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Elegant maritime adventure Burly Men at Sea set to release in September
21 Aug, 2016
Three burly men with grand beards go out to search for adventure on the high seas. Find out where their quest leads them when the game releases next month.
Burly Men at Sea is one of those games where even the title screams a charming sort of mystery. Whatever could these bearded Scandinavians be up to? That is entirely up to how you direct the game’s branching story. You’ll encounter all manner of creatures, for one. If the game’s new release date trailer is any indication, you’ll also encounter old men, blacksmiths with anchor tattoos, nymphs and whales. Oh, and probably a fish or two.
The game’s narrative changes according to your interactions with the environment, which means that you might be in for a new story every time you play the game. The game is meant to resemble a folklore storybook, and this certainly looks like an appropriate evolution of storybooks from paper to the digital world.
Burly Men at Sea is all about charm. The elegant and relentlessly clean art style is inspired by Scandinavian illustration, while the suitably adventure-inspiring soundtrack is composed by Plied Sound. Simple shapes, bright colours and a flat aesthetic come together with crisp typography.
Like a well-crafted bedtime storybook, Burly Men at Sea appears to strike the perfect balance between what to show and what to leave to the imagination. It’s no surprise, then, that the game has been selected in many convention selections while also winning a nomination for Gamer’s Voice Single Player Award at SXSW 2016.
Burly Men at Sea is created by Brain&Brain, a duo composed of Brooke Condolora, who handles the story, art and animation, while her husband David Condolora handles the programming. Together, they collaborate on design. They’re backed by Indie Fund, after a brief nomadic period in which the team travelled across the USA and even worked as part-time farmhands to support the game’s development.
Burly Men at Sea will release on 29th September 2016. It will be available on PC (Windows and Mac only) as well as iOS and Android. On PC, you can buy the game off Steam, Humble Store or itch.io. It will be priced at $9.99.
