment, ''Forgotten Voices'', averts the trope entirely by bringing back the junior agents from ''Fatal Lesson'' and making them the player characters; their appearances are clear.
** ''Grim Tales: Colour of Fright'' gives you your first glimpse of your character, psychic detective Anna Gray: you're seen in a photograph and while your face remains obscured, you're revealed to have auburn hair and an average body type which suggests middle age. By the time of the following game, ''The Final Suspect'', you've become a white-haired, somewhat chunky, elderly [[Series/MurderSheWrote Jessica Fletcher]] type. However, in ''Guest From the Future'', you're a fairly young woman with ''blonde'' hair. (This is clarified in ''The Heir'' - Anna's father performed a ritual which restored her to her youth - and reiterated in the opening cinematics of ''Crimson Hollow''.)
** Completely averted in the ''Detectives United'' series, where you always play as one of the three members of the group, and each of them has a portrait on the screen to show you their appearance. The two you are not playing at a given moment are often seen as well. It's worth noting that in the fourth installment, which is centered around the absence of Agent Brown, his portrait is replaced by a question mark to indicate his disappearance.
*** In the bonus chapter of the fourth installment, you play as two new and temporary characters, but these are also seen during the course of the chapter.
** Also averted in ''Paranormal Files'', as both Rick and his eventual partner Rachel are seen onscreen frequently.
** The player character of ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'' is Margaret, the stepmother, who is seen on the screen many times.
** The player character of the ''Strange Investigations'' games is Dana Strange; she herself doesn't appear on the screen during gameplay, but there are a number of photographs of her seen throughout the series.
** Averted in ''Book Travelers'', as the protagonist is Megan Walker, whose appearance is shown early in the first game.

* MeaningfulName: Some of the Mystery Trackers have code names related to their specific abilities. For example, Agent Wulf is a lycanthrope, and Agent Rayne can control the weather. (Most of the agents who fall into this aren't actually encountered in the games, but some installments reveal pieces of trivia about them.)

* MembershipToken: All of those who are chosen to be Book Travelers, in that series, are given special amulets. These not only identify them, but allow them to create portals which take them into the world of books.

* NoNameGiven: Apart from protagonist Megan, none of the {{original character}}s in the ''Book Travelers'' series have names. The first game introduces men who introduce themselves as the Great Librarian and the Renegade, but no other names are ever mentioned for them.

** The witches' coven in ''Cursed Fables: Twisted Tower'' is reluctant to allow Genhalia (the PlayerCharacter) to join their ranks because her mother betrayed them twenty years earlier.

* StandaloneEpisode: Each game is basically designed to be this, so that new players don't have to learn a lot of backstory in order to enjoy the puzzles and current storyline, but several of the series do have ongoing plots which add a little something extra for fans who play them in order. ''Haunted Hotel'', however, has a few installments which really are this, being completely disconnected from any other games in the series and lacking recurring characters.

* SinsOfOurFathers: The Russell family in ''Paranormal Files: Price of a Secret'' turn out to be endangered by a curse that was laid on their ancestor roughly a hundred years earlier.

** The Mystery Trackers are an organization whose name gets mentioned repeatedly throughout the ''Mystery Trackers'' series. ''Raincliff, Black Isle,'' and ''Silent Hollow'' are both the titles and the locations of those games, so their names come up a number of times.

** Averted in ''Book Travelers'', as the protagonist is Megan Walker, whose appearance shown early in the first game.

** ''Taxi of Miracles''

* TwoTimingWIthTheBestie: The ''Paranormal Files'' series gets kicked off when, prior to the beginning of the first game, protagonist Rick Rogers came home to find his best friend in bed with his girlfriend - to whom he had been planning to propose.

** ''Taxi of Miracles''

* IdenticalStranger: During the mystery in ''Strange Investigations: Becoming'', Dana Strange encounters a police officer named Eve, who - apart from her blonde hair and sunglasses - looks just like Dana's dead sister Ursula;. [[spoiler:The end of the game heavily implies that this ''is'' Ursula, who is NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay.]]

** ''Taxi of Miracles''

** The Mystery Trackers help the player character of ''Haunted Hotel: Phoenix'' with the investigation at the arson-riddled Stone Spires Hotel.

** The player character of ''Mystery Trackers'' has one, although this isn't made clear until the installment ''The Secret of Watch Hill.'' Watch Hill was the site of the incident which killed the player character's parents and brother, and she must return to the place fifteen years later to deal with a related issue. It also comes up in ''Fatal Lesson,'' in which a {{flashback}} in the beginning shows her at the organization's camp as a young woman, learning to be a detective alongside Agent Shade; her inner monologue mentions that her family was killed a year earlier.

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Snow White, in ''Cursed Fables: White as Snow'', has the same dark hair and pale skin as in the original fairy tale, but her complexion has an UndeathlyPallor to it. There's a reason, of course.

** Averted in ''Book Travelers'', as the Traveler in each game has a name and appearance shown early in the game. The first one, Megan Walker, is a librarian.

** ''Book Travelers'' is also both this and a TitleDrop; as explained in the first game, ''A Victorian Story,'' Book Travelers are individuals with the rare ability to physically travel into the world of a book's story. The player character is one of these.

* RoleCalled: The ''Strange Investigations'' series falls into this; the player character's name is Dana Strange, and she's a private investigator.
** Becomes a TitleDrop at the end of the first game, ''Becoming,'' when her friend Malcolm suggests that they name their joint agency Strange Investigations.

