#bertram fiddle

47/52 #52gamechallenge Adventures of Bertram Fiddle Episode 1: A Dreadly Business

I started this about a month ago, but totally forgot I was playing it. Then I realised that Untitled Goose Game and Link’s Awakening were out tomorrow and I remembered I had some unfinished stuff to do first. Turns out I was very near the end anyway.

Bertram Fiddle is a point and click adventure game set in Victorian London, complete with mutton chops and Sherlock Holmes and a murder with a…

The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle  is a series (there are two of them now — A Dreadly Business and A Bleaker Predicklement — so it’s definitely a series) of classic-style point-and-click (or tap and… nothing, just tap) adventure games by Rumpus Animation. Because I haven’t gotten very far into the second one and it’s been over a year since I played the first, I will lazily review both episodes in one post. The most important point is, of course, that both games are hilarious and charming, with a particularly odd and very British sense of humor, set in a most peculiar version of Victorian England.

As I’ve mentioned on twitter, one of my favorite things to do in adventure games is pretty much random mischief. If there is an opportunity for me to ruin someone’s day, even if I don’t know precisely why I want to do whatever thing it appears I can do, I will absolutely do it. This usually works out well for me in the kind of adventure games (this kind) that I prefer to play. I’ve already ruined two characters’ days in A Bleaker Predicklement with no clear idea of what I’m going to do with the things I’ve gained thereby. Oh and I also ruined a squirrel’s day, but I do know why (because I have already done the thing involving said squirrel). I foresee lots of mischief in my future: there certainly was plenty in the first episode.

I should mention, I guess, that it isn’t really necessary to do random things: there is always a clue that I should have done whatever thing it is I did. I just generally seem to happen upon those clues later, after I’ve already committed said mischief. I don’t think this is because I’m a genius at adventure games: probably it’s just because I’m kind of a jerk.

Fortunately both games are of the newer school of adventure games, in which you can’t get yourself into a losing situation. You can fail to make meaningful progress toward winning, certainly, but you won’t break your shovel digging up the wrong grave (as if that even makes sense) (King’s Quest IV was one of the handful of games that came with the CD-ROM/sound card bundle my dad bought for our PC when I was a little kid so it’s pretty much my frame of reference for classic adventure games). You may simply find yourself wandering the strange little world populated with even stranger people looking for mischief to engage in.

I guess it doesn’t hurt to explain that Bertram Fiddle, the character, is a mostly self-proclaimed adventurer, and in these two episodes at least (and keep in mind, I don’t know yet how episode 2 ends), is in pursuit of Geoff the Murderer. Either Geoff or whoever bestowed that nickname upon him is clearly every bit as good at coming up with names for things as I am, incidentally. I guess I’ve just spoiled that at the end of episode 1 you haven’t caught him yet. The game is fully voice-acted by a talented group which includes the daughter of writer/designer Seb Burnett (who pointed out that being on the hook for at lest eighteen years of food, clothing, education, etc. far outweighs the cost of a voice actor, so having children to populate your own cast of characters is not the most fiscally sound option: there may be other reasons to have children though, I guess). It’s highly adorable, hence worth mentioning. Oh and the background music is perfect in every way: adventurery and Victori-ish. 

I was a kickstarter backer of the second game, and even with as little as I’ve played so far, it has met all of my expectations (which were pretty high: I really liked the first game). Basically I think you should buy it, and I promise it’s funny and charming, even though I am trying really really hard not to spoil any of the funny bits. Oh, and you can also play Bertram Fiddle’s Inexplicable Meat Mound, if, you know, that’s your thing. It’s sort of a novella in this series of novels, or however you express that idea when you’re talking about games, not books. And it’s also worth listening to the episode of Unconsolable featuring Seb, because it’s hilarious. And its title is The Old Reach-Around. What could be more compelling than that.

Links!

Bertram Fiddle on Twitter

Bartmann Fritzel on Twitter… for some reason?

Bertram Fiddle: A Dreadly Business for iOS*

Bertram Fiddle: A Dready Business on Steam

Bertram Fiddle’s Inexplicable Meat Mound

Bertram Fiddle: A Bleaker Predicklement for iOS*

Bertram Fiddle: A Bleaker Predicklement on Steam

The Reason I haven’t Been Reading

I would like to start by saying that I’m not a gamer. When I was young I was too poor to own a console and when I was finally old enough to buy my very own Game Boy, I realized that I didn’t have the patience for video games. First of all, I sucked at them, but I just wasn’t really all that interested in taking the time to get better. I would usually get bored after 30 minutes. Skip to now, and I…

Bertram Fiddle Episode 2 Gets Funded Via #Kickstarter | #IndieGame #CrowdFund

Bertram Fiddle: A Dreadly Business was a successful point and click mystery comedy game with a very peculiar sense of humor that came out earlier this year. Bertram Fiddle is an indie point and click puzzle solving adventure game, developed by Rumpus, and published by Deck13. (more…)