A Mortician's Tale
Genres: Adventure and Narrative
Released: October 2017. Added to this library 12 weeks ago, last updated 5 weeks ago.
Overview
A Mortician's Tale is a management game where you play as a mortician, Charlie, working in a funeral home. As you play, you handle bodies of the deceased, including cleaning and beautifying them, as well as dealing with embalming and cremation. The dead bodies are displayed, but the art style is not too graphic.
Take on the role of recent funeral direction graduate Charlie as she learns the ropes of the business and industry. Prepare the bodies of the deceased (via embalming or cremation), attend their funerals and listen to their loved ones' stories, and interact with Charlie's coworkers, clients, and bosses.
While part of the game is meant as a critical look at the funeral industry, it is "death positive" and there is a personal element to the game too. There is an honest and respectful look at how bodies are treated after death, which can demystify the process. The player also attends funerals and speaks to bereaved friends and family, and can lend a shoulder to lean on. Played with adult guidance, this game can help normalise death customs.
This game is good if you want to harm no living thing, reconsider your body or process loss.
Commitment
Players: This is a single player game.
Costs
Ratings
Accessibility
System settings: Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators. iOS has a very extensive suite of accessibility settings including ways to navigate with voice and comprehensive screen reading, though most of the features don't work with games... read more.
Similar Games
The following games address a similar topic or offer a similar way to play. They are good options to play after A Mortician's Tale, and also offer a range of alternatives for different age ratings.
Signs of the Sojourner
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch and PC
Genres: Adventure, Narrative and Puzzle
Players: This is a single player game.
Costs: Purchase cost.
Signs of the Sojourner, an introspective narrative where you interact with characters by solving puzzles with cards that represent emotions. It's a coming-of-age story set in the near-future and explores how relationships form, break, and mend in the...
That Dragon, Cancer
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC and iOS
Genres: Adventure and Narrative
Duration: Between 105 minutes and 3 hours to complete.
Players: This is a single player game.
Costs: Purchase cost.
A game about a family with a young son who has terminal brain cancer. It sounds off-putting and morbid but this living biography invites you to join the family and find hope, faith and love in the face of an insurmountable challenge. It’s a unique...
Two Point Hospital
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Genres: Creative, Simulation and Strategy
Duration: Between 30 hours and 50 hours to complete.
Players: This is a single player game.
Costs: Purchase cost. In-game purchases.
Two Point Hospital is a light-hearted healthcare simulator. You take charge of a hospital, similar to Theme Hospital, where you must construct and maintain wards, machines and staff.
Telling Lies
Platforms: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Duration: Between 4 hours and 6 hours to complete.
Players: This is a single player game.
Costs: Purchase cost.
Telling Lies is from the same developer as Her Story. It's named as an investigative thriller game with non-linear storytelling by the developer.
Her Story
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC and iOS
Duration: Between 4 hours and 8 hours to complete.
Players: This is a single player game.
Costs: Purchase cost.
Solve the 1994 mystery of a murdered man by searching an old police computer archive of interview videos of his wife. The game presents a retro computer interface but the interviews themselves are short films with real actors. Although there are only...
A Mortician's Tale is in These Lists
In addition to the similar games listed above, which have been linked to this game specifically in the database, you may find games with a similar theme to A Mortician's Tale in the following lists:
Space For Grief
I've come up with some games that explore this topic, along with help and suggestions from Gaming The Mind (Twitter), an organisation of UK-based mental health professionals who aim to promote positive mental health within the gaming community. By focusing on the intersection between gaming and mental health, they want to raise awareness of mental health challenges and reduce the stigma surrounding these issues. "We express grief in different ways depending on our age," they said. "To help children cope with loss, it is important that they receive honest explanations about death, appropriate to their level of understanding. With these games, players may find valuable space in which to acknowledge grief as a completely normal reaction to bereavement."
"The games we have selected don't necessarily offer an ideal way to cope with death but tackle the topic of death openly and with a positive attitude. They can help show the player that they are not alone in what they are going through. Playing these games with young people, and answering questions they might have along the way, can be a useful starting point for important conversations about grief."
Commit No Violence
Many of them are aimed at children and families, but you'll be surprised how many explore deeper, more mature themes in their narratives, or require just as much skill as a fast-paced first-person shooter. This means there's plenty of offer for parents who might lack the reflexes (or interest) to survive a round of Fortnite.
We've focused on the games you might not expect to be played non-violently here, but you can find the full list at Non-Violent Games Of the Day curated by James Batchelor.
Know Your Body
This is not only an enjoyable way to escape the reality of daily life but a chance to reflect on and understand ourselves, and our bodies, better. Stepping into the shoes of a vulnerable, small or endangered character can help us understand for a short while some of what it is like to be someone else.
Whether this is into the awkward teenage years of Mord and Ben in Wide Ocean Big Jacket, the grandparent-escaping Tiger and Bee in Kissy Kissy, the fractured heartbroken body in Gris or the haphazard movement of Octodad we have a chance to reassess our own physicality and how we respond to and treat other people's physicality.
More specifically, to use body therapy language, games offer us a chance to discover the inviolability of our bodies, personal autonomy, self-ownership, and self-determination. In travel, as Andrew Soloman says, we go somewhere else to see properly the place where we have come from. In video games, we step into other bodies so we can better understand our own and those of the people around us.
Thanks for using our resource, supported by AskAboutGames and ParentZone. We are editorially independent, written by parents for parents, but welcome sponsorship, partnership and suggestions. Email our editor for details on these opportunities.The information on this database is designed to support and complement the in-depth discussion and advice about video game "addiction", violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. If you have any concerns or questions in these areas, email our editor who is quick to respond or can arrange for a one-to-one conversation.
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