Things and Stuff 1.16.25: Book of Hours game by Weather Factory
The game about bribing your neighbors into helping with your research projects and cleaning your house. With tea!
For those who have not seen my Tunesday post about the Book of Hours soundtrack, you should start there first. Go ahead and throw that soundtrack on in the background while you read on.
Like all of the things I recommend in my Things and Stuff posts, I heartily recommend this game.
Unlike some of the other things I recommend, this one comes with a sturdy caveat. It is not a game for everyone. If you prefer action-filled games, this is not for you. If you prefer fancy hyper-realistic graphics, this is not for you. If you want a game that will hold your hand and guide you through the starting stages, this is definitely not for you.
However, if the thought of exploring old buildings to discover treasures of the past, then making a massive Excel sheet to catalogue it all appeals to you, you should probably check it out.
The Basics:
Book of Hours (Steam link here. I think there’s a demo as well) opens with you being washed up on the shores of Brancrug with a waterlogged book and the knowledge that you’re the next librarian of Hush House, which has been locked up since it was ruined by a fire several years earlier.
The game’s mechanics requires you to combine skills, memories, and items you find in the house to advance through the extensive rooms of the library. Along the way, you will uncover books piled on every available surface (much like my own TBR list). Studying these books may take extra help from the townspeople or visiting strangers, but they will come in handy in improving your existing skills and learning new ones.
So. What are the things I love about it?
The Opportunity to go Organize a Whole Bunch of Fun Stuff
The Excel sheet where I’ve catalogued the various books, items, characters, etc. from the Book of Hours contains 12 very busy color-coded tabs, many of them cross-referencing each other.
Each item has one or more “aspect” associated with it, which effects how it can be put to use. In addition, different types of items can be used in different circumstances. Often, the ability to unlock a new room or recruit a visitor to assist in studying a book relies on finding a specific item with specific aspects at a specific time.
As someone who often struggles to find the keys I just set down right there two minutes ago, finding a glass of brandy or a specific type of candle in a giant mansion would be almost impossible.
Good news, though. Because we have spreadsheets. Which means that if I need to look up where I last put my astrolabe or bag of flour or human skull, I’m all set. And if I need to know whether talking to my pet turtle-monster will inspire a memory with enough Scale-aspect to finish studying the book I’ve been wanting to get to, I’m all set.
The Writing (and Lore)
The amount of lore that just exists in the background of this world is amazing. Do I understand half of it? Sure don’t. Do I need to understand most of it? I’m honestly not sure.
Between item descriptions, room names, and book summaries, among the various other pieces of text that are hidden or tossed at you throughout the game, it’s just a ton of fun to piece together the history of Hush House and the stories of what happened to the various predecessors of the Librarian (that’s you, remember).
You’ll think the books you’ve seen have given you a good sense of who one of your predecessors or one of their friends or enemies is. Then you’ll stumble across some item or painting that bring to light details revealing that those other authors may not have been as unbiased as you once believed.
The history of the Hush House library is extensive, with different parts of the building being built during different eras, by people or groups with very different goals and intentions. Piecing this together as the game goes on is in many ways an entirely optional adventure, but it’s one that so perfectly fits with the idea of organizing and curating the library that it’s hard to imagine leaving any room un-rummaged-through in the pursuit of knowledge.
The Implied Storytelling
In a game where every room and item have a text description, the amount of flavor-text-type writing that went into this game is really remarkable. But the amount of fun the writers had with it is incredibly clear.
There are so many subtle tongue-in-cheek descriptions that imply far more story behind-the-scenes.
Some are simple. Like a basement room with a description mentioning casually that the reason Hush House isn’t full of rats is probably thanks to this room full of snakes.
Others are loosely implied in the mechanics of the game. On the surface, I can unlock room-X because I combined visitor-A and item-B and food-C and beverage-D and memory-E and tool-F.
But where’s the fun in that?
Looking at it another way, we get story option 1:
You walk into town to see if the rector wants to come up to the house to hang out. He’s always up for some chit-chat, so he agrees. While he’s there, you ask if he’s up for helping you clean out this room you’ve been hoping to get to (Room needs 11 Lantern).
Between your own skill (2 lantern) and the rector’s (2 lantern), though, it’s still looking a little intimidating. To build up some motivation to work, you enjoy some time outside enjoying the sun (2 lantern) with a nice pot of coffee (2 lantern), then for lunch you prepare the amber pumpkin (1 lantern) that you’ve been saving for just such a day. Last, but not least, you dig out one of the aglaophotis-scented candles (2 lantern) you made last week to get the musty smell out of the room before you get to work.
Alternatively, we have story option 2:
You see that this next room project is going to be a pain, so you (2L) call down to town for help, and when the rector (2L) gets here, you hand him a cup of coffee (2L), make a comment about what a sunny day it is (2L), stick a bag with a raw pumpkin in it over one arm (1L), and stick a honeyscar-scented candle (0L…uh-oh) in his free hand, then gesture toward the mess of a room. The good old rector thanks you for all the stuff, but apologizes and admits he won’t be able to help.
It’s only then that you realize that you grabbed the wrong candle from your “assorted candles” room.
You try to take the candle back by force, but he outmuscles you and races back to town with all his gifts. You spend the rest of your day muttering profanities at the turtle, making a bunch of aglaophotis-scented candles, and scouring the garden for pumpkins.
The next three days are rainy, and you spend them shouting at the sky before giving up on the room altogether and moving on to other projects.
It’s several weeks later when you remember you have a whole pile of Dearday lenses (2L) that you accidentally crafted a year ago and shoved in the room at the top of the tower because it seemed like as good a place as any at the time when you didn’t know what they were any good for.
Great fun to be had by all, wouldn’t you say?
If you’ve ever played Book of Hours, or give it a try going forward, make sure to let me know in the comments! I promise I’m not offended if you don’t appreciate its weirdness 😁
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