Good thing you’re here! How “the most Nordic game” was created

“Dead reyt,” “faff,” and “keep gu’in” are words you don’t see often in video games.

But two friends from Yorkshire changed all that.

God’s Own Country, as the locals call it, is the inspiration for Thank Goodness You’re Here!, a new game created by Barnsley’s James Carbutt and Will Todd.

The duo – aka development team Coal Supper – are the minds behind the fictional northern town of Barnsworth.

Players pilot a small, silent character through a series of surreal missions assigned to them by local residents.

It’s a deliberately weird experiment, but it’s also been hailed as hilarious and “typically Yorkshire”.

One of the first buildings players enter – the local pub, of course – has a chalkboard outside announcing the daily special.

” Drinks. “

It’s little touches like these, along with a script full of regional slang spoken in Yorkshire accents, that have led people to call Thank Goodness “the most northern game ever”.

But how was it achieved?

Will and James, who voice many of the game’s characters, say the distinctive storyline came naturally as it developed.

“The more we worked on it, the more we started drawing characters that looked more and more like us, because we do it with our voices,” Will explains.

The video game industry has been criticized for becoming more risk-averse and leaning toward sequels and remakes as the cost of producing successful titles has increased.

James and Will admit that many publishers were “skeptical” when they pitched their unique project.

“I think part of it was because we were obviously trying to escape traditional game design,” Will says.

“Tropes and genres and all that. And it wasn’t necessarily very clear what the game was going to look like.”

They say the Yorkshire context was also a bit of a barrier.

Some of the biggest independent games publishers are based in the US and Will says there are “assumptions about what British identity is when you’re looking for funding”.

“Colin Firth and the British rain,” James said.

“It’s more like flat caps and whippets,” Will adds.

They eventually signed a deal with Panic! – the publisher behind the mega-hit Untitled Goose Game, which put players in the shoes of a waterfowl on a mission to wreak havoc on a small village.

The publisher helped them bring IT Crowd and What We Do in the Shadows actor Matt Berry – known for his deadpan baritone – on board for some star power.

And they made some concessions for an international audience.

“There are subtitles for Yorkshire people and proper English subtitles – translation options for people in the South,” says James.

“If we wrote the script in dialect and then recorded everything, we had to go through it and then put in the proper English,” Will explains.

Thank Goodness isn’t the only high-profile game released this year to feature strong British accents.

The horror game Still Wakes the Deep, set on a North Sea oil rig in 1975, features a predominantly Scottish voice cast.

Creative lead John McCormack explains that The Chinese Room’s developers agreed from the start that they wanted the story of the ill-fated Beira D platform to feel “like it actually happened.”

And that meant no compromise on how it sounded.

“To stay true to the setting and the period, there was only one way to do it,” he says.

“And that was to hire the right voices for the story.”

John admits it will be “difficult to understand” in places for some, but the performances help convey the mood of a scene even when the audience doesn’t understand every word.

“When you introduce realistic accents to double down on that authenticity, it kind of reinforces the sense of place,” John says.

“So when the horror happens, it seems more real.”

John believes that audiences have “completely embraced” the performances of Still Wakes the Deep, even though conventional wisdom suggests otherwise.

“When it comes to funding, when you’re going to publishers and trying to sell your idea, you’re usually looking for global appeal,” he says.

“And in the gaming world, that tends to be a clean American accent or some sort of posh English accent or something that can be perfectly understood.”

John says Still Wakes the Deep is relatively unusual in that it’s based on real life, and many games are set in fantasy worlds where they’re not tied to a geographical location.

But he hopes projects highlighting regional voices will inspire others.

“If you have a story to tell and you want it to feel authentic, be specific and acknowledge the location in which it takes place,” he says.

“The public is intelligent, the public, as we have seen, will accept this even more.”

So far, Thank Goodness You’re Here! has received a positive response since its release on Thursday.

But Yorkshire youngsters Will and James remain humble about their title aspirations.

“It’s something we always dreamed of when we were kids,” Will says.

“And I think that besides being a huge financial success, I hope it finds an audience.

“It’s really a love letter to the North and especially to our hometown.

“And we will reach as many of these people as possible.

“And then also an audience of 100,000 Americans.”

Additional reporting by Áine O’Donnell.

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