''Thank Goodness You're Here!'' is an

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

video game developed by Coal Supper and published by

Panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and frantic agitation consistent with a fight-or-flight reaction. ...

. Players take the role of a travelling salesman who performs odd jobs for the residents of a bizarre town in

Northern England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...

. It is available for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

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 ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

, and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It was released on 1 August 2024. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its

absurdist humour Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portrayals of sur ...

Plot

The

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

, an unnamed and very small balding salesman, is sent by his employer to the fictional northern English town of Barnsworth for a meeting with the town's Lord Mayor. The mayor's receptionist explains that the mayor is in a meeting and won't be done for hours, so the salesman explores the town and solves the eccentric residents' problems—such as helping a man get his arm unstuck from a sewer grate or delivering meat from a ham butcher's to a pie shop—in order to pass the time. As the story progresses, the residents' antics gradually become more bizarre and unhinged. At the end of the game, the salesman is overwhelmed by the residents' demands for help and returns to the mayor's office, only to find out the mayor wants his help with an errand as well. Alternatively, the player can choose to wait in the reception area for the full duration. After 15 minutes of waiting, the mayor finishes his business early and allows the salesman to meet with him, upon which he asks for help with the errand.

Development and release

''Thank Goodness You're Here!'' was developed by Coal Supper, a two-person

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

-based indie studio. The game's fictional setting of Barnsworth is loosely based on

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

, the developers' hometown. The duo had previously self-published ''The Good Time Garden'', a free surreal adventure game. It was made in the

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

game engine. The game was published by Panic Inc., a

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

based software and video game publisher, whose previous projects include ''

Firewatch ''Firewatch'' is an adventure game developed by Campo Santo (company), Campo Santo and published by the developer in partnership with Panic Inc., Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Linux, OS X, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox ...

'' (2016) and '' Untitled Goose Game'' (2019). 1 August was chosen as the release to coincide with

Yorkshire Day Yorkshire Day is a yearly celebration on 1 August to promote the historic county of Yorkshire, in England. It was celebrated by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975, initially in Beverley, as "a protest movement against the local governmen ...

. ''Thank Goodness You're Here'' was an official 2024 selection at the

London Games Festival The London Games Festival is an annual video gaming festival for both consumers and trade specialists held annually in April. The Festival is part of Games London an initiative to boost investment and skills in the capital, delivered by Ukie and ...

and

Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

Reception

''Thank Goodness You're Here!'' received "universal acclaim" for Windows and "generally favorable" reviews for Switch and PlayStation 5, according to

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Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' and ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' praised the game's

Awards and nominations

The game was longlisted for nine awards at the

21st British Academy Games Awards The 21st British Academy Video Game Awards were hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts on 8 April 2025 to honour the best video games of 2024. Held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the ceremony was hosted by comedian Ph ...

References

External links

* {{Panic Inc. 2024 video games British Academy Games Award for British Game winners Indie games MacOS games Single-player video games Nintendo Switch games Panic Inc. games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in England Video games set in the 1980s Windows games Adventure games