I’ve been thinking about the concept of speedrunning lately. Speedrunning, for those unfamiliar, is the art of completing a game - either fully or to a certain degree or with certain conditions - as quickly as possible. I’ve attempted a couple of speedruns of various games, but it’s not my strong suit. I’m too methodical and enjoy experiencing as many elements of a game as possible to be any good at speedrunning.

I think I accidentally speedran Dinner with an Owl.

When you see a silhouette in a chair, you know you're about to do a heckin' weird capitalism.

To be clear, Dinner with an Owl isn’t a long game. Dinner with an Owl tells the story of a man visiting a business acquaintance for dinner and business things. The man then finds himself unable to leave the house, and must instead solve the mystery of what traps him here and how to escape.

Gameplay-wise, Dinner with an Owl is a very basic point-and-click adventure. The player is confronted with dialogue choices, but beyond these, the only clickable objects are those that are relevant for solving the mystery at hand. This makes understanding the steps to take very simple and straightforward, with the real adventure being the experiences had along the way.

It also leads me to wonder if I played the game correctly, or if there is something fundamental I missed.

Just because he's an owl doesn't mean he can't be a business owl.

I finished this game and solved its mystery in twenty-three minutes. I did so, not because I’m particularly clever, but because I followed what seemed like the logical sequence of steps. The end result, though, was that the game felt abrupt. Just as the plot was getting interesting and felt like it was building into a true mystery, it ended, solved and wrapped in a little bow. The plot had sung its lovely swan song, and I was left, sitting and staring at my computer, baffled by how quickly it had all gone by.

But there's still an owl, right? Because I installed this game for the owl.

I’m still not sure whose fault it is that the game is so short, or if it’s something that can be understood in terms of “fault” at all. The game feels complete within those twenty minutes, but it also doesn’t. The game alludes to what feels like it could be a broader mystery, but then doesn’t deliver on it. It teases with a story that doesn’t exist, and creates a world where all characters but the player are a bit dim for not having solved the problem for themselves earlier.

I’m torn on how I feel about Dinner with an Owl. I genuinely enjoyed the twenty minutes I played, but also felt robbed of the game this should have been when I slammed into the end. I was left wondering if I did something wrong, or if I was just such a poor player that I had, in fact, been uninvited from dinner.

Developer: BoringSuburbanDad
Genre: Indie
Year: 2021
Country: If I guess, I’ll get it wrong, so I’m not going to guess.
Language: English
Play Time: 20 Minutes
Playthrough: https://youtu.be/lWm7d2KbzSQ