We looked at a new build when we were house hunting and it had a "back garden" that was a three metre wide strip of dying grass between the back of the house and a 2.5m high solid fence (required because otherwise all the ground floor windows face directly onto the rear ground floor windows of the next house over)
At that point it's just
These two houses could have been one building split into two properties with decent sized rooms
I played This Bed We Made cuz it was on Jacobkosh's steam list and it sounded like a cool premise.
And it really is a cool vibe, being a maid in a snowed-in hotel, going around snooping through people's stuff and figuring out what is going on in their internal lives. The game looks great too, even with pretty barebones animations it has great lighting and sound.
Also like the main character and her kinda oddball energy, getting a big book of gossip about all your coworkers, figuring out who's banging who, etc.
But I think it would've been better if it was more episodic, more Telltale-ish, snoop through a room and then go gossip and then go through another (granted it's an indie game and they probably didn't have money to actually do that). The game mostly has one big mystery and while it does a satisfying job of doling out reveals for about 60% of it, once you realize what it's drawing from* it kinda loses energy, and it goes from a very complex messy little series of mysteries into having a Big Theme about a Big Cause. There's a couple lines at the end that are so bleeding heavy handed I kinda hated it, even though I agree with where the game is coming from.
There's also a couple of bits where guests are like, haha I sure do love designing puzzle boxes to hide my documents in! and anytime that happens it always feels like the game creators have run out of ideas for ways to piece together clues organically. There's also a few mysteries that feel like they don't really get answered convincingly, though I know I missed some content so maybe it was hidden away there.
Spoilers
It really doesn't take that long before you realize that this is just your hotel maid protagonist stumbling into Carol. But basically as soon as your character is like omg Harold they're lesbians all the moral complexity falls out of the story. The story has a very stark moral divide between its good guys and its bad guys, and anyone who's gay is on the good side. Your bad coworkers aren't just annoying, they're leaving letters in plain sight about what raging hypocrites they are while they campaign to get your good coworkers fired just because they hate them so much. Your boss can't merely be an uptight prick he's got to be gentrification given human form.
So like there's a fair bit of evidence to suggest that maybe the women were really thinking about killing the husband, but the game really never entertains the idea that it's possible because gay people are morally good. The weird creepy guy who's taking photos of you is gay, so he can't actually do something bad either. There's only one straight guest left in the building, therefore he's the killer.
I dunno, I just wish it had more of an old school thriller sort of sensibility to it. Let our protagonist get genuinely weird with her constant voyeurism and make us think a little about how fucking invasive she is. Make it feel more possible that the women did a real bad thing for a sympathetic reason. Make things a little more challenging. The game takes a lot of inspiration from Hitchcock I think, but Hitchcock or other thriller directors from past decades let their protagonists get weird and questionable, and I think that would've helped this game a lot.
Anyway still definitely seconding the recommendation, it's a cool change of pace, even if I think the writing could've taken a lot more risks.
@Kana I absolutely agree with all of this, and yeah the
Gen Z magical queers vs sinister Boomer haterz was really disappointingly simplistic and also...idk, naive?
but yeah I do think they were probably operating way out on the ragged edge of what they could make with their team size, budget, and the style they chose to go with. If they'd done less-lavish environments and lower-rez character models they could have packed in more onscreen characters, more rooms, more story, more interesting incidents and red herrings - but at the same time, I really like the style and vibe they went with, the direction made me go "ooh!" a couple times in a way I don't normally do with small indie games. So idk? They made their choice and tried to play their cards smartly, and I think they mostly succeeded, although the dialogue and characterization was a couple steps behind everything else.
I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for what this team does next.
I would love to make the beef stock from Julia Child’s recipe book by I don’t have a ready supply of, like, marrow bones and $20 worth of produce and spirits
It’s beef stock, babe
It shouldn’t cost half a bill
I don't understand
doesn't everybody keep a bag of bones in their freezer?
I drink coffee either black or like, two sugars and two creamers. The middle ground between tasting like coffee and tasting like a coffee flavored sweet drink is awful IMO.
Also for the record I buy my bay leaves from the Polish section, where they're sold in light tight bags five times the size of the otherwise typical dinky jar, for half the price
Which also means you can use them by handful if you like
quick everyone post your spices and herbs while the mods are sleeping
Also for the record I buy my bay leaves from the Polish section, where they're sold in light tight bags five times the size of the otherwise typical dinky jar, for half the price
Which also means you can use them by handful if you like
quick everyone post your spices and herbs while the mods are sleeping
all of them?
no, jacob is awake
we must retreat into the shadows for now; ours is not a war we fight in the light of day
i do make a lot of chili. it's one of my favorite diabetes-friendly meals so long as i don't pop off with excessive b e a n s. i like to try a variety of from-scratch recipes where i'm liquefying toasted whole chiles vs different prepared blends. the search for perfection continues.
it is pretty upsetting to me to watch media made in the 2020s where a main character can just beat up her husband for a couple minutes on screen and no one is upset about it and there's even a light joke. dang.
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TavIrish Minister for DefenceRegistered Userregular
i only drink lattes and sometimes i get violent shits but i'm sure those things are unrelated
Honorable mention goes to these guys. Wife reordered some Kashmiri chilis. However she did not look at the size of the bag. We usually get 2oz bags since that’s what I use to make a batch of chili paste that can make about 3-4 meals.
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At that point it's just
These two houses could have been one building split into two properties with decent sized rooms
You just need a decent wall
One of the side effects of high volume insulation (e.g. 200mm+ of PIR) is very effective sound deadening
It's pretty much at least as good as floating acoustic insulation and in a new build you're lining the building perimeter with it anyway
@Kana I absolutely agree with all of this, and yeah the
but yeah I do think they were probably operating way out on the ragged edge of what they could make with their team size, budget, and the style they chose to go with. If they'd done less-lavish environments and lower-rez character models they could have packed in more onscreen characters, more rooms, more story, more interesting incidents and red herrings - but at the same time, I really like the style and vibe they went with, the direction made me go "ooh!" a couple times in a way I don't normally do with small indie games. So idk? They made their choice and tried to play their cards smartly, and I think they mostly succeeded, although the dialogue and characterization was a couple steps behind everything else.
I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for what this team does next.
Butter in coffee
Google says it’s already a thing
So how about
Mayo in coffee
I don't understand
doesn't everybody keep a bag of bones in their freezer?
no?
just me?
ok
all of them?
yes
no, jacob is awake
we must retreat into the shadows for now; ours is not a war we fight in the light of day
Received it from amazon with a gift note
Is someone arbitraging their prime subscription, I wonder
https://youtu.be/jnjqiGNZo0o
Some kind of synthetic milk?
You makin chili?
its to do with my boss reducing his hours but i spent like two hours convinced i was being fired
at least its just more responsibilities for the same amount of money instead of being jobless i suppose
I’m too lazy to get the big bags out from the back but be assured I have a lifetime supply of bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.
do you mean you drink lattes instead of black coffee or you drink lattes instead of water
instead of black coffee
instead of water i drink pepsi max, duh
I wish to return to the soil. I will in time, but for now this kinda shitty Keurig coffee from the office machine will do.
also our piles of fast food burger wrappers at our feet under our computer desks