* StandaloneEpisode: Each game is basically designed to be this, so that new players don't have to learn a lot of backstory in order to enjoy the puzzles and currently storyline, but several of the series do have ongoing plots which add a little something extra for fans who play them in order. ''Haunted Hotel'', however, has a few installments which really are this, being completely disconnected from any other games in the series and lacking recurring characters.

** Anna and Luisa Gray of ''Grim Tales'' are not only identical themselves, but they had a pair of elder half-sisters who died years before they were born, and these were also identical twins.

** ''Grim Tales'' players have been waiting for the revelation of just how, and why, Anna's father Richard has disappeared. (It looks like the upcoming ''Horizon of Wishes'' will finally answer the question.)

** There's a time skip of nearly seven years between ''Grim Tales: Guest From the Future'' and the next installment, ''The Generous Gift''. At the end of ''Guest From the Future'', Anna receives confirmation that she's pregnant with her daughter Alice; the events of ''The Generous Gift'' take place on Alice's sixth birthday.

** Daemon, Isaac, and Mia, who join Rachel's team of investigators in the ''Paranormal Files'' series, beginning with ''Ghost Chapter'', and the Harding siblings who appear as ghosts in ''Price of a Secret''

* YourCheatingHeart: Seen in some games.
** The ''Paranormal Files'' series gets kicked off when, prior to the beginning of the first game, protagonist Rick Rogers came home to find his best friend in bed with his girlfriend - to whom he had been planning to propose.
** In ''Haunted Hotel: The Axiom Butcher'', the married hotel owner has been sleeping with the maid, who is at least half his age.

* StockSubtitle:
** ''Haunted Hotel: The X''
** ''Surface: Mystery of Another World''
*** ''Surface: Return to Another World''
** ''Grim Tales: The Legacy''
** ''Detectives United: Origins'' [[note]]However, unlike the usual use of such a subtitle, this is the first game in the series and not a prequel.[[/note]]

* IHaveYourWife: The central plot of ''Grim Tales: The Generous Gift'' involves Anna's six-year-old daughter Alice being kidnapped and used as bait to lure Anna into a trap. Alice is later kidnapped again in ''Echo of the Past,'' though for a very different reason.

* IronicNurseryTune: In ''Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence'', one of these occasionally plays as background noise; however, it may take a little while before the player understands what they're hearing.

* OneSteveLimit:
** The last name "Blackthorne" gets used a number of times in their various games; it's the last name of the BigBad in both ''Haunted Hotel: Death Sentence'' and ''Grim Tales: Guest From the Future.'' It's also James's last name in the ''Haunted Hotel'' and ''Detectives United'' series. There is nothing to indicate that he is related to either BigBad, nor that they have any connection to each other.
** Dorian is the first name of both Agent Brown (from the ''Mystery Trackers'' and ''Detectives United'' series) and Anna Gray's husband in ''Grim Tales''.
** The protagonist of the ''Paranormal Files'' series is Richard Rogers, although his name is shortened as Rick. In ''Grim Tales'', Richard Gray is Anna's father.
** In ''Haunted Hotel'', James's cousin is named Rachel Collins. In ''Paranormal Files'', Rick's partner is the similarly named Rachel Cowell.
** Anna's daughter in the ''Grim Tales'' games is named Alice; according to the installment ''Silent Hollow'', one of the Mystery Trackers is named (or codenamed) Agent Alice. In ''Haunted Hotel: Lost Dreams,'' Dr. Schneider's daughter is also named Alice.

* PaperKeyRetrievalTrick: Sometimes used to get out of locked rooms.

** Oddly averted for Richard Gray, who has been missing from both the ''Grim Tales'' and ''Detectives United'' series since ''Grim Tales: Heritage''. No one in either game series appears to take much notice of his absence, apart from a single line in ''Heritage'' about him being "on vacation", and another in ''Detectives United: Deadly Debt'' where Anna wishes he were available to help with the current case. (This comes across very strangely when the player remembers that Richard is ''dead'', and exists in the games as a ghost.) The forthcoming 22nd ''Grim Tales'' game ''Horizon of Wishes'' is expected to finally clear up the matter.

** The agents in the Mystery Trackers (with the unexplained exception of [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep Agent Brown]]) are only ever identified by code names. The player character of most installments, however, [[NoNameGiven goes unnamed]] all the way to the 16th game, ''The Fall of Iron Rock'', where documents identify her as "Agent A." In the next game, ''The Secret of Watch Hill'', her ID badge finally reveals that her code name is Agent Amber. Since many of the Mystery Trackers use colors as code names, it's unclear whether Agent Amber is strictly a code name or if, as in the case of Agent Brown, it's also her birth name.

** The agents in the Mystery Trackers (with the unexplained exception of [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep Agent Brown]]) are only ever identified by code names. The player character of most installments, however, [[NoNameGiven goes unnamed]] all the way to the 16th game, ''The Fall of Iron Rock'', where documents identify her as "Agent A." In the next game, ''Fatal Lesson'', in a flashback midway through the game, the Commander of the Mystery Trackers addresses her as "Amber." Since many of the Mystery Trackers use colors as code names, it's unclear whether Agent Amber is strictly a code name or if, as in the case of Agent Brown, it's also her birth name.