History VideoGame / GraveyardKeeper

* HeroDoesEverything: An interesting variation. On top of doing a lot of things for a lot of people you are by the end of the game- a graveyard keeper, a prior, a farmer, a vinter, a necromancer-of-sorts, head of a large scale mining/quarry/lumber operation, and if you bought the dlc a tavern owner.

* TheReveal: Several [=NPC=] relations aren't immediately obvious, such as [[spoiler:The Snake being the Holy Inquisitor's son, the Bishop and Merchant being estranged brothers, and the Old Astrologer being Ms. Charm's father]].

* ImAHumanitarian: You can turn the whole village into this by knowingly selling them human meat. You can also become this yourself by baking the flesh and eating it. Funnily enough, both human flesh and frog meat produce the exact same product, with no functional or aesthetic difference between the two, nor any sort of downsides, except maybe to your humanity and your right call yourself a moral individual. Especially poignant with the Holy Inquisitor's questline, where you sell burgers and beer at witch burnings to make them more popular. Sure, you ''could'' fish for, or buy Frogs from Clotho the Swamp Witch to make the meat, but a lot of your corpses are still pretty fresh, and it's not like anyone will know...

* BrokenBridge: While there's only one literal example in the game, cutting you off from the western half of the map and the Swamp, there are numerous obstacles that keep you from accessing parts of the game like the dungeon beneath the church, and especially higher tier resources.

Such is the premise for Graveyard Keeper. Essentially ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' or ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' with ''much'' more corpses and a far darker, grimmer, and comedic take on the Medieval country life, the game has you doing much of the staples of the genre such as gathering resources, growing crops, making money and gradually expanding onto more complex and profitable ventures--like, say, [[ImAHumanitarian carving off flesh from dead bodies]] and selling it to the local innkeeper, helping a zealous inquisitor find witches and make their burnings much more appealing to the masses via advertising flyers and free food and drink, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking entertain the whimsies of a lovely singer]] named Ms. Charm.

** '''Greed''' - You, the Graveyard Keeper, as you inevitably will succumb to the pursuit of owning everything in your playthrough, and the numerous ''less than ethical'' means you can use to make money for your own selfish reasons, no matter how sympathetic going home to your lover is.

Imagine that one rainy, miserable night in the city, you go off to the grocery store to buy some daily necessities, and a gift for your loved one. Just as you exit the store and begin to cross the street, your sweetheart calls you, and so distracted by answering, you don't notice the car barelling towards you until you hear the frantic squeal of brakes and a blinding flash before everything suddenly goes dark.

The game was developed by Lazy Bear Games, and published by Tiny Build Games. It was released in 2018.

** '''Greed''' - You, the Graveyard Keeper, as you inevitably will succumb to the persuit of owning everything in your playthru.

* Selling money and goods to vendors follows a semi-realistic model of Supply and Demand. Certain vendors will only buy certain goods that they need or trade in themselves, they will only have a limited amount of money to give you (until you improve the church, and thus, foot traffic to the area), and the more you sell the same commodity, the smaller its value will get as you make it less and less valuable, rarity-wise. This has lead to MANY players stuck with investments they are unable to turn a profit on until the markets restock, alongside the general lack of decent, constant means to get funds.

Such is the premise for Graveyard Keeper. Essentially ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' or ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' with ''much'' more corpses and a far darker, grimmer, and comedic take on the Medieval country life,the game has you doing much of the staples of the genre such as gathering resources, growing crops, making money and gradually expanding onto more complex and profitable ventures--like, say, [[ImAHumanitarian carving off flesh from dead bodies]] and selling it to the local innkeeper, helping a zealous inquisitor find witches and make their burnings much more appealing to the masses via advertising flyers and free food and drink, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking entertain the whimsies of a lovely singer]] named Ms. Charm.

