The Case File🎀
Case
Reopened
Case No.303
SubjectWardGibs
InvestigatorGibs · YourGibs
PartnerWardfire · @Wardfire
GenreHOPA · Co-Commentary
First Run2013, a quiet corner of YouTube
The RecordHaunted Hotel · Hidden Expedition & 20+ more
StatusTwo voices, one game
Case Summary
Two creators found each other uploading hidden object walkthroughs a decade ago, drifted, and came back. Her pick, his pick, shared curiosity — two voices co-commenting one game when nobody else was.
The genre changed around them. They never did. There was a gap; she checked in anyway, more than once. Then the investigation resumed — same warmth, same games, a whole series ahead of them.
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Something new. For the first time, both of them on the controls at once — no one narrating over the other's playthrough, just two people playing the same game side by side. Slower, softer, and a long way from a haunted hotel.
WardGibs | Cat Mail Co.
Cozy Sim · Co-op
⏳ Coming Soon
Steam · A forgotten island post office · They both play, at the same time, for once
A quiet island, a vanished postman, and a mountain of undelivered mail. Sort parcels for the right destinations, serve impatient customers, load the outgoing boats, and bring a collapsing little postal service back to life — one package at a time. It's about slowing down and enjoying the rhythm of small, satisfying tasks.
⏳ Coming July 6 — one package at a time.
Twenty games across eighteen years. Two HOPA creators working their way through the entire Haunted Hotel franchise — Specialbit's birth of the format, Elephant Games' middle era, the gimmicks, the voice actors, the peak, the recent downfall. The whole evolution of the genre, lived through one hotel series at a time.
WardGibs | Haunted Hotel 6: Ancient Bane
HOPA · Hidden Object
⏳ Coming Soon
Elephant Games · A haunted attraction where the guests stop being an act
Abraham Shadowy buys an abandoned hotel to turn into a haunted attraction — then the guests start actually disappearing. Publicity stunt, or something more sinister? Detective James searches for the truth among Shadowy's mechanical contraptions. Watch your step.
⏳ Coming — mind the mechanical contraptions.
WardGibs | Haunted Hotel 5: Eclipse
HOPA · Hidden Object
⏳ Coming Soon
Elephant Games · New studio · Detective James, and a maid with concerns
The franchise changes hands. A new studio, a new partner, a new hotel — where the maid insists the guests are all monsters, and is suspiciously precise about it. The Elephant Games era begins.
⏳ Coming — new studio, new century, new monsters.
WardGibs | Haunted Hotel 4: Charles Dexter Ward
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Specialbit Studio · A missing twin, a swampland address, necromancy
Your twin has vanished. The only leads are the necklace he never took off and a swampland address that ends at an abandoned hotel. The dynasty leans into proper horror — and Specialbit's final entry before the franchise changes hands.
WardGibs | Haunted Hotel 3: Lonely Dream
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Specialbit Studio · The hotel where every room hides something worse
Supernatural phenomena across a hotel where every room is its own small disaster. Inventory puzzles, mini-games, spooky secrets — the entry where the series starts to figure out what it wants to be.
WardGibs | Haunted Hotel 2: Believe the Lies
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Specialbit Studio · The dynasty grows a plot, and an FBI agent
A year after the first incident, an undercover FBI agent follows the trail to the Lonely Dream — a different hotel with a deeper mystery. The dynasty's first real story, with an elephant-rifle priest and a "to be continued" that means it.
WardGibs | Haunted Hotel
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Specialbit Studio · The one that started everything
A bewildered traveler crashes his car on a deserted road and checks into the nearest hotel, which is exactly as advertised. The OG entry — eighteen years old, dated on purpose, and the first chapter of a twenty-game horror dynasty.
The investigation, resumed. Two games in so far. Neither of them in a hurry.
WardGibs | Hidden Expedition 17: The Altar of Lies
HOPA · Hidden Object
● Ongoing
The reunion game · A lost city · Epic doors, a hankering
A double agent inside H.E.L.P. needs to be found before the whole operation burns. The series at its most spy-thriller, with the globetrotting adventure-club DNA still intact.
WardGibs | Spirits of Mystery 12: Whisper of the Past
HOPA · Hidden Object
● Ongoing
Her birthday session · Princess mode, obviously · Queen Lilith has notes
A peaceful summer retreat is interrupted when Dark Reapers kidnap your mother and chase your aunt, and the rescue uncovers a family secret buried for years.
Gibs:"Do you ever play anything else than easy?"
Wardfire:"No. Why?"
Gibs:"Cuz I don't."
— Rekindled, session one · neither of them surprised
Eleven hidden object games, co-commented by two people who met each other through the genre and decided to do it together. The format was rare then. It's rare now. These are where it started.
