The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge
isn't actually a video game, but we don't have a "Transdimensional Window" namespace, so "video game" will have to do.
The window, which functions in a way similar to a Point-and-Click Game, was created by Jonas Kyratzes to let you access the Lands Of Dream, where the inventor Old Man Bill has disappeared, leaving his house and creations behind. Explore the House on Desert Bridge, interact with its strange inhabitants, and discover the truth about Bill's whereabouts.
The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge contains the following tropes:
- Animate Inanimate Object: The first thing you see after starting a new game is Harold the Picture Frame, the oldest of Bill's creations.
- Bittersweet Ending: Old Man Bill has abandoned the house, but the other residents are more capable than he thought they were, and manage to flee from Urizen's army, promising that some day, they'll reunite.
- Crapsaccharine World: The setting is colorful, whimsical, and happy, but there are hints of something dark. Most of it is caused by the evil Lord Urizen massacring anything and anyone in the way of a perfectly efficient "machine".
- Despair Event Horizon: Old Man Bill crossed it after realizing he had no chance of fighting off Urizen's army, and fled the House.
- Domesticated Dinosaurs: Bill has a Sauropod named Stripes, who hatched from an egg he found in the desert.
- Early Instalment Weirdness: Unlike later Lands of Dream games, you navigate only by clicking near the borders of the window, instead of using arrows buttons. Each room can also be viewed from four directions, which, combined with the previous point, makes navigating more difficult.
- Hamster-Wheel Power: The House is powered by giant hamsters running on wheels. Unfortunately, they haven't been fed, so at the start, the House is running on backup power.
- No Fourth Wall: The "game" is actually a window that lets the creator and you interact with another world. All the characters are talking to you, not an avatar that you are controlling through the game interface. The game window is actually an in-game item that you can interact with.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Hamsters of Doom. They provide Hamster-Wheel Power.
- Sequence Breaking: Many puzzles are just there to give you passwords. If you know the passwords from a previous playthrough or reading a guide, you can skip most puzzles in the game.
- Talking Animal: Many, including a fish, cat, mice (although they currently are mushrooms), a rabbit (who hates talking), and two ducks (one rubber, one currently a chicken).
- Technicolor Science: Combining colors in different orders in the lab produces various items.
- Wham Shot: The shot of Urizen's army approaching over the horizon hammers in that this isn't just a funny and weird adventure in a strange land, and that you need to solve the mystery of Bill's disappearance fast.
- Wise Old Turtle: Zathras is very old, from before the desert was a desert. Zathras remembers all of it. Zathras knows.
