Technical Information
Developer: BoringSuburbanDad
Publisher: BoringSuburbanDad
Release Date: May 18, 2021
Dinner with an Owl is a point and click game made for those who enjoy strange stories with a psychological horror twist.
Your goal is to escape the curse of Mr. Brown (the owl).
Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole
Graphics and UI
This game has simple animations and a strong 80’s vibe. I particularly like that, so I found it quite cool.
It really looks like a retro game.
Here we have a classic point and click HUD: inventory at the top showing collected items.
Unfortunately, there are no descriptions for the items, only their names appear. Since it’s a short game, including more details would make the player’s experience richer and more immersive.
When saving, the game does not provide any feedback, leaving me wondering whether my progress was actually saved.
The game also does not display the date and time of its saves. That’s another small detail that could make the player’s experience more enjoyable.
Soundtrack and Sound Effects
I thought the soundtrack was okay, to be honest.
There’s a moment when it plays a nice song… and that’s it.
The best part was definitely the inclusion of audio clips for the characters’ dialogue!
Gameplay
It’s a standard point and click game.
You talk to characters, choose their speeches, and use an inventory to store the items you collect.
I found the gameplay to be very linear, I think they should have added more objects to interact with. Simply including more elements for the player to click on would be enough to make the puzzle solution less obvious (even if those extra objects weren’t useful).
In a way, you could consider this game a puzzle too (play it and you’ll understand what I mean, if I say more, I’ll end up spoiling it).
The game has multiple save slots.
I found that quite unnecessary given its length. Three slots would be enough, in my opinion.
Replayability and Game Retention
The game is very short, so you won’t have a hard time playing until the end, especially since you’ll be curious to find out what happens when you break Mr. Owl’s curse! hahaha
For me, the plot twist about what the curse really is was the peak of the game.
Once you finish it, there’s no real reason to play again, especially since there are no achievements.
Would I play it again? Absolutely! But only after my memories of it start to fade.
