Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Thank Goodness You're Here!
2024 video game From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Thank Goodness You're Here! is an adventure video game developed by Coal Supper and published by Panic. Players take the role of a travelling salesman who performs odd jobs for the residents of a bizarre town in Northern England. It is available for macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows. It was released on 1 August 2024. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its absurdist humour.
Remove ads
Plot
The player character, an unnamed and very small balding salesman, is sent by his employer to the fictional northern English town of Barnsworth for a meeting with the town's Lord Mayor. The mayor's receptionist explains that the mayor is in a meeting and won't be done for hours, so the salesman explores the town and solves the eccentric residents' problems—such as helping a man get his arm unstuck from a sewer grate or delivering meat from a ham butcher's to a pie shop—in order to pass the time. As the story progresses, the residents' antics gradually become more bizarre and unhinged. At the end of the game, the salesman is overwhelmed by the residents' demands for help and returns to the mayor's office, only to find out the mayor wants his help with an errand as well.
Alternatively, the player can choose to wait in the reception area for the full duration. After 15 minutes of waiting, the mayor finishes his business early and allows the salesman to meet with him, upon which he asks for help with the errand.
Remove ads
Development and release
Summarize
Perspective
Thank Goodness You're Here! was developed by Coal Supper, a two-person Yorkshire-based indie studio composed of programmer Will Todd and artist James Carbutt.[1] The pair had met as children in their home town of Barnsley in northern England, and after university developed The Good Time Garden (2019), a free, surreal adventure game.[2] After its release, they decided to work on a larger game as a full-time endeavor. The initial concept for Thank Goodness You're Here! was a series of "sketch comedy" vignettes,[3] with plans to include "deeper puzzles, non-linear elements, more complex controls" but no main character or specific setting.[1][4] The pair approached a large number of publishers with the concept in order to fund the project, and after being rejected by several and not convincing others of the vision, selected Panic as the publisher.[2]
As they continued designing the game, however, the pair grew concerned that without a stronger vision that they were going to end up creating a "bad puzzle game", which could not be saved with humor.[4] Taking inspiration from Vic Reeves Big Night Out, a 1990s comedy show,[2] they decided to focus the game instead on the comedy rather than the gameplay, limiting the gameplay choices to a single "interact" button.[4] As the gameplay was limited, they wanted the "interact" button to have an external effect for the player, and chose a "slap" as simple and funny.[1] The game was also given the setting of a town to provide a place for the vignettes, and the question of how the player moved between them was answered as "maybe you're just a little guy who wanders around".[3]
The writing process for the game began with Todd and Carbutt inventing voices and characters and trying to make the other laugh with jokes.[5] The pair would then work out how to make the jokes into gameplay. They also brought on a contract animator, Pip Williamson, and derived jokes from the way she animated the characters.[2] As the duo's natural accents and comedic voice was based on Northern England, the characters they invented were from there, and the town then became the specific town of Barnsworth, based on Barnsley.[4] Todd and Carbutt recorded most of the voices themselves, but some characters were voiced by others, such as Jon Blyth and Matt Berry.[2][6] Originally the town was intended to be an open world, or have branching paths, but they found that players would get lost and miss jokes.[3] The scope of the game changed greatly over the course of development, as the pair had no experience with developing a larger game; originally they felt the game would be complete by 2021 after a year of development, but went three years over time.[2][3]
Thank Goodness You're Here was announced in August 2023 at the Gamescom trade show.[3] Prior to release, it was shown at the May 2024 London Games Festival and June Tribeca Festival.[7][8] It was released on 1 August 2024, to coincide with Yorkshire Day,[9] for Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. A physical edition for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 was published by Lost In Cult in 2025.[10]
Remove ads
Reception
Summarize
Perspective
Reception
Thank Goodness You're Here! received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. It was ranked as the twelfth-highest rated game of 2024 by aggregated score for Windows, and in the top 25 for Nintendo Switch.[11]
Eurogamer and GameSpot praised the game's absurdist humour.[12][13]
Awards
Thank Goodness You're Here! won the Britsh Game award at the 21st British Academy Games Awards, and was nominated for five other categories, including Best Game, Animation, and Debut Game.[21] It also received nominations and honorable mentions at several other awards, such as Best Indie Game at the 42nd Golden Joystick Awards,[22] Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction and Story at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards,[23] and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 23rd Independent Games Festival Awards.[24]
Remove ads
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads