Burly Men at Sea

Burly Men at Sea is a game about the adventures of three fishermen, the brothers Beard: Brave Beard, Hasty Beard and Steady Beard. One day, they find a map inside a bottle at sea, but it only contains their own island. They return to their village to find out if some of the folks there know more. Eventually an old man reveals the map is there for them to complete with their own adventures, so they set sail and explore.

The game is meant to be played multiple times, each time starting again at the village, as there are different paths and encounters to discover. It is largely played as a visual novel and is described by the developers as "a quiet adventure". The story is told through images and text, with limited interaction by the player. At certain locations the men can be moved around and there are different choices to make, sometimes with small puzzle-solving elements, leading to different, branching paths in the story. Certain characters return with different conversations and story elements based on previous adventures or encounters. There are also many interactive elements in the background that can be clicked for a short animation, but they serve no further purpose.

The men can get eaten by a whale, meet nymphs and mermaids, race Death, experience the hospitality of a living mountain, meet a snake, get locked up, and more. Each completed adventure is represented through a book at the old man's coffee shop, based on four icons on the map, corresponding with four encounters. The combination of encounters that form a single adventure is also summarized through a code that can be entered on the developer's website. The adventure can then be bought as a physical book, based on the four encounters the player chose. It contains 50 full-colour pages and costs $30. The books shipped in January 2017.