“As always the game ran into some kind of problem and cannot handle itself anymore.”
"Good day, Mr. Workman. We assume you have a lot of questions. However, we have a lot less answers."
—The Devs
Welcome to Bummertown is a game developed and published by the indie developer Think Inside the Box. It was released on September 11, 2018. It’s a short, goofy adventure featuring puzzles, fetch quests, and absolutely no fourth wall whatsoever.
You play as Mr. (or Ms.) Workman, who doesn’t know much about what’s going on, except that the main objective of the game is to find a missing NPC named Bedford. And so off to find Bedford it is—exploring Bummertown, chatting with the extremely weird cast of NPC's to find out more, and doing endless menial tasks for them. There’s only one problem: the video game isn’t finished. The developers seem to have gotten sidetracked and forgotten about it… which means Workman can’t even physically get to half of the game’s locations without running into an error message! Luckily the mayor of Bummertown has access to the logic terminal, so there’s still hope of finding Bedford… but you’ve got to fix the game along the way.
Welcome to Bummertown contains examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: Of fetch-quest games, puzzle games, and every indie game that's ever gotten stuck in
Development Hell. - As Himself: The credits just list all the NPC's as themselves. Justified as they're implied to be like actors who can audition for roles in video games.
- Big Eater: Ralph.
- Chain of Deals: Most of the game's plot is drawn out via these.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Angelina.
- Contractual Genre Blindness: Some of the NPC's slip into this, most notably Archibald, who knows exactly where Bedford is but feels compelled to purposely drag out the plot and send Workman into the cave because that’s what he thinks he’s supposed to do.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Gracie, although she admits openly that it's only part of her NPC role.
- Credits Gag: George reappears in the credits three times; the third time he has to be forcibly removed by security.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of the characters, although the self-aware billboard in the center of downtown is especially snarky.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In the bar when Denzel is beating up other NPC's, presumably to death since they blink and fade out of existence, said other NPC's pop right back to where they were previously and don't seem to care what just happened to them.
- Development Hell: In-Universe. The game isn't finished, and the NPC's have been stuck there for "eight months of agony." It turns out the game was originally supposed to be called My Neighbor Who Once Was A Doctor But Then Became A Farmer, starring Bedford, but the developers forgot about it and threw together Welcome to Bummertown from the scraps.
- Eldritch Location:The screens you encounter in the cave. They're weird, creepy, and don't seem physically possible. Justified, as this is the least finished part of the game.
- Fetch Quest: Out the wazoo, though it’s heavily lampshaded.Devs: In order to find him you’ll have to explore the town, talk to people, and satisfy their whims.
- Foreshadowing: At the very beginning of the game, Mayor Agnes accidentally refers to you as "Bedford" and has to restart her programming before she gets it right, hinting at the fact that Bedford was actually supposed to be the main character.
- Genre Refugee: Buramog, the monster from a violent fantasy game who somehow got stuck in Welcome to Bummertown.Workman: You're not a local, are you?Buramog: Is it that obvious?
- Guilt-Based Gaming: The "quit" button on the main menu says "Give Up."
- I Take Offense to That Last One: One of your objectives is to get three NPC's to try to fight Denzel. All three conversations follow this formula, creating a triple Rule of Three.Workman: He says, "You're so dense that light bends around you."Cliff: That explains a lot.Workman: He says, "You must have been born on a highway because that's where most accidents happen."Cliff: How does he know that? I was born because of a highway accident.Workman: He says, "Words can't describe your red hat, so he'll just throw up."Cliff: WHAT?! Nobody will insult my hat. NOBODY!
- Jump Scare: Some of the error messages can be this when you're not expecting them.
- Lampshade Hanging: The game's sense of humor pretty much runs on this.
- Mad Scientist: Archibald.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Mayor Agnes has some kind of programming update seizure wherein she completely glitches out and her eyeballs turn glowing white. She claims she had an “itchy ear.”
- Medium Awareness: Pretty much all the characters have this. Somewhat justified in that part of the shtick is the NPC's being like actors who take on roles in video games like actors in plays.
- Mood Whiplash: The game has a silly, lighthearted, sarcastic tone for the first three hours or so. As soon as you enter the cave, things get super creepy and weird.
- Narcissist: George.Workman: See you later.George: I'm sure you hope to.
- No Fourth Wall: The characters are 100% aware that they're in a video game. Most of them don't even bother pretending.
- Rage Against the Author: The game doesn't really have an antagonist, but if it's anyone, it's the devs. Bedford in particular is angry at them for neglecting the game and gets back at them by writing a bad review on Steam.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Eventually revealed to be the reason Bedford is missing. He felt neglected as an NPC and tried to run away. It doesn’t work, as he ends up in a very glitchy part of the game and almost gets erased.
- Self-Deprecation: Another hallmark of the game's comedy. The game developers are portrayed as terrible people who can't be bothered to finish their projects and don't care about the NPC's they're exploiting, and they don't try to pretend they think it's even a good game.Devs: Beware. Your brain might turn into mush and leak out through the ears after playing this game.
- Shout-Out:Mayor Agnes: Frankly, my dear Workman, I don't give a damn.
- Don Cow's entire Godfather shtick.
Don Cow: Workman, Workman. What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? You come on my daughter’s wedding day and ask me to commit murder for money.Workman: Umm... I didn't ask you anything.- Lampshaded by pig:
Pig: That cow watches way too many movies. - Self-Applied Nickname: "The Alluring George."
- Solve the Soup Cans: Most of the puzzles are this, as lampshaded by the devs.Devs: You'll also have to do things that may not seem logical or a part of the game's flow. Just ignore those things. We'll fix them later.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Workman... after taking some pills from the Crazy Cat Lady.
- Take That!: While George is listing the video games he's starred in:George: Also, that one Superman game. I don't remember the name of it, but my manager assured me it was a hit and that I should forget about it entirely.
