A Mortician's Tale looks to give players the full experience, emotionally and business-wise, of running a funeral home, having them embalm bodies with realistic tools, carry out cremations, and speak with the deceased's loved ones.
Players will be working with Charlie, a funeral direction graduate who has taken a job with Rose and Daughters Funeral Home. There, she'll be in charge of the embalming process, where players will help prepare the body using tools taken from the real-world process, and the same goes for any cremations the game needs to carry out. This process, with an innocent, almost cartoonish art style but muted color scheme, is somber to do, giving the player a great deal to think about as they quietly prepare a loved one to meet their family one last time.
Players will later meet the families of the body they've prepared, overhearing what is said about the deceased across eight different funerals, and follow the business itself as it moves from a family-run one to a conglomerate. A Mortician's Tale does offer an intriguing, sometimes heart-rending look at the business and the work of being a funeral director, but its those private moments with the dead that will stick with the player. It's only a representation of what happens when we're gone, but carries an incredible evocative power in making us face the idea of one day lying on that table ourselves.

A Mortician's Tale is available for $14.99 on Itch.io, the Humble Store, and Steam. For more ...