Slappy Salesman: Thank Goodness You're Here!
Help the town in this colourful comedy-adventure
‣ Thank Goodness You're Here!
From: Coal Supper, Panic
Platforms: PC
Release: 01 August 2024
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
A ridiculous comedy game where they dialled everything to the top and then broke off the knob.
The mania starts in your boss' office, watching a tourism video for Barnsworth, which he orders you to visit and sell goods to. Then he hits you in the head with his pencil holder.
No worries, you retaliate by destroying his water cooler, using the tank to reach the window, jumping out and falling ten storeys to catch your bus. Soon, you're in the village. But the Mayor is busy, says his secretary, as she plays Solitaire by trying to lick and stick her playing cards onto her monitor.
Never mind, let's visit the town and slap some people in the action-comedy "slap-former" Thank Goodness You're Here!
Strap in for an off-beat action adventure that taps deep into absurd and surreal British humour. If you've always wanted to slap kegs of lager, fondle cows, and liberate a trapped man with a brick of butter, your game has arrived.
Your character can walk and jump, exploring the town with relative freedom, accepting tasks from locals, and completing those quests to unlock more tasks—all done by slapping things and people. A game about a middle-aged man slapping people seems a little pervy. But less than two minutes into the demo and it's clear you're in for a very different ride.
The locals seem nonplussed by these physical interactions. In fact, you're probably the most normal person around these oddballs. Slapping the residents elicits grunts and verbal responses, sometimes pointing you to a new task. Accomplishing tasks changes the town to unlock new things to interact with, encouraging you to keep exploring your surroundings and slap more citizens.
However, 'task' is a liberal description. Some are very interactive, such as helping the pub owner restore his flat beer by slapping beer kegs. Others, like mowing the lawn, are practically a cutscene. But oh, what a cutscene.
None of the puzzles are hard or remotely complex. This is a linear game of fetch quests where each successful task opens up the next thing to do. Yet, there's also a good deal of freedom. You roam about the town, interacting with everything and discovering hidden gags and bizarre characters.
Thank Goodness You're Here! is a ridiculous comedy game where they dialled everything to the top and then broke off the knob. The art style draws from a mix of children's books and British humour comics. The soundtrack provides a laid-back yet silly vibe, and the voice cast, led by the irascible Matt Berry, brings the town's crazy residents to life.
If you ever wondered what kind of game Matt Berry would appear in, here's your answer. And if you don't know who Matt Berry is, you might have crossed paths with recent surreal British comedies like The IT Crowd or The Mighty Boosh. If none of that rings a bell, let's just say this game is nuts.
Thank Goodness You're Here! is VERY influenced by extreme surreal and absurdist British comedy. Yet, you don't need any exposure to British culture to grasp what's happening. You just need to appreciate really silly humour.
Even with that caveat, you might think the makers of Thank Goodness You're Here! are insane. But they're just from Yorkshire (which apparently means they are not insane). Then again, their previous game was The Good Time Garden (available for free on Steam), a bizarre experimental game filled with pink-hued creatures and off-beat interactions. Normal people don't make games like that.
📽 Demo Snapshot: No, he’s still stuck!
Nor do they make action adventures like Thank Goodness You're Here!, where slapping things is perfectly normal—yes, even slapping the jogger lady trying to free the rotund fellow stuck in a drainage grate. It just changes the song on her portable music player. At least that's better than the village drunk with the wet pants who barks for lager. And nobody saw you kill that flower. Welcome to Barnsworth!
Thank Goodness You're Here! will be released on 1st August 2024, coincidentally on Yorkshire Day… Lovely jubbly.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:40 Visit Barnsworth
📽 02:20 Welcome to Barnsworth
📽 04:14 Lager!
📽 05:10 The Mole Husband
📽 06:30 Mow the lawn
📽 07:03 That's grim!
📽 09: Still stuck
📽 09:55 A cobbler’s pint?
📽 10:53 In the cellar
📽 11:35 Swimming in beer
📽 13:15 Once more with vigor!
📽 14:25 Mother Megg's Buttery Goods
📽 15:50 Buttery goodness
Thanks for reading Adventures in Indie Gaming! Subscribe to receive new posts.
Not my type of game. But I almost got sold at Matt Berry ;-)