The Toymaker’s Bequest is a beautifully crafted little clockwork puzzler, that plays a little like The Room games, but with a heartfelt LGBT narrative.
The current build of The Toymaker’s Bequest features one of four planned stories that portray the struggles of a lesbian toymaker in an intolerant society, with her telling her stories through her intricate clockwork creations. All four stories will have a different style of toy that the narrative plays out in – a shadow puppet theater, a music box, a peephole theater and a marionette theater.
The story in the current build takes place in a marionette theater and tells of Agnes and Dora, two Houdini-esque escapologists who care for each other very much and whose greatest trick involves escaping from a tank of water. To progress through the beautifully narrated story, you need to solve The Room-esque puzzles to activate the various clockwork mechanisms in the marionette theater that it plays out in. The puzzles are nowhere near as intricate as The Room games, but the powerful narrative more than makes up for that.
It’s a fantastic piece of interactive storytelling with fun, tactile puzzles and a heartfelt narrative that really makes you care for the characters. It’s a very interesting project, and the promise of your different stories played out in four very different styles of toy is very enticing. Highly recommended.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The Toymaker’s Bequest Alpha Demo Here (Windows & Mac)