TELL IT AGAIN, PARENT
Any parent will tell you that small children love to hear their favorite story over and over again. For me, it was The Three Billy Goats Gruff, along with a Swedish tale called Peter and His Four Goats. The younger the child, the less likely they are to tire of repetition. Well, here’s a small blessing for any story-reading parent craving variation: Burly Men at Sea, a children’s tale with multiple outcomes shaped by player choice. It’s the brainchild of Brain&Brain LLC, an American studio run by husband-and-wife team David and Brooke Condolora.
In the spirit of classic folktales, Burly Men at Sea follows a trio of heroes, each defined by a single dominant trait. The three Beard brothers — Hasty, Brave, and Steady — are distinguished by the color of their beards. After discovering a magical map inside a floating bottle, they set off on an adventure not to save the world, but to craft themselves a story, testing their resolve against the whims of the sea.
The game’s purpose is to assemble different stories by exploring the world in different ways. Gameplay is extremely limited; most of the narrative unfolds automatically until you’re occasionally asked to make a choice. Whatever you decide, the story always plays out to its conclusion. There is no failure state and no game over screen.
Every variation begins the same way: the brothers leave home and are promptly swallowed by a whale. Every story also ends the same way, with an encounter involving a magical, seahorse-like creature before the trio returns home to start anew. Between these bookends lie twelve possible narrative branches. Finding them all is trivial, making this the first game I’ve ever fully completed to 100%.
The writing is concise and confident, happily discarding any grand ambitions. Instead, it celebrates the joy of storytelling itself, embracing a whimsical, improvisational tone that feels like a tale spun aloud on the spot. One delightful feature allows you to submit a completed story for printing as a hardcover book. I’m not sure whether any of these variations are still available — but if you happen to own one, keep it secret. Keep it safe. It might become a collector’s item.
No matter how you tell it, the story is set in early 20th-century Scandinavia, drawing inspiration from regional folktales about sea monsters. Despite being Swedish myself, this detail might have escaped me had I not read about the game’s production — though the appearance of a “sjøorm” in one narrative branch hinted at Norway (the letter “ø” exists in Norwegian and Danish, but not Swedish).
As charming as the minimalist, picture-book art style is, it renders the setting somewhat generic. A few fir trees and coastal buildings suggest Scandinavia, but the world has too many bearded men and shorelines for that alone to suffice. Music could have anchored the setting more firmly, but the soundtrack plays it safe — pleasant, playful, and universally agreeable rather than regionally evocative.
Scandinavian folk music sounds like this:
That said, I adore the sound effects, many of which are created through human voices imitating maritime sounds. It’s a hallmark of good children’s storytelling, and it works wonderfully here.
I find this game difficult to rate, simply because I’m not the intended audience. What I played radiates charm, but I also felt like an outsider to the cozy family scenario it’s clearly built around. My parents no longer read me bedtime stories, and I wouldn’t want them to. The PlayStation version I played — included with a subscription — also felt slightly awkward to control, with a fluttering cursor that suggests the interface was designed primarily for touchscreens.
Still, I would wholeheartedly recommend Burly Men at Sea to parents of young, curious children who want to explore storytelling and games together. It’s a gentle and welcoming entry point into interactive narratives. If it doesn’t click, little is lost: each story takes only ten to fifteen minutes to complete. And when you return, the heroes remain the same — but the story might not. Doesn’t that sound like a relief?
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