''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' is an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

developed by Dim Bulb Games and Serenity Forge, and published by

Good Shepherd Entertainment Good Shepherd Entertainment (formerly Gambitious Digital Entertainment) is a Dutch video game publisher based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2011 and opened its equity crowdfunding platform in September 2012. Gambitious' publishing la ...

. It was released for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

in February 2018. In November 2019, Serenity Forge announced that ''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' would also be released on the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

, and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

Gameplay

''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' is a narrative-driven

. Players explore a Great Depression-era United States, hearing and collecting oral stories and passing them along. Stories are used as a form of progression, with characters gradually opening up to the player in response to the provided stories, which in turn allows one to learn their true stories. The player may purchase goods to replenish their hunger or tiredness, with money being earned and then spent on the aforementioned goods, or in faster means of transportation. Several means of transport are available, including walking, hitchhiking and

freighthopping Freighthopping or trainhopping is the act of surreptitiously boarding and riding a freight railroad car, which is usually illegal. Origins and history In the United States, freighthopping became a common means of transportation following the A ...

Development and release

''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' was developed by Dim Bulb Games and Serenity Forge. " oingwhere the water tastes like wine" is an excerpt from the traditional

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad "Going Down The Road Feeling Bad" (also known as the "Lonesome Road Blues") is a traditional American folk song, "a white blues of universal appeal and uncertain origin". Recording history The song was recorded by many artists through the years. ...

" (also known as the "Lonesome Road Blues"). The game was published by

. The game was released for

and

on 28 February 2018. According to the developer, the game's initial release was a commercial disaster. On November 8, Serenity Forge announced the game would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 29.

Reception

''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' received "mixed or average" reviews according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

with the Switch version receiving slightly worse reviews then the PC version. It was awarded the Developers Choice Award along with '' Walden, a game'' at the 2017

Indiecade IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance."Fritz, Ben"IndieCade, the video game industry's Sundance" Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2009, accessed July 21, 2011. ...

Festival. However, in the months following release, creator Johnnemann Nordhagen wrote in his postmortem, "I can’t discuss exact numbers, but in the first few weeks fewer people bought the game than I have Twitter followers, and I don’t have a lot of Twitter followers," and "At the end of the day it’s astounding that a game that got this much attention from the press, that won awards, that had an all-star cast of writers and performers, that had a bizarre celebrity guest appearance

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

] failed this hard." Nordhagen writes, "Basically, I’m not sure that games like this one can continue to be made in the current market."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''Where the Water Tastes Like Wine'' gained praise as an authentic representation of Americana: The 30-track compilation spans folk, jazz, country, blues, bluegrass, and more. The soundtrack was licensed and released by video game music label Materia Collective. A limited edition vinyl was pressed by Laced Records.

Awards

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.wherethewatertasteslikewine.com 2018 video games Adventure games Linux games Indie video games MacOS games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the United States Windows games IndieCade winners Single-player video games Serenity Forge games