Good Grub!

by Damon L. Wakes profile

Humor
2022

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Number of Reviews: 8
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Low-level, self-aware heckling is the best kind of heckling, December 30, 2022
by Andrew Schultz (Chicago)
Related reviews: Spring Thing 2022

Good Grub embraces its limitations as a no-frills Twine game enthusiastically, and I think it does so without going overboard. Teaching facts without coming off as pompous is tough. And with GG, the idea is that bugs are good to eat. We've heard it, but unfortunately, the people loudest about this are the least likely to listen. GG takes a fake on-the-nose tone through it all, though there's not a ton. It reminds me of that clip in Wayne's World where Alice Cooper and Pete Friesen, his guitarist, educate Wayne in semi-stilted voices about the history of Milwaukee. I still remember these facts, and the presentation to this day! And I enjoy it when I find it elsewhere.

GG can't master Alice and Pete's voice inflections, being text and all, but the script is decidedly snarkier, and it works well for the time it takes. It's about starting a restaurant. It pokes you if you try to guess something wrong, but often in random ways. For instance, choosing the worst possible name for your restaurant gets a "Stop that. Try again." But other things that seem less fatal do, in fact, ruin your budding business. This sort of randomness has been done before in Twine games, but it's not purely zany here. The choices are always fresh. With easy UNDO, it's fun to see which actually matter, too, because GG is short enough you can do that without getting exhausted.

It's hard not to sound a bit moralistic or preachy when talking about subjects such as sustainability, and GG's tone works throughout. You take transport to your interview, where the reporter tries your fare. Your restaurant's success is at stake! It's a surprisingly dramatic moment.

GG is a good blend of entertainment and teaching--nothing too deep, but there can be a thin line between preaching and giving people a boost and encouragement for open-mindedness. Lots of people still don't like the thought of eating bugs--they prefer to eat smarter, more sentient animals. So it's a good tongue-in-cheek advertisement for that sort of thing, as well as the author's other games.

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A very buggy game, June 7, 2022
by Mike Russo (Los Angeles)
Related reviews: Spring Thing 2022

I’ve said in other reviews that I think it’s really hard to make a successful “message game”, where the game’s main goal is to make some kind of political or cultural point – in my experience they too quickly devolve into humorless, didactic gameplay where the obvious right answers are rewarded and the obvious bad ones are punished, with no real authentic engagement with the nuances of an issue and the important questions of design, plot, and character left almost completely neglected, making even those who agree with the politics on offer resentful and unhappy.

Good Grub! is a message game, and if I’m honest it fits the above description pretty much to a tee – plus it’s got only the basic Twine visual design –but with one key difference: it throws that “humorless” bit way out the window, meaning that I was more than happy to laugh my way through three different playthroughs. Maybe that makes me shallow, but I was having so much fun none of the other things I’ve previously harped on as flaws mattered at all.

It helps that the message here isn’t one that I’ve seen argued to death in online flamewars: it’s that eating insects can be an environmentally sustainable element in a healthy diet. I suppose some folks could find the idea gross, and I have to confess I do too to – but that’s just because I’m vegetarian and eating anything alive kinda freaks me out; meeting protein needs through bugs doesn’t seem inherently weirder than doing it through curdled soy milk, after all.

Anyway, the way the game makes its point is by having you choose the main features of an insect-only restaurant you’re launching, then go on a radio interview to promote it. Success and failure are definitely possible, but the game is short enough, and funny enough, that you’ll probably want to play through a bunch of times to see many of the options. Some have definite right and wrong answers – warming my heart as a life-long user of public transit, the clear worst choice in the game is to drive to the interview when you have other options – but for the most part it’s forgiving, with successful possible even if you decide e.g. to name your restaurant “La Cucaracha”, like an asshole (I named my restaurant La Cucaracha first time out).

It’s a short but well-considered design, with the initial set of choices leading to payoff as you try to sell the place in the interview, and the ultimate reveal of whether your business succeeds or fails. Gameplay-wise, the only critique I have is that I wish there was a “replay” button at the end it make it easier to try out different branches. It’s solid enough, but again, what makes it sing is the humor. I don’t want to quote too many of the other things that made me laugh, because most of the joy of Good Grub! is seeing how the playful narrative voice responds to your choices, but I can’t resist one pointer: whatever you do, make sure you try naming your restaurant “Big Bill’s Big ol’ Bug Emporium while ensuring the game knows you are not yourself named Bill.

Is Good Grub! good enough to make me rethink my generally downbeat outlook on message games? I suppose not – if I take a step back, it really does share many of the limitations I outlined at the top – but it does apply demonstrate that with enough charm, you can get away with anything.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Q: What do you call a blood-sucking, barbecued insect? A: A Mesquite-o., April 27, 2022
by J. J. Guest (London, England)

This is a short lecture on the merits of eating insects, written as if delivered by an annoyingly self-righteous person who has cornered you in the kitchen at a party. Good choices are rewarded with success, bad choices with sarcasm and snark. Nevertheless it does deliver some genuine laughs along with its environmental messages, and is wise enough not to outstay its welcome. Eat bugs, everyone! They're good for you and good for the planet.

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Buggy, April 26, 2022
by Rovarsson (Belgium)

Bugs are delicious!
Really!
I’ve tried them and they are!
(mealworm burger and barbecued grasshoppers if you’re curious)

Good Grub is delicious too!
A small choicy snack with an environmental kick and a good sprinkling of peppery jokes. Nice!

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Smugness simulator: Edutainment about eating bugs, April 23, 2022
by MathBrush
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game's tone reads like a game parody of Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'well, actually' twitter posts (like when he pointed out that leap day isn't the earth actually leaping). The tone is very heavy-handed and smug, with the game literally telling you 'you made a wrong choice, make better choices in the future'.

I'm sure it's a parody, but a well-made simulation of an annoying thing is still an annoying thing.

Otherwise the writing is sharp and word choices and images are clever.

Message-wise, I think the concept of humanity eating bugs is just fine; I love shrimp, and shrimp is more revolting-looking than other insects. But it helps that I was fed shrimp at an early age; I got used to it, and I'm not used to bugs.

Overall interesting, but, to me, too successful at imitating an annoying person.

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Let's start our first bug restaurant!, April 15, 2022

GOOD GRUB!

A short game about researching an insect restaurant. You can success, you can fail but you will have to play this several games and you will enjoy it.

Short, strategic, replayable, addictive.

Jade.

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Worth a bite..., April 14, 2022
by DB (Columbus, OH)
Related reviews: Spring Thing 2022

Humorous writing, even slightly educational. Brief 'n buggin' (but bug-free as far as issues go). I was pretty sure it would have some squeamish bits, but no that's not really this bite-sized game's direction. It's sincere about the virtues of eating bugs from an environmentalist and nutritional perspective.

Good Grub! could've been more complicated; like a bug there just isn't a whole lot of meat on the bone here (or should I say inside the exoskeleton?). To be fair none of it is wasted. If the blurb even half-way intrigues you, I do recommend it. It might even be faster to finish a playthrough on your own than to read reviews of it.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Yummy yummy yummy I've got bugs in my tummy, April 8, 2022
by jakomo
Related reviews: springthing2022

A micro-twine about establishing a restaurant that serves insect-based food. Really funny, well-written and entertaining, and very educational! The kind of twine game you'll want to replay multiple times to read the results of the obviously silly choices.

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