Family is like a free version of Obra Dinn but for fake 80s music

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Family is like a free version of Obra Dinn but for fake 80s musicYou spin me right round

You spin me right round

Having not actually been part of a London music scene, or the 80s, I can’t attest to how accurately Family represents those things specifically. But it does do a great job of replicating insular music scenes in general. You know the ones: everyone knows each another, sort of hates each other, and probably wants to fuck each other. There are a couple of shining lights who are immensely talented but also obviously total pricks, so they create and burn out multiple projects. There are the nice journeymen types who get on with things, and then later on you get the newcomers who the rest probably secretly look down on.

Thus the map of bands you are presented with resembles a family tree, as they splinter off, form new bands, switch instruments and so on. InReturn Of The Obra Dinnstyle, you have to place 5 names correctly before the game tells you you’re right and locks them in, and then gives you some more clues.

My favourite bit is the names and short biographies of the bands, which include things like Casta Nyet, or Little Red Marx, who “machine-gunned a dead sheep at the PETA annual awards show.”

As a love letter to a certain time, a certain vibe, I’m sure family is good. As a piece of detective micro-fiction, however, it’s great, because it has what most attempts at detective games don’t really nail: the personal touch. It has the heart along with the logic. I love playing detective, but there’s no fun in it if you’re just being a big mechanical think box checking off numbers.

Family is great fun because I get the satisfaction of all the “ah ha!” moments in its puzzles, but also the “ah ha!” moments of finding out about the people. I have figured out this London 80s music scene, and also I can say that Alex Adam is definitely a bellend I wouldn’t have liked.

Head over toFamily’s Itch pagewhere you, too, can assess how much you’d hate Alex Adam based on how you feel about The Smiths today. You can play it in browser or download it to keep.