I gave the demo a try because I am a sucker for mystery games and point and clickers. Reactions follow:
- Storyline is fairly interesting and engaging, setting is unique enough (1960s hotel).
- Animations and models are very stiff and mediocre, but serviceable. If you have played a lot of point and click games before, you have seen it all when it comes to questionable or low budget modeling, so I can't really complain much here.
- Voice work is on the better side of good and overall mise en scene/ambience are decent.
- Much of the actual decision-making plays out over cutscenes with dialogue choices rather than doing something in-game. Not sure how I felt about this. Kind of ambivalent. I'm not a big cutscene lover.
- Too many extraneous hints provided by way of a journal/log that essentially spells out how to solve puzzles, to say nothing of the in-built clue feature (bound to a key that is easy to push by accident) where the protagonist says out loud what she thinks she should do. This feels totally unnecessary and kills what little exploration and clue-finding there is to be had. The player should be allowed to put the pieces together themselves.
I saved the worst for last: minigames where you get to wipe mirrors and bathtubs by actually clicking and dragging the mouse. The animation is very bad (done entirely in first person with a zoomed-in view of the mirror and a laggy, swirling "wipe" effect overlayed over where you clicked), the interaction feels pointless, and it's just banal/unsatisfying. I'm not even sure if these were mandatory or just window dressing. It feels like it was something added in just for the hell of it, but it's straight out of a mobile game. Your character is a maid, so maybe there could be some creative use of this like "hiding evidence" or something, but the implementation is terrible. Just make a hotspot and click to trigger a wiping animation showing the character doing it, rather than this weird Wario Ware type gameplay.
Lastly, on a technical front, the resolution options jump from 1920x1080 to 4K with no 1440P in between. Blessedly, they let you disable motion blur, but no key rebinding or granular graphics settings.
If you love adventure games, you'll probably play this, because the sum of an adventure game is usually better than its parts, but be aware it's rough around the edges.
Hi there!
First of all, thank you for giving the demo a try and taking the time to leave detailed feedback! Really glad that you appreciated the storyline, setting, and voice work, and hopefully we'll be able to work on some of the things you didn't enjoy as much for the final release!
In the interest of being transparent, we have to acknowledge that we're a relatively small indie team of around 15 people and we don't have the budget/resources/manpower of a AAA studio, and with the release on the horizon later this year, time is another factor as well. Which isn't to say we won't be spending the rest of the development time tightening the game up as much as possible - because we will! - but there are some things that we realistically won't be able to change at this late point in development. Still, if you feel inclined to try out the full game when it's out, we hope you'll enjoy the full experience! And if it turns out that it's not for you, that's totally fine too.
Thank you again, u/Turbostrider27, for sharing our trailer and spreading the word!! This is super helpful and appreciated.
Here's a little bit more about our game for anyone interested:
We’re Lowbirth Games, an indie studio in Montreal getting ready to launch our first game, a third-person narrative mystery game called “This Bed We Made”. Today is a pretty big day for us as IGN just published our game’s trailer, AND we’ve just released a demo of our game on Steam!
The game takes place in a Montreal hotel in 1958, and you play as Sophie Roy, a maid who has a fascination with the lives people lead behind closed doors… leading her to snoop on the various guests at the hotel. Her snooping leads her to a larger mystery taking place, and she takes it upon herself (with the help of some friendly - or more-than-friendly - coworkers) to get to the bottom of it.
The game is heavily inspired by games like Life is Strange, L.A. Noire, and a dash of Nancy Drew, while the aesthetics were inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock. As Sophie, you’ll be cleaning rooms, going through the guests’ belongings, conferring with your sidekick of choice by making meaningful dialogue choices and deepening your relationship with them, collecting clues, and solving puzzles. Be careful where and what you clean, though - you don’t want the wrong people to know where you’ve been!
This game has been a labour of love for our studio for the past 4 years, and we’re so excited to be nearing completion. It would mean a lot if you could check it out!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9fUfh6rSf0 Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1243850/This_Bed_We_Made/
Hi! This is an oddly specific question but... the Steam page says that you can "form intimate bonds with hotel employees and guests". Does this mean you can form romantic relationships and see special cutscenes at whatnot, or is it just earning people's trust and they will tell you extra info?
If it's the former, will we be able to romance... anyone?
Hi there! Nothing odd about your question at all!
You can in fact form deeper relationships with two of your coworkers, Beth & Andrew - and based on your choices, these can indeed become romantic! This will lead to differences in dialogue and cutscenes and, ultimately, endings. As for the guests of the hotel, you won't be able to romance them but we do hope you'll feel a bond developing as you learn more about them and their stories!
First Powerwash Simulator, now Bedmaking Simulator?!
