Hey Bird! is the developer of Inkblood, a detective adventure published by CRITICAL REFLEX. A demo with three cases is available on Steam, and a full release is planned within 2026 for PC via Steam.
Hey Bird! is the studio behind Inkblood, a mystery adventure game shown by CRITICAL REFLEX at Tokyo Game Show 2026 and now distributed as a demo on Steam. The game casts the player as Inquisitor #134, an inquisitor who is also a prisoner confined to a carriage he cannot leave, investigating murders and traces of rituals in a town where a cult is suspected. This premise is established in both the TGS2026 hands-on report and the demo launch story.
The TGS2026 demo, held at Makuhari Messe from September 17 to 20, 2026, introduced the carriage's investigation tools: the Echo Mirror, also called the Reverberation Device, which recreates past events when dragged over a scene, an old-fashioned camera for photographing suspects, and a rotary-dial telephone for filing reports. It opened with a corpse by the roadside, then moved to a case at an inn that burned to the ground with multiple deaths, where four members of a musical troupe had to be assessed. The demo also connected Inquisitor #133, the protagonist's missing predecessor, to the burned inn, suggesting each solved case feeds into a larger thread. The carriage manual states an inquisitor's heart is removed and placed in the Engine's glass vessel on the first day of assignment.
On October 2, 2026, CRITICAL REFLEX began distributing a Steam demo of Inkblood that includes three cases, among them a rebuilt version of "The Murder at the Burned-Down Inn" with a changed solution method. The studio now has a read on a puzzle that already went through public hands at Tokyo Game Show 2026.
Inkblood is scheduled for release within 2026 for PC via Steam, with Japanese display planned.
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CRITICAL REFLEX began distributing a demo of Inkblood, a detective adventure by Hey Bird!, on Steam on October 2, 2026. The player is an inquisitor investigating murders tied to a suspected cult, working from inside a carriage he cannot leave. The demo includes three cases, among them a rebuilt version of "The Murder at the Burned-Down Inn" with a changed solution method.
CRITICAL REFLEX brought a playable demo of Inkblood, the new mystery adventure game from Hey Bird!, to Tokyo Game Show 2026, held at Makuhari Messe from September 17 to 20, 2026. Players take the role of Inquisitor #134, who is both an inquisitor and a prisoner confined to a carriage, investigating brutal murders and traces of blasphemous rituals in a town where suspicion falls on a cult. The carriage interior holds investigation devices, including the Echo Mirror, also called the Reverberation Device, which recreates past events when dragged over a scene, and an old-fashioned camera used to photograph suspects. Reports are filed using a rotary-dial telephone. The demo opens with a corpse by the roadside, then moves to a case at an inn that burned to the ground with multiple deaths, where four members of a musical troupe must be assessed. Inkblood is scheduled for release within 2026 for PC via Steam, with Japanese display planned.