We’ve not heard much about This Bed We Made, an upcoming mystery game from developer Lowbirth Games. But its demo caught our attention in last week’s Steam Next Fest and we couldn’t resist giving it a go. Its premise immediately hooked us: in it, you play as a hotel maid with the ability to sneak and snoop around guests’ bedrooms. Sign us right up. Its demo has less than 20 minutes’ worth of content, but it’s all we needed to see to know that this is one to watch.
This Bed We Made reminds us a little of Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View. It has that same noir undertone, fusing mystery and exploration with puzzle solving. The demo threw us into the middle of a scene with maid Sophie tending to Room 505 in the Clarington Hotel. Seems the guest who’s staying there has some dark secrets he’s not hidden so well, though: upon entering his room, Sophie spots some photos he’s taken of her – he’s caught her snooping around other guests’ rooms. Oops. But there’s more than that: on his wall, he’s mapped out Sophie’s recent whereabouts and he knows her precise shift pattern. It’s not looking good.
The demo has us look around the room for clues, picking up items and investigating them further. As Sophie’s a maid, you can do some tidying up as you go: make the bed, change the towels, rinse the bathtub. It’s not all sneaking around – she still has a job to do, after all. You can also choose to throw away certain items. Trash on the desk is fair game, but do you choose to throw out the photos you’ve found to stop Sophie getting into trouble? We’re not sure what sort of impact your actions will have, but This Bed We Made suggests they will affect the course of the game.
Although the demo only allowed us to peek inside one hotel room and a section of hotel corridor, we got a good sense of This Bed We Made’s atmosphere. It’s tense and intriguing; all the time we were inside the guest’s room, we were looking over our shoulder, expecting to get caught while we were snooping. (There’s a good chance that’s exactly what happens following the demo section, but we’ll have to wait and find out.)
We’re really impressed with how wonderful This Bed We Made looks, too. There’s a strong degree of realism, and every item you can pick up and turn over in your hand has been animated with excellent detail. Just how much stuff can be interacted with is surprising too. You can turn on taps, turn on and off TVs and radios, open drawers and closets, pick over leaflets, books, letters and more.
There’s no firm release date for This Bed We Made just yet, with a “2023” window listed on Steam. There’s also no word on any console release just yet, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on this one over the next few months.
You can try out the demo for This Bed We Made yourself over on Steam.
