Thank Goodness You're Here's developer says it was trying to design a game normally before realizing "we're s**t at video game design"

Putting cigarettes in fish mouths in Thank Goodness You're Here — (Image credit: Coal Supper)

Thank Goodness You're Here was probably the biggest surprise of 2024 for me. A tiny two-hour indie game where you literally just stroll around Yorkshire helping the locals with their menial requests outdid AAA juggernauts like Silent Hill 2 and Black Myth: Wukong and became one of my favorite games of the year. And while the game itself is a fun little adventure game in its own right, what makes it shine is the fact it's probably the funniest game I've ever played.

Wandering around a town and seeing signs like "Bring Back Asbestos," dealing with a rodent problem in the 'Price Shaggers' supermarket only to venture into a mini market called 'Mice Shaggers,' and a recurring gag about a Princess Diana memorial plate. Literally every second of screen time of the game is filled with something to laugh about, and it's so funny that I didn't even list Matt Berry being in it as one of the highlights there.

The developers at Coal Supper spoke at the 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) at a panel dedicated to the game's approach to comedy. During the 'Independent Games Summit: Teabag in First: How 'Thank Goodness You’re Here!' Does Comedy' panel, the developers explained why comedy was the top priority when developing the game, saying, "So why put funny first? What does that mean? Well, it's all we knew how to do. Full disclosure, we're shit at video game design."

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Obviously, comedy is very subjective; what some find funny may be lost on others, and building a cohesive game on top of that is bound to be a challenge. But as it turns out, that wasn't much of a concern for Coal Supper, with the developers saying, ""We just put in what we thought would be funny, provided the scope was presumed to be more or less manageable, without much regard to the overall structure." Adding, "Our attempts to enforce any structure top-down by shoehorning in narrative arcs, creating flow charts of abstract beats, and trying to derive a lock-and-key Metroidvania-y thing did little to remedy this because we'd already made our bed. We don't like other games, so these typical patterns and affordances couldn't easily be applied."

But in the end, how absurd Thank Goodness You're Here ended up being is what drew people into the game. And it proves, even if you're – as Coal Supper puts it – "shit at game design," you can still create a memorable banger by carving out your own niche.