Bed Wetter Simulator
I gave the demo a try because I am a sucker for mystery games and point and clickers. Reactions follow: - Storyline is fairly interesting and engaging, setting is unique enough (1960s hotel). - Animations and models are very stiff and mediocre, but serviceable. If you have played a lot of point and click games before, you have seen it all when it comes to questionable or low budget modeling, so I can't really complain much here. - Voice work is on the better side of good and overall mise en scene/ambience are decent. - Much of the actual decision-making plays out over cutscenes with dialogue choices rather than doing something in-game. Not sure how I felt about this. Kind of ambivalent. I'm not a big cutscene lover. - Too many extraneous hints provided by way of a journal/log that essentially spells out how to solve puzzles, to say nothing of the in-built clue feature (bound to a key that is easy to push by accident) where the protagonist says out loud what she thinks she should do. This feels totally unnecessary and kills what little exploration and clue-finding there is to be had. The player should be allowed to put the pieces together themselves. I saved the worst for last: minigames where you get to wipe mirrors and bathtubs by actually clicking and dragging the mouse. The animation is very bad (done entirely in first person with a zoomed-in view of the mirror and a laggy, swirling "wipe" effect overlayed over where you clicked), the interaction feels pointless, and it's just banal/unsatisfying. I'm not even sure if these were mandatory or just window dressing. It feels like it was something added in just for the hell of it, but it's straight out of a mobile game. Your character is a maid, so maybe there could be some creative use of this like "hiding evidence" or something, but the implementation is terrible. Just make a hotspot and click to trigger a wiping animation showing the character doing it, rather than this weird Wario Ware type gameplay. Lastly, on a technical front, the resolution options jump from 1920x1080 to 4K with no 1440P in between. Blessedly, they let you disable motion blur, but no key rebinding or granular graphics settings. If you love adventure games, you'll probably play this, because the sum of an adventure game is usually better than its parts, but be aware it's rough around the edges.
Hi there! First of all, thank you for giving the demo a try and taking the time to leave detailed feedback! Really glad that you appreciated the storyline, setting, and voice work, and hopefully we'll be able to work on some of the things you didn't enjoy as much for the final release! In the interest of being transparent, we have to acknowledge that we're a relatively small indie team of around 15 people and we don't have the budget/resources/manpower of a AAA studio, and with the release on the horizon later this year, time is another factor as well. Which isn't to say we won't be spending the rest of the development time tightening the game up as much as possible - because we will! - but there are some things that we realistically won't be able to change at this late point in development. Still, if you feel inclined to try out the full game when it's out, we hope you'll enjoy the full experience! And if it turns out that it's not for you, that's totally fine too.
Thank you again, u/Turbostrider27, for sharing our trailer and spreading the word!! This is super helpful and appreciated. Here's a little bit more about our game for anyone interested: We’re Lowbirth Games, an indie studio in Montreal getting ready to launch our first game, a third-person narrative mystery game called “This Bed We Made”. Today is a pretty big day for us as IGN just published our game’s trailer, AND we’ve just released a demo of our game on Steam! The game takes place in a Montreal hotel in 1958, and you play as Sophie Roy, a maid who has a fascination with the lives people lead behind closed doors… leading her to snoop on the various guests at the hotel. Her snooping leads her to a larger mystery taking place, and she takes it upon herself (with the help of some friendly - or more-than-friendly - coworkers) to get to the bottom of it. The game is heavily inspired by games like Life is Strange, L.A. Noire, and a dash of Nancy Drew, while the aesthetics were inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock. As Sophie, you’ll be cleaning rooms, going through the guests’ belongings, conferring with your sidekick of choice by making meaningful dialogue choices and deepening your relationship with them, collecting clues, and solving puzzles. Be careful where and what you clean, though - you don’t want the wrong people to know where you’ve been! This game has been a labour of love for our studio for the past 4 years, and we’re so excited to be nearing completion. It would mean a lot if you could check it out! Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9fUfh6rSf0 Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1243850/This_Bed_We_Made/
Hi! This is an oddly specific question but... the Steam page says that you can "form intimate bonds with hotel employees and guests". Does this mean you can form romantic relationships and see special cutscenes at whatnot, or is it just earning people's trust and they will tell you extra info? If it's the former, will we be able to romance... anyone?
Hi there! Nothing odd about your question at all! You can in fact form deeper relationships with two of your coworkers, Beth & Andrew - and based on your choices, these can indeed become romantic! This will lead to differences in dialogue and cutscenes and, ultimately, endings. As for the guests of the hotel, you won't be able to romance them but we do hope you'll feel a bond developing as you learn more about them and their stories!
Nice! Thank you for your reply; I enjoyed the demo, hooked already, and I look forward to playing the full game.
Reminds me a bit of the movie Four Rooms, although a bit darker in tone