These days, it can be hard to make a game stand out among the thousands released every year. Whether it’s a title requiring an elaborate marketing campaign or a solid pitching strategy, getting a game noticed becomes more difficult by the day. Mr. Sleepy Man, a dreamy 3D platformer from the mind of solo developer Devin Santi, challenged that narrative with its fascinating visual design and frankly absurd trailers. It absolutely stays true to the game’s world as a lucid dream of an experience.
Right away, the art style captured my attention. While most games opt for either a semi-realistic or vibrant cel-shaded style for their art, Mr. Sleepy Man takes things in a cartoonish direction. I can safely say that I have not played a game that looked like this before, as the character designs are bizarre. Characters like Teefy instantly set the tone for what kinds of colorful faces I would be running into.
The wackiness doesn’t stop at characters though, as the world has just as much weirdness going on around every corner of Bedtime Town. The game, while relatively short, is akin to Untitled Goose Game in the sense that you can just run around anywhere and cause mayhem. It’s a relatively directionless experience, opting to let the player explore the features and world for themselves. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, a little bit more explanation on the world could have gone a long way.
When you drop into Bedtime Town for the first time, you are simply told that you should go back to sleep. There is no explanation as to how you got to this dream world, nor is there any explanation as to why you are causing chaos around every corner. I get what the developer had in mind with this open concept, but even games like Untitled Goose Game had an understandable setting of “you’re a goose and you must make the people suffer.” The lack of any of that for this game threw me off a bit until I understood how that was by design.
This is a game whose premise stumped me at first to the point where I had to put it down for a day. It was only until coming back to the game with a fresh mind that I was able to understand what it was going for: this game doesn’t take itself seriously, and that is what makes it fun. The characters don’t have a lot of background because they don’t need it; your only assignment is to mess around and peak behind every corner for collectibles. It was after this epiphany that I was able to enjoy it far more and appreciate the hijinks going on in Bedtime Town.
This premise is made even better from the game’s NPC’s remembering what you did to them, whether it was stealing an officer’s donut or snatching a cash register from a store. This makes the interactions with the world far more entertaining as NPC’s will go as far as to put wanted posters up with your face on them.
Easily the most memorable part of this game was the soundtrack. It’s not often that I will play a game and find the pause music of all things to be a bop, but this game absolutely has a good soundtrack. In addition to making the game, Devin Santi is also a musician and composed the game’s music himself. The music’s tone is 2000s alternative rock, and as someone born in that time who loves rock, this music had me banging my head when it played during the adventure.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Sleepy Man stands as one of few games that made me reconsider my thoughts partway through my play session. It’s a game that intends to be unapologetically itself with it’s open floor concept for players to cause mayhem, and features hundreds of collectibles to keep players busy for a while. The game does all of this while sporting a unique soundtrack, as well as a nostalgic but enjoyable retro aesthetic with homages to N64 platformers.
These days, it can be hard to make a game stand out among the thousands released every year. Whether it’s a title requiring an elaborate marketing campaign or a solid pitching strategy, getting a game noticed becomes more difficult by the day. Mr. Sleepy Man, a dreamy 3D platformer from the mind of solo developer Devin Santi, challenged that narrative with its fascinating visual design and frankly absurd trailers. It absolutely stays true to the game’s world as a lucid dream of an experience.
These days, it can be hard to make a game stand out among the thousands released every year. Whether it’s a title requiring an elaborate marketing campaign or a solid pitching strategy, getting a game noticed becomes more difficult by the day. Mr. Sleepy Man, a dreamy 3D platformer from the mind of solo developer Devin Santi, challenged that narrative with its fascinating visual design and frankly absurd trailers. It absolutely stays true to the game’s world as a lucid dream of an experience.
Right away, the art style captured my attention. While most games opt for either a semi-realistic or vibrant cel-shaded style for their art, Mr. Sleepy Man takes things in a cartoonish direction. I can safely say that I have not played a game that looked like this before, as the character designs are bizarre. Characters like Teefy instantly set the tone for what kinds of colorful faces I would be running into.
The wackiness doesn’t stop at characters though, as the world has just as much weirdness going on around every corner of Bedtime Town. The game, while relatively short, is akin to Untitled Goose Game in the sense that you can just run around anywhere and cause mayhem. It’s a relatively directionless experience, opting to let the player explore the features and world for themselves. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, a little bit more explanation on the world could have gone a long way.
When you drop into Bedtime Town for the first time, you are simply told that you should go back to sleep. There is no explanation as to how you got to this dream world, nor is there any explanation as to why you are causing chaos around every corner. I get what the developer had in mind with this open concept, but even games like Untitled Goose Game had an understandable setting of “you’re a goose and you must make the people suffer.” The lack of any of that for this game threw me off a bit until I understood how that was by design.
This is a game whose premise stumped me at first to the point where I had to put it down for a day. It was only until coming back to the game with a fresh mind that I was able to understand what it was going for: this game doesn’t take itself seriously, and that is what makes it fun. The characters don’t have a lot of background because they don’t need it; your only assignment is to mess around and peak behind every corner for collectibles. It was after this epiphany that I was able to enjoy it far more and appreciate the hijinks going on in Bedtime Town.
This premise is made even better from the game’s NPC’s remembering what you did to them, whether it was stealing an officer’s donut or snatching a cash register from a store. This makes the interactions with the world far more entertaining as NPC’s will go as far as to put wanted posters up with your face on them.
Easily the most memorable part of this game was the soundtrack. It’s not often that I will play a game and find the pause music of all things to be a bop, but this game absolutely has a good soundtrack. In addition to making the game, Devin Santi is also a musician and composed the game’s music himself. The music’s tone is 2000s alternative rock, and as someone born in that time who loves rock, this music had me banging my head when it played during the adventure.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Sleepy Man stands as one of few games that made me reconsider my thoughts partway through my play session. It’s a game that intends to be unapologetically itself with it’s open floor concept for players to cause mayhem, and features hundreds of collectibles to keep players busy for a while. The game does all of this while sporting a unique soundtrack, as well as a nostalgic but enjoyable retro aesthetic with homages to N64 platformers.
by Michael Fertitta
