Highlights
- This Bed We Made is a stylish murder mystery game set in the 1950s, where players take on the role of a maid named Sophie who snoops around the Clarington Hotel to uncover secrets of the guests.
- The game embraces the voyeuristic nature of human beings by allowing players to scratch their itch to snoop and explore the lives of others, satisfying their inner sleuth through engaging mechanics such as puzzle-solving and uncovering clues.
- Players will be faced with choices that will impact the narrative and affect Sophie's efficacy as a detective and her performance as a maid, creating a dual-life experience that is in the hands of the player.
This Bed We Made is the new, stylish murder mystery from Lowbirth Games. Set in the 1950’s, players will take the role of Sophie as she attempts to uncover the secrets of the mysterious guests at the Clarington Hotel. The game explores the naturally voyeuristic nature of all human beings through completing a variety of puzzles and analyzing clues found while snooping under the guise of a maid. Those who want to begin unraveling the secrets of this award-winning indie title can play the demo now on Steam, with full game is slated for release sometime in 2023 on PC.
Game ZXC had a chance to speak with narrative writer and marketing director Sai Afzal on the subject of human nature, with the developer highlighting how one’s natural curiosity plays a central role in This Bed We Made.
This Bed We Made Lets Players Give Into Their Nosey Side
This Bed We Made has all the best qualities of a good murder mystery: glamorous film noir flair, enigmatic baddies, and, of course, a main character who loves to snoop. The story centers itself around a maid named Sophie who uses her access to guests’ rooms to snoop and uncover clues about the lives of the hotel’s secretive visitors. Players will engage with a variety of mechanics from uncovering clues to solving puzzles in an effort to solve the mysteries of the Clarington Hotel. One of the best features of the game, however, is how readily it lets players scratch the itch to stick their nose into other peoples’ business.
With over 7 billion humans on Earth at this moment each person has their own traits that make them unique. That being said, there are some characteristics of being human that just seem to stick for everyone—being curious and borderline nosey is definitely one of them. When asked why people at large are so fascinated by the lives of others, Afzal weighed in on why they think people have a tendency towards voyeurism: desire for connectedness and just plain nosiness.
“The more wholesome answer is that it stems from an innate yearning for connectedness that I believe we all possess…The less wholesome answer is that we’re just nosy.”
Afzal believes that the media landscape, spanning reality TV to social media, helps prime people to take interest in the lives of others—especially those with prominent platforms. In other words, viewers consume seemingly intimate pieces of the lives of those broadcast to them and in turn fuel the fires of their own curiosity. People are also just nosey. The lives and human nature of others are so vastly unique that some can’t help but feel enticed by going to a friend’s house to quietly observe, getting a strange satisfaction out of witnessing how others may live their lives so differently from oneself.
This Bed We Made gives into that itch by allowing players the opportunity to snoop and satisfy their inner sleuth through a variety of engaging mechanics. And while Afzal didn’t want to give too much away, they ensure players that they will have the opportunity to decode secrets and put puzzle pieces together, both literally and figuratively.
Players will also find themselves engaging with the environment in a variety of other ways, often asking themselves questions that will affect how they wish to proceed on certain levels. Questions like “should I help by cleaning up incriminating evidence?” or “should I clean this room and give away my presence?” will drive players' choices, and decisions made will impact the narrative, seemingly affecting not only Sophie’s efficacy as a sleuth but also her job performance as a maid. She has to live a dual life after all, and balancing the responsibilities of maid and detective lies solely in the player’s hands.
“Sophie’s still on the clock and those rooms aren’t going to clean themselves, so one of the game’s primary mechanics involves tidying up - but it just so happens that cleaning up a room is a great pretense for snooping…”
Afzal notes that one of the great qualities of This Bed We Made and games at large is their ability to let players give into their curious side in a fictional space where no one is actually having their privacy violated. Lowbirth Game’s newest title does just that—it dishes out an engaging narrative in which players can immerse themselves in Sophie’s world, scratching the itch to peak momentarily into the lives of others while also making a few beds along the way.
This Bed We Made is anticipated to release in full on PC some time in 2023.