#dominique pamplemousse

[demonofbabylon]

[tinysamm]

As a follow-up to the bisected ending narrative of the original title, sequential conception is a major focus of Dominique Pamplemousse & Dominique Pamplemousse in "Combinatorial Explosion!" Rather than carry on with the already concluded mystery of the first game, this title instead explores the concept of alternative existences, both in the format of games, and in how your identity is formed by the choices made and unmade.

[earlgraytay]

@ellieintheskywithdiamonds​ asked for some video game recommendations that are not Triple-A Polished Games that cynically schill for Woke Points. I dunno what genres you like, so this is just a smattering of games I’ve played or watched Let’s Plays of relatively recently.

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition An indie metroidvania where there’s no gravity and you can’t jump; instead, Dandara navigates by zooming between patches of salt on the floor and ceiling. You get into a nice rhythm bouncing between ceiling and floor; it’s kinda hypnotic. The game’s also got interesting worldbuilding and creative use of its 16-bit-esque artstyle. Like any other metroidvania, you explore a big interconnected world, collect upgrades, fight monsters, and fill out a map, but the moment to moment gameplay is figuring out how to navigate the gravityless rooms.  Recommended by Mark Brown of Game Maker’s Toolkit fame, and for good reason- this one has all the polish of a triple-a game and all the obvious love of an indie. Highly recommended. (I’ll note it’s got some extremely blatant political content, specifically anti-fascist content, but it’s wound into the game pretty well, IMO-- it’s definitely not Woke for the sake of being Woke.)

Phoenix Point An XCOM-like game made by the original creator of XCOM, Julian Gollop. The world ended thanks to an eldritch plague from the sea that spreads a deadly fog and turns people into squicky monsters. You’re in charge of Phoenix Point, the last remains of an international task force against these terrors from the deep. Build your army, engage the monsters in tactics-based combat, and keep the warring factions that seek to rule the new world happy. Phoenix Point is what you might call a triple-B game, made by a large indie studio that clearly has the resources to make a big game but not the resources to polish it. And unlike the modern XCOM games, Phoenix Point embraces the genre’s jank. You can micromanage every little part of your strategy and tactics-- and you have to to keep moving forward. You’re under a brutal time limit and your resources are constantly limited. I’ll warn you-- this game was made before COVID-19. It might hit a little close to home now. I had to stop watching the LP because of that. >.>; Also this one is an Epic Store exclusive for now-- it’s not coming to Steam until next year.

Hylics You want weird? Here’s some weird. Hylics is an RPG Maker game completely done in claymation. All the characters, the enemies, and the special attacks are made of clay. The rest of the world is rendered in a really ... strange artstyle. The NPCs’ dialogue is randomly generated and strangely poetic, and the stats are all named things like “MEAT”. You will die a lot-- and in fact, you’re expected to, because that’s the only way you can upgrade your health. It’s kinda grindy, because... well... RPGMaker.  TBH I haven’t actually played Hylics, because I only have so much tolerance for RPG Maker games, so I don’t have that much to say about it...  but it’s definitely one of the more unique ones out there.

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut The design brief: “What if Twin Peaks were a late-oughts detective VN/survival horror game?”  The characters: charming, funny, and frightening by turns. The story: Incredible, one of my favourite game stories ever. The main character, York, is a snarky, chainsmoking, cleverer-than-thou  neurodivergent detective; you’re kind of playing as his alternate personality, Zach. Most of the game is wandering around the town of Greenvale and doing side quests to get to know the inhabitants so you can uncover the mystery of who killed Anna Graham.  The gameplay: welllllllllllll... Honestly, you’ve probably heard of this game, because it’s the poster-child for triple-B jank. Everything about the gameplay is off. The combat is terrible because it was grafted onto the game at the last minute. There’s a lot of driving, with intentionally “realistic” (IE: ghastly) controls. There’s a lot of character dialogue, corny horror moments, and semi-magical detective profiling. If you like VNs, you will probably adore this game-- and I do-- but if you don’t, you probably won’t miss much. A slight warning: most of this game is a very relaxing experience, almost soothing- until it very much isn’t. There’s some disturbing content, including creative gore, explicit bigotry, and multiple major character deaths.

