The Game Census
Bucket Detective cover art

Bucket Detective

the whale husband · 2017-02-16

Steam

AdventureIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Feb 16, 2017 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Feb 16, 2017 (Mac)

A dark comedy/horror game by Jesse Barksdale, creator of the static speaks my name. Help a cult complete a ritual in exchange for divine inspiration to finish writing your terrible novel. A story-focused experience which takes around 45 minutes to complete.

86%
positive of 274 reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
0–20,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
65/100
IGDB user rating (5 ratings)
pending
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$3.99
steam price (US)
Bucket Detective is a video game released in 2018 by The Whale Husband, a collaboration between American independent developer Jesse Barksdale and Finnish developer Samu Kovanen. Described as a "dark comedy horror game", Bucket Detective is an adventure game in which an illiterate and perverse author endures personal and moral sacrifices made to a cult in order to receive the literary inspiration to publish a novel. Bucket Detective, in line with Barksdale's previous game, The Static Speaks My Name, was strongly influenced by personal themes of "depression, anxiety and obsession" and designed in ways to disorient and confuse the player. The game, which was the first commercial project from Barksdale, received a positive reception from critics, with particular attention directed at the game's unusual and grotesque premise and disturbing content.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 10 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~1/week).
  • · Review velocity down 29% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Current weekly pace is under 5% of the all-time peak week (37 reviews).
  • · Top 29% of 24,004 Adventure games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 6.8k–16k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 274 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $1.19 at Steam (2024-05-08) · bundled 2×via IsThereAnyDeal

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
333320172026Week of 2017-02-01: 33 positiveWeek of 2017-02-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2017-03-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2017-04-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-05-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2017-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2017-06-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2017-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2017-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2017-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2017-10-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Attention

1102026-07-04 — 3 pageviews2026-07-07 — 5 pageviews2026-07-10 — 0 pageviews2026-07-14 — 4 pageviews2026-07-17 — 7 pageviews2026-07-20 — 3 pageviews2026-07-23 — 4 pageviews2026-07-26 — 2 pageviews2026-07-29 — 2 pageviews2026-08-01 — 4 pageviews2026-08-04 — 6 pageviews2026-08-07 — 2 pageviews2026-08-10 — 3 pageviews2026-08-13 — 3 pageviews2026-08-16 — 0 pageviews2026-08-19 — 3 pageviews2026-08-22 — 0 pageviews2026-08-25 — 4 pageviews2026-08-28 — 5 pageviews2026-08-31 — 3 pageviews2026-09-03 — 3 pageviews2026-09-06 — 4 pageviews2026-09-09 — 5 pageviews2026-09-12 — 2 pageviews2026-09-15 — 7 pageviews2026-09-18 — 6 pageviews2026-09-21 — 3 pageviews2026-09-24 — 1 pageviews2026-09-27 — 4 pageviews2026-09-30 — 3 pageviews2026-10-01 — 3 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

4
achievements tracked
34.9%
earned "Banned"
29.6%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerSteam AchievementsPartial Controller SupportSteam CloudCommentary availableFamily Sharing

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)29355%4

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Player tags

IndieHorrorAdventureStory RichFirst-PersonWalking SimulatorPsychological Horror

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

Fatum Betula

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