WardGibs | PuppetShow 10: Bloody Rosie
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
ERS Game Studios · A doctor in the mechanical town of Olden
A doctor in the mechanical town of Olden believes his wife was murdered — and the moment the examination begins, the puppets attack. Tenth entry in one of Big Fish's longest-running series.
WardGibs | Rite of Passage 6: Deck of Fates
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Mad Head Games · Card-driven supernatural thriller
A mysterious invitation promises answers about your missing wife, and the search becomes the most dangerous game of your life. Card-driven supernatural thriller with real occult weight.
WardGibs | Maze 2: The Broken Tower
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Mad Head Games · Sci-fi with teeth
A routine demolition job at the Gehenna Building turns into a twisted experiment where you must comply or die. One of the genre's rare serious-horror entries — sci-fi with teeth.
WardGibs | Small Town Terrors 3: Galdor's Bluff
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Gunnar Games · Stage magic, small town, everyone knows more than they're saying
Two illusionists who grew up under the same mentor became bitter rivals, and one of them might be sabotaging the other's career-defining performance. Stage magic, small town, everyone knows more than they're saying.
WardGibs | Shadowplay: Darkness Incarnate
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Mad Head Games · A magical lantern, a nightmare institution
You go undercover at Irongate Asylum to prove your sister's innocence, and discover the shadows inside the walls have become something else. A magical lantern, a nightmare institution, and a sister who may or may not still be in there.
WardGibs | Cursed Cases: Murder at the Maybard Estate
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Daily Magic · Agatha Christie filtered through a softer art style
Emmett Maybard has been murdered in his mansion and the killer isn't finished with the family — so the psychic detective gets called in. Agatha Christie filtered through a softer art style.
WardGibs | Shadow Wolf Mysteries 4: Under the Crimson Moon
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
ERS Game Studios · Forensic investigation meets folklore
A blood moon rises over a French village while wolves attack the citizens at night, and you have to decide whether Martha Patio is really the beast or a convenient cover. Forensic investigation meets folklore.
WardGibs | Mystery of the Ancients 3: Three Guardians
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Mariaglorum · A niece in a panic, a boyfriend who's now a bear
Your niece calls in a panic from Green Hill — her boyfriend has turned into a bear in the woods, and a flock of red-eyed crows is making citizens vanish. Only three ancient guardians can undo what's been done.
WardGibs | Mystery of the Ancients 2: Curse of the Black Water
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Mariaglorum · High-stakes Greek-myth HOPA
Two archaeologists vanish on a remote island after rumors of an underwater city draw them in, while a mysterious black ooze forces the citizens out. Poseidon, the Kraken, high-stakes Greek-myth HOPA.
WardGibs | Small Town Terrors 2: Pilgrim's Hook
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Gunnar Games · Explicitly Lovecraftian — tentacles, madness, coast
A phone call from the childhood home you vowed never to return to brings you back to save your twin brother from something in the water. Explicitly Lovecraftian — tentacles, madness, a coastal town losing its mind.
WardGibs | Hallowed Legends 3: Ship of Bones
HOPA · Hidden Object
✓ Complete
Elephant Games · Norse mythology, pre-mastery era
You crash-land near Erlenbourg, where a ghostly woman in white is stealing souls, and follow her trail with a wise raven named Hamlet at your side. Norse mythology and Elephant Games doing the atmospheric work they'd later perfect.
Sometimes they branched out. Survival horror, action, whatever the mood called for. These weren't planned departures — just two people getting curious together. Turns out the ones outside the genre became some of the longest and most treasured collaborations in the back catalogue.
WardGibs | Resident Evil 6 Co-op
Survival Horror · Co-op
✓ Complete
Capcom · Four intersecting campaigns · Co-op chaos at its most ambitious
Four intersecting campaigns, three viruses, and a global bioterror event that puts Leon, Chris, and Jake in each other's crosshairs. Co-op chaos at its most ambitious.
WardGibs | Resident Evil 5 Co-op
Survival Horror · Co-op
✓ Complete
Capcom · Fresh BSAA partners · The one that turned Resident Evil into action
Fresh BSAA partners land in Kijuju and discover the virus has evolved into something that runs, organises, and fights back. The one that turned Resident Evil into an action franchise.
WardGibs | Serious Sam 3: BFE Co-op
Action · Co-op · Group
✓ Complete
Croteam / Devolver · Last days of humanity · Pure arcade carnage
A prequel set during the last days of humanity on Earth, where Sam and the squad hold the line against Mental's endless hordes. Pure arcade carnage — no puzzles, no lore beats, just volume.