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Money can be ''absurdly'' hard to come by. For example, after you go through the trouble of opening up the church and improving your grave from its abysmal negative score, the Donkey starts to charge you oil for his wheels, and a recurring fee of 10 carrots every two bodies delivered (with Pride Day off), cutting you off from your most basic form of income: selling Burial Certificates. And even then, the Inn Keeper Horadric and every other merchant only has a limited amount of money that they can give you, and will only buy specific goods, with the exception of fire wood...
** An even worse, mid-game frustration that has many players vocally protesting is the Big Church upgrade, which costs 20 silver. Immediately after that, and without warning, you have to pony up 1 gold (''100'' silver, five times as much as the church upgrade) to have sermons again, which oftentimes serves as a player's constant source of income and the ''only'' way to get valuable Faith.
*** A patch (which so far has only been released on PC) lowered this cost to "only" another 20 silver. It still comes out of nowhere with absolutely no warning.

* {{Bathos}}: While the Inquisitor's hunting down, torturing, and burning witches is ''never'' played for laughs, his getting you to make flyers for the event, and sell beer and hamburgers during them certainly ''is.'' Bonus points if you made the meat using corpse flesh.

* BurnTheWitch: The Holy Inquisitor's favourite part of his job. One of the in-game questlines involves trying to get people to come to them after losing interest, such as providing free food and drink.

* DungeonCrawling: There is a truly elaborate dungeon spanning 15 floors underneath the church/graveyard, which you explore at the behest of Snake for his dark rituals. Your character only really agrees as it could help him get home..
* EarlyGameHell: In spite of the fact that Gerry explicitly advises you to sell off the flesh of your first autopsied corpse for money, you aren't able to actually get a Royal Meat Stamp and the paper necessary to make it a package until mid-to-late game, either by exploring the dungeons, or paying up several silvers more than you can earn at that time, which is ''also'' gated by having to open the church by repairing and improving the graveyard with your limited resources and means. This is only exacerbated by the lack of other means to make money aside from burying corpses (and even then, Horadric only has so much money to give), the poor quality of your tools which break all the time, and how many areas and conveniences are blocked off with materials from higher tech trees.

* GuideDangIt: Certain parts of the game are intentionally left obfuscated (such as the late-game "Cultist" perk for autopsies), require trial and error (alchemy reagents), or are explained at inconvenient times, such as WHY exactly it's a bad idea to bury corpses with numerous red skulls in your graveyard. (The hit to your quality score aside, [[spoiler:the dead are not happy with the prospect of eternal rest beside such mangled bodies, and summon lightning to destroy your precious grave decorations.]]
* HappilyEverAfter: By the end of the game, after [[spoiler:activating the portal and helping the rest of the cast overcome their personal dramas and failings, the Graveyard Keeper is finally reunited with his lover, if by her getting transported into this world instead.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: You can turn the whole village into this, by knowingly selling them human meat. You can also become this, by baking the flesh and eating it yourself. Funnily enough, both human flesh and frog meat produce the exact same product, with no functional or aesthetic difference between the two, nor any sort of downsides, except maybe to your humanity and your right call yourself a moral individual.
** Especially poignant with the Holy Inquisitor's questline, where you sell burgers and beer at witch burnings to make them more popular. Sure, you ''could'' fish for, or buy Frogs from Clotho the Swamp Witch to make the meat, but a lot of your corpses are still pretty fresh, and it's not like anyone will know...

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "The Snake," a cultist and all-around seedy individual.

* TheReveal: Several [=NPC=] relations aren't immediately obvious, such as [[spoiler:The Snake being the Holy Inquisitor's son, the Bishop and Merchant being estranged brothers, and the Old Astrologer being Ms. Charm's father.]]

** '''Envy''' - Represented by '''The Snake,''' who envies the townsfolk for their peaceful, happy lives, after he lost [[spoiler:his idyllic life at the Vineyard with his parents, one of whom is the Holy Inquisitor,]] and wishes to destroy them all with dark rituals.
** '''Gluttony''' - Represented by '''The Merchant,''' who seeks to gain great riches and fame in the Royal Courts, primarily by partnering up with you to sell vegetables, and eventually, ingredients for the royal's lavish meals.

** '''Pride''' - Represented by '''The Bishop,''' who is absolutely obsessed with his personal appearance as evidenced by the mirror he carries underneath his hat, and how he appears to the Church, tasking you with beautifying your graveyard and your church for his benefit.
** '''Sloth''' - Represented by the '''Old Astrologer,''' who has lost his job and position at the University, and now spends most of his days hanging out with the Lighthouse Keeper and watching the stars, devoid of purpose, devoid of passion, and devoid of any motivation to do much anything else.
** '''Wrath''' - Represented by the '''Holy Inquisitor,''' who after [[spoiler:losing his wife, his son, and his peaceful life as a winemaker to The Great Blast]], dedicated the rest of his life to hunting down the witches he believes responsible, thinking of nothing more than the next one he will root out, torture, and burn at the stake.