Dominique Pamplemousse in It’s All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings Let’s continue the claymation theme, shall we? Dominique Pamplemousse is an Extremely Indie LucasArts-style point-and-click adventure game. It’s a quirky detective musical -- most of the plot-important dialogue is sung. And of course, all the character models are claymation- they’re slightly uncanny, but IMO, in a good way. The sets have an almost Yoshi’s Crafted World feel to them. You play as the titular Dominique, a nonbinary detective who must track down a missing pop star for the CEO of a record company. But of course, this is a detective story, and nothing is as simple as it seems. This one is a little more Woke than you’re probably comfortable with-- the main character is nonbinary and it’s clearly signposted, and there is a fair bit of snarky millennial political commentary about the economy. So you, specifically, might find yourself rolling your eyes a bit. It’s definitely a product of a single creator with a particular worldview and is an extension of who they are as a person. But. But. This is a fantastic game. It’s easily one of my favourite point-and-clicks, it’s one of my favourite games of all time, and it’s well worth your time IMO. For heavens’ sakes, it’s got a puzzle you must solve by playing the bagpipes.

Cultist Simulator How do I even begin to describe this game...  it’s part interactive novel, part solitaire. You play as an occultist in 1920s London, and your task is to study eldritch lore, make enough money to survive, and ultimately ascend beyond humanity. In your dreams, you climb through an alternate world called the Mansus, discovering deeper and deeper secrets, while gathering cultists (and human sacrifices!) to help you along your journey. Every story event, resource, peril, and connection you have is represented by a card on a virtual table; you organize the cards, and keeping track of them all is a vital part of the game. If you lose track of, say, a nasty lingering illness, or your eldritch-induced existential terror, you’ll lose the game. It’s a stressful experience, at times, but it’s a really fun and immersive one, especially for a game that’s entirely text-based.

Honestly if you play one game on this list make it Dandara or Cultist Sim; those games are both beautiful and well-constructed. 

[freeindiegame]

Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!" by Squinky

The break-out stop-motion musical genderqueer detective adventure of 2014, newly pay-what-you-want… along with its sequel!

A note: the minimum price for these games has now risen to $1.00.

[demonofbabylon]

this is actually a dominique pamplemousse blog now

[syntaxturtle]

Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over When the Fat Lady Sings"

Point-and-click mystery game with a French art film aesthetic, using clay stop-motion and plenty of artificial film grain.  You play Dominique, a private detective of few financial resources, who gets a break when you're hired by a wealthy record executive days before your pending eviction.  Her big pop star client was secretly dating her daughter but has gone missing but, of course, it's not that easy.  Oh, also the whole thing is primarily a musical.  There's some gender identity bits that felt largely tacked on and irrelevant, sort of like the dev felt "Hey, as long as I have you on the line...".  Game play is a pretty simple manner of running through the conversation options or clicking the few obvious items on screen, then doing it all over again with the new stuff you learned.  The mechanics likely won't excite you and the production schtick will either charm or annoy you depending on your disposition.

Enjoyed? Meh

[manyofgames]

Dominique Pamplemousse: It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings

2/5 strange and unorthodox point & click musical. Has charm and individuality, but it just wasn’t for me. 

Platform: Steam, Itch.io  (Racial Justice & Equality Bundle)

Dominique Pamplemousse is a stop motion point and click musical. The whole game is like a strange fever dream. The singing is very bad, especially the main character. The art creeps me out, and the story is very short (1 hr). Yet... the game was something I couldn’t quite forget. It has a uniqueness to it that I’ve never seen in another game. Plus it’s only one dollar on steam. 

Personally it’s not my type of game, but if it’s yours then it’s well worth the price. 

[nonhoration]

+ also I would play the hell out of Dominique Pamplemousse for the title alone tbh

It’s killer, I loved it.