Maid Service with a Mystery
Or: How to clean rooms, solve puzzles and accidentally send the wrong person to jail.
*Minor spoilers ahoy!*
With the yearly version of a witching hour coming up, instead of questioning decisions made by a large, AAA level game company, we’ve uncovered a hidden gem: This Bed We Made (Lowbirth Games, 2023). Could we have reviewed the new Supermassive Game that came out this month? Yes, but it seems their marketing department has taken a long vacation and we’ve just found out they even released a game this year. Instead of struggling through describing the Dead by Daylight (Behavior Interactive Inc, 2016) universe, and all the questions we have about why it could need an extended universe (link to what was the plan here?), we’ve decided to just delay that article for a few months and be consistent with releasing our supermassive-themed articles in an untimely manner.
This Bed We Made is a wonderful indie game set in a 1958 Montreal hotel. The player takes over the character of Sophie, a maid for the 5th floor and a bit of a snoop. As you go about Sophie’s day, cleaning rooms and talking with coworkers, secrets are uncovered leading to a horrifying discovery. It is up to the player, with help from Sophie’s sidekick, to determine which clues to keep, which to destroy, and who to protect.
The game is fairly short; a single playthrough takes a few hours. Despite its smaller size, there is plenty to like, with a handful glitches. There was a lot of care taken with the development of the game and the atmosphere reflects it, but it wouldn’t be a Daughters and Dead Press article without some questions.
Leave No Stone Unturned And No Corner Unclean
TBWM definitely lives up to its promise of mystery and intrigue, at least on the first playthrough - but more on that later. There is a sense of danger and creeping uncertainty as you open locked drawers and go through suitcases. The camera angles increase the eeriness, but there are no jump scares. It’s a pretty chill time going through the guest belongings and chatting up your love interest at the front desk.
The story was concise, with a beginning, middle, and end. There are multiple endings, but the story is contained enough that they can all stem from the same branch or two. Occasionally, branching narrative can get out of hand (Quarry), and it was nice to see a fully fleshed out game that knew what it was about and kept on goal. The red herrings were camouflaged well, with enough evidence to support the multiple outcomes based on the player’s decisions to keep clues, or not. Depending on the player’s style, the red herring endings may feel justified and as satisfying as working through most drawers and safes in every room.
In utilising the best gameplay choice a studio can make, Lowbirth won us over by treating the tutorial not as just a tutorial, but a grade-A showcase of how to use storytelling tropes in a new medium. (If you know, you know). The developers have constructed the game with such care that every scene and location pulls its weight, in both story and gameplay. It is impossible to describe just how brilliant of a move this was, without spoiling the whole experience, so we won’t, up here. Check out this footnote for more(1).
The main cast were overall well developed. Sophie Roy is her own character, not an audience proxy, only there for the player to assume control of. She is also, wonderfully, a genuinely likeable character. She was trying to go to Paris and take care of her ailing mother, but she also wanted to look through everyone's stuff and read their diaries. #Relatable. Equally well-developed, her potential sidekicks, Beth and Andrew had their own stories and unique connection to the main plot, without imposing on Sophie. Their input was available without infringing on the player’s ability to draw conclusions independently.
Additionally, and as a most welcome surprise, the acting is good! For a smaller, indie company, had the acting been bad, one could hardly blame them going up against much larger budgets. However, the actors were convincing and engaging and kept players’ attention on the developing story. Bad acting can instantly disrupt the immersion, but that never happened here.
Sometimes What Looks Like a Guest’s Treasured Possession is Actually Trash
The game doesn’t explicitly label the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ endings; if you miss a clue or come to the ‘incorrect’ conclusion, you may send the wrong person to prison, without knowing, While this makes the game replayable in theory, in practice, the lack of clearly defined ‘bad’ endings leaves players potentially with a false sense of accomplishment and without going after the true perpetrator. There is no guide to aid the player in-game, which could be especially frustrating for completionists.
To add to this, the suspense becomes meaningless for most of the game once you figured out that nobody will actually catch you snooping. Since you are not on an invisible timer collecting and connecting clues, the thrill and urgency of solving the mystery dissipates. This is both a blessing and a curse as you can take your time playing the game but it diminishes the eerie atmosphere set early on in the game.
What was perhaps the main pain in playing were the controls and glitches. Elevator buttons were invisible, drawers got stuck open, and clearly dirty towels could not be removed. For many players, getting the best ending was impossible due to a walking programming bug. Not all tasks learned in the tutorial were used in the remainder of the game, notably the vacuum/carpet cleaner, making it feel rather redundant to have learned it in the first place.
The investigation mechanics were poorly executed and wonky. For some clues, the player had to ‘zoom in’ on certain pieces of information for Sophie to officially recognise it. While this was technically not an issue for most of the game, failure to investigate key information would ont trigger the true ending, despite the player potentially coming to the correct conclusion outside the game. Without Sophie recognizing the information, the conclusions of the player became meaningless, adding to frustration once the ending was reached. Though, we can acknowledge that the developers push out updates following bug reports.
The price point for the game is on the more expensive side, especially for a game so short with the above mentioned issues. Lowbirth Games is not as pricey as big studios and nowhere near as bad as Nintendo, however, with the cost, we would’ve expected more content. Supporting indie studios is important, nevertheless… 💸💸💸💸💸.
Your Governess May Ask You to Perform Other Related Duties at Any Moment
Since the story is so contained, both in characters and location, we here at Daughters and Dead Press have a few daydreams (or is it delusions?) we would love to see in the future. Sophie handles the 5th floor, but what happens on floor number 3? Who is the mysterious guest in the executive suite? What is happening in the ballroom? The game has the potential for whole new mysteries to be unravelled. What happens in the kitchens or the ballroom or down in the laundry with the other maids? There is untapped available space for stories to fill the hotel and the studio would be culturally negligent to let it pass by.
We have some ideas, Lowbirth, if you are looking for pitches. We do love the game, despite the few criticisms we discussed here. Send us a message - we’re waiting.
TLDR: it’s a fun game we thoroughly enjoyed playing, but maybe buy it on sale.
Sources
Knox, R. (1928 | 1976). Introduction to The Best Detective Stories of 1928-29. Reprinted in Haycraft, Howard, Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story, Revised edition, New York: Biblio and Tannen.
Image Credit
This Bed We Made (@thisbedwemade) (2023). “Behind every door lies a mystery #indiegame #indiedev #montreal #mtl #gamedev #gamestudio #gaming #pcgaming #gamergirl #gamer #instagaming #gamingcommunity #videogame #videogames #game #gamestagram #steam #makersofinstagram #keyart #mysterygame #narrativegame #videogameart #videogamecharacter #pc #instagamer #gamers #indie” 30 January, https://www.instagram.com/p/CoDhCK2v1Hm/?igsh=ZXU5cTkwOWR5amdo
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(1) The tutorial room holds the key to unlocking the true ending of the game. The guest in room 504 is, in fact, the murderer, keeping the game faithful to the 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction, by Ronald Knox. The first commandment, of course, is that “the criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow,” (Knox, 1928). We can acknowledge that prescriptive rules for mysterying writing from a century ago may not always hold up, but a satisfying mystery does introduce the audience to the criminal early on. Some tropes have purpose, after all.