* ShoutOut: The Donkey is allegedly from a "left-leaning stable," and has communist views, such as a marked disdain for your character being a "capitalist" and profitting off the dead bodies he delivers to you without compensation. He wouldn't be out of place in George Orwell's ''Literature/AnimalFarm''.
** The Ghost who advises you about the state of your graveyard is named [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} "Yorick."]] Ironically, you never find his skull, nor [[AlasPoorYorick hold it as you lament his demise.]] You do however [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] that the character who ''is'' a skull is named Gerry.
* TalkingAnimal: The Donkey who delivers you your corpses. He uses his gift of speech to rail against you, a "capitalist," and constantly spouts off the communist views he got from the "left-leaning stable" he was born in. Notably, you are the only person capable of communicating with him.
* TechTree: Upgrades, new buildings, and permanent perks are unlocked in this manner. It can be a little confusing and frustrating as certain upgrades are interedpendent on one another, but you don't see them locked off as they're in an entirely different page altogether. An example of this is Armour (in the Smithing category), which is made in the Carpenter's Workbench (in the Building category). There is also the fact that you can buy blueprints before you have access to the station that crafts them...
* TomeOfEldritchLore: The Necronomicon, which you have to retrieve for Snake during his questline. In keeping in line with the game's tone, you retrieve it from the [[spoiler:Lighthouse Keeper who said he enjoyed it for the pretty pictures, as he's illiterate.]]

** '''Envy''' - Represented by '''The Snake,''' who envies the townsfolk for their peaceful, happy lives, after he lost [[spoiler:his idyllic life at the Vineyard with his parents, one of whom is the Holy Inquisitor.]]

** The Ghost who advises you about the state of your graveyard is named [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} "Yorick."]] Ironically, you never find his skull, nor [[AlasPoorYorick hold it as you lament his demise.]]

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Your character, the Graveyard Keeper. The entire game's ultimate goal is trying to find a way home.

* SevenDeadlySins: The game is based around them, with the six days of the week being named after them (sans Greed), and one plot-important [=NPC=] representing each them, as symbolized by a memento or beloved item they have.

* TheReveal: Several [=NPC=] relations aren't immediately obvious, such as [[spoiler:The Snake being the Holy Inquisitor's son, the Bishop and Merchant being estranged brothers, the Old Astrologer being Ms. Charm's father.]]

* DramaticIrony: The first time you meet the Dairy Farmer, the Keeper asks if they sell beef. She expresses horror at the thought, saying the cows are friends, and they are not unlike the people of The Town below. She even says she believes they eat human flesh, which is especially funny and ironic if you've actually been selling Horadric the Inn Keeper human flesh for money.

* ShoutOut: The Donkey is allegedly from a "left-leaning stable," and has extreme communist views, such as a marked disdain for your character beingf a "capitalist" and profitting off the dead bodies he delivers to you without compensation. He wouldn't be out of place in George Orwell's ''Literature/AnimalFarm''.

Essentially ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' or ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' with ''much'' more corpses and a far darker, grimmer, and comedic take on the Medieval country life, ''Graveyard Simulator'' has you doing much of the staples of the genre such as gathering resources, growing crops, making money and gradually expanding onto more complex and profitable ventures--like, say, [[ImAHumanitarian carving off flesh from dead bodies]] and selling it to the local innkeeper, helping a zealous inquisitor find witches and make their burnings much more appealing to the masses via advertising flyers and free food and drink, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking entertain the whimsies of a lovely singer]] named Ms. Charm.

* BlackComedy: Plenty of moments, but by far the most prominent example is the game proudly advertising harvesting organs and human flesh from dead bodies for resources as "being efficient."

* ShoutOut: The Donkey is allegedly from a "left-leaning stable," and has extreme communist views, such as a marked disdain for your character beingf a "capitalist" and profitting off the dead bodies he delivers to you without compensation. He wouldn't be out of place in GeorgeOrwell's ''Literature/AnimalFarm''.