Hidden Folks

Lore & Background

Hidden Folks was conceived after Adriaan de Jongh saw detailed illustrations at Sylvain Tegroeg's graduate art show. The two began collaborating in 2014, when Tegroeg noticed how de Jongh had used his art. The idea of a hidden object game emerged naturally from Tegroeg's detailed illustrations. All art was hand-drawn on paper, scanned, and layered manually to form scenes. The game was built using the Unity engine, with custom tools developed to digitize the hand-drawn art and maintain detail on mobile devices. The audio consists entirely of noises made from the developers' mouths.

Reader's Guide

Hidden Folks stands as a notable entry in the hidden object genre, drawing comparison to the British book series Where's Wally?. Its monochrome, hand-drawn aesthetic and interactive environments set it apart from many digital hidden object games. The game was designed to be a casual and relaxing experience, and its unique audio—composed of mouth noises—added a distinctive charm. Upon release, it received critical recognition: Polygon ranked it 41st on their list of the 50 best games of 2017, and The Verge named it one of their 15 Best Games of 2017. It was also nominated for 'Best Mobile Game' in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. The game's development process, involving custom tools to preserve hand-drawn detail across platforms, highlights the technical care behind its simple appearance. Hidden Folks remains a reference point for indie games that combine traditional art techniques with digital interactivity.

Did You Know?

• The game's audio is composed entirely of noises made from the developers' mouths.
• A prototype was created after de Jongh saw illustrations at Tegroeg's graduate art show.
• The game was announced in February 2016 and released on February 16, 2017.