Death Of The Reprobate will complete a point and click triptych
Bosch talking bosh
I feel as if the header image successfully conveys the appeal of Joe Richardson's work. He makes point-and-click adventures which take real Renaissance paintings, animate them in cut-out style (think Monty Python), and juxtapose them with modern vernacular.
His next game was announced today. It's called Death Of The Reprobate, and there's a trailer showing both pointing and clicking below.
Richardson referred to the game on Twitter as the third and final instalment of his "Renaissance point and click triptych." The previous two games were Four Last Things and The Procession To Cavalry.
In her Procession To Cavalry review, Alice B appreciated its writing, though not without caveats.
Richardson's writing is both warm and appreciably dark in its humour, and given to asides and footnotes like those you'd find in a Terry Pratchett book. But at the same time, not every joke can land. The couple of times when the fourth wall was broken, for example (with Richardson appearing as God, as creators are wont to do when they show up in their own work), rubbed me decidedly up the wrong way. Calvary, probably unavoidably, features a lot of poking fun at the church and messianic figures alike, but I did sometimes feel like the poke was more like an elbow being dug into my side.
Although the third of a series, Reprobate promises a standalone story. There's no release date as yet, but you can read more about it over on Steam.